Kerre Woodham: Insipid or merely polite?

I have no doubt that Don Brash is a gentle and courteous man. And I am equally certain that he believes that women deserve to be treated with respect.

But the very idea that he was under a self-imposed handicap during the Leaders' Debate last week, because of his good manners, is patently absurd. Not even the bluest of blue rinse supporters could possibly believe the National Party leader would have executed witty one-liners and crushing rejoinders and drawn blood with elegant yet vicious linguistic attacks, if only his opponent had been a man.

Debating is not Don Brash's thing. And if Michael Cullen had been facing him, rather than Helen Clark, I very much doubt we'd have seen the mild-mannered doctor transmogrify into the Incredible Hulk. Notwithstanding, Dr Brash seems to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat this week. By dressing up an insipid performance as one of gentleness and refinement, Don Brash has won the hearts of women of a certain set everywhere. Tax cuts were forgotten as the nation pondered the politics of politesse. Was it patronising for the Leader of the Opposition to treat the Prime Minister as a woman? Or was it just plain good manners and, quite frankly, more than the shrieking virago deserved?

It would appear that after balancing on the fulcrum, public opinion has come down, just ever so slightly, in favour of the Don Brash as gentleman interpretation. Probably because he's harking back to a time when New Zealand was a more gentle place. A time when rosy-cheeked urchins were given boots up the bum by bluff bobbies to prevent them embarking on a life of crime. When every man had a job and every woman had a husband and a wringer-washing machine and everyone was happy and fulfilled.

Mind you, if you remember back to your courting days, it was the well-mannered boys your mother so loved who were the ones you had to watch once the lights went down at the pictures. But well done to the doctor, he wiggled out of this latest brouhaha nicely.

He could no doubt be cited as evidence in a controversial study out last week purporting to prove men are more intelligent than women. The emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, Richard Lynn, the man who brought you such findings as white people are more intelligent than blacks, and criminals are born not made, has produced yet another ripsnorter by claiming that not only are men's brains bigger, they have higher IQs.

Already, it's been pointed out to Lynn that women outnumber men at every stage of educational achievement except at PhD level but Lynn reckons that's simply because women work harder than men.

These studies are such a waste of paper. I know plenty of smart men, just as I know plenty of highly intelligent women. And high IQs aren't necessarily a good thing. I've known a couple of geniuses in my day and they're extremely tiresome. People who don't think like everyone else are judder bars on the roadway of life. They should just stay in their laboratories and discover stuff. Give me a good old B+ or A- kind of a boy with a well-rounded personality and nice manners any day.