My first column of the year about revolutions versus resolutions seemed to strike a chord. I want to thank the folk who sent me messages or who stopped me in the street to chat about it. That’s one of the joys about writing a newspaper column. Believe me, there are many other moments where I wonder why I do it. That’s usually my own internal response to negative comments I receive. And by negative, I am not talking about what we used to think of as welcome critique - more the intensive trolling that seeks to tell me how I am wrong or to comment on what a ‘feminazi’ I am. I can cope with the expected ‘mansplaining’; it’s almost par for the course when it comes to any proclamation of the feminist kind. What I find difficult to cope with are the accusatory actions of the wordy warriors sitting relentlessly at their keyboards, waiting for their next opportunity to leap into what feels like an increasingly binary worldview of right and wrong. A worldview in which anyone - in this case, me - can come under fire for attempts to diplomatically or even democratically call for action to address inequality. Heaven forbid it be a call to arms based on best practice, common sense, or indeed scientific research.
There are many times where I find myself deeply questioning what I want to write about. There is an active process of self-censorship that often results in me attempting to find some middle ground, a more socially acceptable (whatever that means these days) or palatable way for the general public to receive my views. Sometimes I completely abandon columns that I begin, or don’t even write them at all. That’s usually because I have let the anticipated response get the better of me, based on previous experiences. What I have noticed over 15 years of writing a column is that I receive the most online trolling when I write emphatically about being a feminist, or when referencing the current status of women. Gender inequality remains. It doesn’t take best practice, common sense or scientific research to tell us that. Simply being a woman in this world is enough. Lived experiences are powerful. It appears to me that the great irony of human existence is that we seem unable to sustain positive change based on the experiences of others, including times of grave injustice and human atrocity. History, and indeed herstory, continue to repeat as new generations face the challenges of unchanged bias, inequality, oppression and outright conflict.
This last week in politics is a case in point. The radical announcement of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s resignation has sent out a ripple of righteous responses. I have tried not to delve too much into the truly hateful stuff, but it really is hard to not see it. Look at any commentary on any social media post, and it is there in all its unfettered puffery. Not the welcome critique I referenced earlier. No. I’m talking about the stock, standard, default position of personality politics. The sort of base communication that slays with pure mean-spiritedness. That references how a woman dresses, what she looks like, and whether she is a witch or not. Mostly, it’s just damn hateful.
I have had my share of what I refer to as ‘special trolls’ over the years. Some have followed me around at public events. Some have even made videos about me. Some have protested in and outside my work. And some have sent me emails and letters, certainly not of the constructive feedback kind. Especially not the death threats. At the risk of minimising my own lived experiences, I cannot even begin to imagine the relentless rolling commentary that comes with being a female politician in this country, let alone the Prime Minister. Two former PMs have come out swinging this week - and not just any two. Our first-ever female PM, Dame Jenny Shipley, and the first elected female PM Helen Clark, have both issued public statements about the widespread misogyny relating to Jacinda Ardern that has been normalised across social media platforms. The Disinformation Project continues its important work analysing public commentary, quantifying the extent of the misogyny and general hatred that exists across our society. The ever-enthusiastic entertainer and broadcaster Jason Gunn perhaps summed it up best: “What has amazed me of late ... is how Jacinda Ardern’s kindness has revealed a level of unkindness I didn’t think existed in NZ.” It seems it really is time for a revolution. Kindness is legendary. It takes an active and open heart and mind, connected, to be kind. If only we all actually chose that. Imagine.
