Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.
This week has felt a lot like 2017. Remember when every other day there was a report of some guy saying something massively, comically, sexist (or worse, just being a flat-out abuser with few professional repercussions) and then out The Spinoff would trot to make fun of them, scold them and, hopefully, remind a few people that sexism is not good? I certainly remember, because I wrote a lot of them.
Alan Duff complains about women laughing too loud? I’m there. Random columnist arguing men also suffer from period pain? Hey, it’s me. Don Brash appears? So do I. The articles were very, let’s say, of their time. They were always extremely popular and frankly the easiest to write. I could have made “men saying nonsense things” my entire beat.
But as time marched on, so did some of the more lazy displays of sexism, racism, homophobia etc. Media outlets received enough complaints (and scolding response op-eds) to do away with the more unhelpful of problematic columnists, and even the most unwoke of politicians found a way to insult each other that didn’t draw on tired sexist and racist tropes.
And yet here we are, this week, feeling like we stepped into an off-brand time machine to travel back a whole eight years. If I was still a staff writer and it was still 2017, I wouldn’t be able to keep up.
But what we’ve seen this week is not a return to lazy slurs or descriptors (things that are much easier to joke about) but a bleak revealing of how the past eight years have simply taught people not to say certain things, rather than how to think differently.
‘Real men’ storm library events
The first example barely counts because it’s an action but nothing screams “2017 peak” like Brian Tamaki. Last weekend members of his Man Up programme forced their way into a kids’ library event under the guise of “protest”. Political leaders across the country condemned the violence and said it was fine to protest but Man Up went “too far”. No one mentioned the fact that the reason for the protest was hate against a marginalised group and the false and dangerous belief that those who perform in drag have ill intentions. How vintage.
Have you heard of menstrual cups?
Shortly after, National’s Simon Court told a woman presenting to the select committee on benefit sanctions that she could save money on period products by buying a menstrual cup. On paper, it’s reasonable to suggest menstrual cups when talking about the cost of periods so he didn’t say anything wrong. But he was also eight years too late. In 2017 and in his own home, Court would have been a forward thinker. In 2025 and as an elected representative, not so much.
Policing perimenopause
And finally, police minister Mark Mitchell being called out in the House for joking that gang members wouldn’t “want to deal with a perimenopausal woman”. He was saying it in response to The Platform’s Leah Panapa describing herself as such and is hardly the worst thing that’s been said this week but it’s almost incredible how once the fear of “cancellation” is lessened, men (and women, but this week it was all men) so quickly return to their worst and most boring ways of thinking.
Combine that with Peter Williams referring to himself as “tangata whenua” in his oral submission on the Treaty principles bill and our sad 2017 trip is complete. Tune in next week for Bob Jones’ thoughts on literally everything.
This week on Behind the Story
Everyone’s got an opinion, here’s mine
This week, everyone and their dog was talking Destiny Church and Man Up punching their way into an Auckland Pride children’s event, terrifying staff and families alike. Head of audience and senior writer Anna Rawhiti-Connell wrote a column about the prime minister’s, in her view, weak response to the event and what it said about him politically. Anna joined me on Behind the Story to share how she lands on column ideas, the purpose and value of opinion alongside reporting, and what it is that turns a passing thought into a thousand written words.
The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week
Comments of the week
“The one that always gets me is the “From the New York Times #1 Best-Selling Author” tags. It means literally n o t h i n g”
— VF_Keftiu
“As an ex J-villian I thought this was well written and fun to read. I would never go back there thou…”
— Mista_Bob_Dobalinba
Pick up where this leaves off
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