Rodney Hide: Blue misses point on feminism

Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue in Auckland. Photo / Sarah Ivey

It's a little creepy having government commissioners monitoring the airwaves ready to pounce should broadcasters stray from the official dogma.

The latest was Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue wagging her state-mandated finger. The cause of her ire was Paul Henry. It turns out, surprise, surprise, she disagrees with his analysis of modern-day feminism.

She didn't haul him off to a Gulag. No, she wrote an official letter explaining his errors, which she chose to share with us. Henry had said in regard to Hillary Clinton's run for the White House: "Why, if feminism has come so far, does she feel the need to highlight the fact that she's a woman?

"Shouldn't she be selling herself on the fact that she's the best person, the right person, for the job, no matter what her sex?"

Henry also noted other high-profile females had "fallen into the same trap", including Helen Clark in her bid to become Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Henry has a good point. The feminist complaint was "jobs for the boys". The argument was women shouldn't be excluded because they're women. But the argument has become that women must be selected because they are women. Clinton and Clark have replaced sexism with reverse sexism.

Blue declared Henry wrong. "Feminism hasn't come further than Hillary Clinton and Helen Clark, feminism will only ever go as far as they and other women go."

I have wrapped my head in a wet towel, meditated for two days, and still don't know what she is saying.

Blue goes on to rail against Parliament, public companies, wage differentials and newspaper headlines. It doesn't occur to Blue that women may be making different choices from men. Some women may choose to drop out of the workforce to raise their children. What's wrong with that?

Perhaps their desire to have children suggests to them it's better to be a nurse than a doctor. Perhaps there are women who choose not to define themselves against what men do.

The choices people make have consequences. When "never married, never had children" females are compared to men in the same boat, the females appear to do slightly better. It's not sexism at work.

I don't mind Blue writing stupid letters. What bothers me is taxpayers having to fund and having to grant her some special regard because it's state-mandated.

Henry won't mind. He and Blue enjoy a symbiotic relationship. They feed off one another. She gives him publicity. He justifies her job.

Blue concludes: "There is a lot of work to be done." Indeed. There are broadcasts to monitor, headlines to check, letters to write.

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