Tuesday 11 August 2009

Interesting reading: Guest poster at Kiwiblog

Tara te Heke is guest posting at Kiwiblog along with some others covering for David Farrar's holiday.

She's up a post today on the differences between being a solo mum on the DPB and being a Remuera housewife:
We are not so different.

You don’t work. Neither do I.

We both wanted children to keep our man happy. We expected it to mean forever. That the word is bond.

You live in Remuera in your big mansion, I live up the hill overlooking you in Orakei. We share the same view.

You drive a Mercedes and it guzzles gas, I drive a Mazda-bator and it leaks oil.

We drive the same road you and I. The same side. The same direction. Under the same rules.

You are happily a beneficiary of your husband and his labour. I am reluctantly a beneficiary of the State, the taxpayer and theirs.
Click through for the rest.

It's an interesting read, but the comments are the most startling part. I hope Tara writes again, and I hope it finally opens Farrar's eyes to the need to do something about his comments section.

10 comments:

A Nonny Moose said...

Psht. Bigoted PC Bashing 101 sez they'll be screaming "Freedom of Speech!1!" before one could temporize.

Brett Dale said...

Unless someone is advocating a crime, I don't think there should be censorship on blogs like the standard and kiwiblog.

Some of the most hateful comments I have heard, have come out of extreme left wing peace protesters mouth's directed at Israel and the West.

Boganette said...

Brett is this another one of those 'these people do it so it's ok for those people to do it' arguments?

I thought we were done with those?

Personally I don't see it as censoring. I don't want to visit a blog full of trolling freaks.

Probably why I avoid Kiwiblog.

Unknown said...

Why are you bothering to create a link to Tar's post. It is totally sexist implying that women are helpless victims and either are a beneficiary of the state because of their useless partner or a non-contributing beneficiary of one's husband. Most women I know, whether solo mothers, married, partnered or gay, are hard working, well balanced individuals who are in control of their lives. Her post is filled with stereotyped, sexist, classist cliches and a blog such as the Handmirror should look at it with a more critical eye.

Anonymous said...

Heavens forbid people would be told to not share their opinions on a blog. If Kiwiblog censored opinions (and he does maintain a loose control on some of them) then it will happen elsewhere. The internet is not a friendly place but you learn to get over it.

It was a great post Jenny. You need to read it again.

Unknown said...

"We both wanted children to keep our man happy."

So children are merely a commodity to be brought into this world as goods in exchange for keeping our man. Because clearly that's why we have kids. A cynical, calculating strategy to get our breadwinnner.

AS IN- "You are happily a beneficiary of your husband and his labour. I am reluctantly a beneficiary of the State, the taxpayer and theirs."

Because the man didn't take up the blackmail after the third child. But the Remmers' woman is a happy "beneficiary" of her husband's largesse. Because she is only defined in terms of her man. So women are beneficiaries of either man or state. And babies are the means to achieve this. That is our overriding ambition as women. That is the natural order of things.

it is an appalling post- and unwittingly revealing...

Anonymous said...

every time i read the kiwiblog comments, i am reassured that i am missing nothing by giving the whole site a wide berth.

A Nonny Moose said...

Anonymous @ 12:54 - thanks for reiterating what I first said.

There is a difference between censorship of free speech - a debate which benefits the community - and quelling hate speech. Beneficiary, woman, race, class and mother bashing is hate speech, pure and simple.

Anonymous said...

How about some Hand Mirror solidarity for Tara?

She's in a threatening place and from what I read she's questioning her decision to write on KB.

lex said...

To the commenters on kiwiblog:
'Scuse me dudes, your privilege is showing...

It's not about how 'hard-working' one is, or their attitude of mind. It's about the fact that there are larger contexts to the situations in which people find themselves. There are existing power structures related to why some people are marginalised or disenfranchised from full participation in the good parts of society. The comments are incredibly revealing of the obliviousness of the posters to these real and important factors. Life in our society is not an even playing field.

The thing that really made an impression on me is how much hatred, fear and wilful failure of empathy is contained there.
Is this a reflection of the true attitudes of the 'sane and normal' majority in NZ? If so, further justification of why I hermit away from society and avoid TV and mainstream 'news' media in an act of self protection.
Can't un-read that stuff. I'll be up tonight thinking about it.
I shouldn't have read it, really.