Kim Dotcom scolded: He's 'a product of a sexist culture'

Kim Dotcom. Photo / Supplied by Kim Dotcom

The Internet Party's gender issues spokeswoman says party founder Kim Dotcom is "a product of a sexist culture which we need to remedy".

Dr Pani Farvid, an Iranian-born psychologist at AUT, proudly told a women's election forum in Auckland last night that the Internet Party was "a feminist party".

"The urgent task of advocating genuine gender equality is one of our top priorities," she declared.

But she was cut short when a questioner, Northern Young Nationals chair Brittany Raleigh, asked how she reconciled her claim with a Twitter exchange on July 22 in which Kim Dotcom tweeted: "Hi, I'm Batman. I mean Bruce. Shit. **kills hooker**."

He deleted the post the same day, explaining on Twitter that party leader Laila Harre had told him to.

According to a post on the Menz website, it was a re-make of an old joke about a doctor checking to see if his patient had any holes in her marble bag:

"Doctor: And what's your middle name, madam?

"Woman: (name) And now I am going to have to kill you."

But Daily Blog blogger Chloe King, in a follow-up question, said the joke was an example of "toxic masculinity".

Dr Farvid agreed, and said she had talked to Mr Dotcom about the tweet.

"Kim is a product of our Western culture," she said. "He has an unfortunate sense of humour. When he does things that are inappropriate, I message him and say, 'Kim, that is not appropriate.'

"He is not perfect. He is not the party, he's the founder, but we are a feminist party. He has apologised himself, I'm not excusing him, that sort of thing is not OK, absolutely. He just doesn't know any better and he should."

The tweet sent by Kim Dotcom.

She agreed with Ms King that New Zealanders needed to "change the way we raise boys" to teach all children that they could be "the person that you want to be", rather than having to fit into cultural roles of strong men or beautiful women.

Afterwards she said she joined the Internet Party because "in my 15 years of voting age it's the first party that actually wants to bring radical change".

"Sometimes we need someone like Kim to get rid of what we actually have," she said.

"We are educating him, but he is the product of a sexist culture which we need to remedy. He is completely open to being educated."