Mayor Tory Whanau holding a bottle of wine, in discussion with a waiter outside The Old Quarter.
Mayor Tory Whanau holding a bottle of wine, in discussion with a waiter outside The Old Quarter.
OPINION:
I suspect there’s a good deal of misogyny behind the demonising of young female politicians that’s going on right now.
The arrival of young women in positions of power - once occupied only by men - is leading to a tsunami of attempts to tear them down.
This social contagion sits within the context of the really horrid contemporary cultural practice of “cancelling” and “de-platforming” people.
The victims of this are often accused of trumped-up or unspecified charges, backed by little or no contested evidence, or of not meeting some code for good behaviour fit only for nuns. The finger-pointing escalates into a pack mentality assault by the media and every puny little wannabe on social media.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau went out on the town and it’s not clear what she did. So she might have had a bit to drink? So she might or might not have said something? So what? No one was hurt. No one was ripped off. Is Wellington going to be better governed if the media manages to consign the mayor to disrepute?
Minister Kiri Allen has taken time out from Parliament. Photo / Andrew Warner
Kiri Allan is accused of - well, who knows? In Allan’s case no “crime” has been specified or proven. And yet she too has been put in the metaphorical stocks.
In the same period we are hearing about men who really have done bad things.
Assaulted people, coerced people, recruited others to hide them from the law. James Wallace managed to keep his name out of the public sphere for years, despite proven crimes.
The media stuck to that legal prohibition and nothing leaked out to the general public. And currently there’s another high profile West Auckland male political figure up for charges whose identity is being protected.
Sandra Coney. Photo / NZME
Yet in Allan’s case, there is nothing proven, no formal complaint, nothing that’s been to a court, but it’s somehow okay to splash it all out there.
Remember the famous film clip of Muldoon drunk? Roaring drunk. He didn’t suffer for it. In fact earlier generations thought it was funny.
But then he was a bloke and blokes rule - never forget it.
Sandra Lorraine Coney QSO is a long time New Zealand local-body politician, writer, feminist, historian, and women’s health campaigner.
