Tuesday 7 June 2011

Creepy McCreep

If you are a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, as I am, you may find this post slightly confusing, so I'm going to start out with a definition.

When I refer to Richard Lewis I do NOT mean this guy:


He is a pretty funny guy.  I don't find his stylings on CYE creepy at all.

When I refer to Richard Lewis I DO mean this guy:


He is a pretty scary guy.  I did find his stylings on Campbell Live tonight INCREDIBLY CREEPY.

Richard Lewis, political leader of Destiny Church, repeatedly interrupted and talked over Metiria Turei, co-leader of Aotearoa NZ's third biggest political party*.  I found his manner overbearing and intimidating.  I felt awful watching it; his bullying behaviour seemed to me rooted in a sexism that seeks to shut women up because they have nothing valuable for him to hear, unless they are speaking in an appropriate womanly context such as a female-only organisation.   I actually found him scary. 

And then, when I thought he was already being a Creep of the Highest Order he proved me wrong and Richard Lewis, political leader of Destiny Church, went to a whole new level of Creepy McCreep by touching Turei on the arm, repeatedly, and in a way just short of actively trying to hold her back. 

!!!!1!!!!!!!111!!!!

It's been two hours and I'm still squirming.  Anyone else feeling it?


*  And currently the only female Party leader in Parliament.   Wrong, so wrong.  Sorry!

14 comments:

Is said...

Yes. It was super creepy. I noticed him trying to restrain Metiria too, and that Hone and John just kept rolling as if it wasn't happening. Horrible.

Anonymous said...

I didn't even see it, and I am squirming. Even thinking about it makes me feel sick and dirty.

But thanks for posting, Julie. I think I needed to know about that.

Anonymous said...

urgh i started squirming at the site of brian tamaki. Man gives me the bad creeps.

stef said...

Here's the interview link it starts 6.33

http://www.3news.co.nz/Destiny-Church-politics-and-the-Maori-vote/tabid/367/articleID/214156/Default.aspx

Also I note that all the MP speakers at the destiny church were male

DPF:TLDR said...

Richard Lewis? Is he still around? I thought the Destiny Party folded. Well, how about that.

Anonymous said...

This and some other churches treat women badly.

I noticed another example of a man not allowing a woman to speak on Sunday - Jon Johansson kept interupting and talking over Christine Rankin on Q&A on Sunday too.

But he didn't do it to the other panelist, Sue Bradford,so maybe it was because he disagreed with her rather than that she's a woman that led to the rudeness in that case.

Anonymous said...

@stef: That's because Destiny know what's best for women - to be in their place, invisible and silent, waiting to do their man's bidding.

Just so Grrrrr.

Nick R said...

Um, isn't Tariana Turia a party leader in Paliament?

Brett Dale said...

Saw it, hes creepy, that whole church is creepy, as far as Im concern they are one step away from
that One Nation group.

Any politician who tries to cozy up to them is a disgrace.

Anonymous said...

@NickR: Yes. But are you thinking about Metiria Turei?

Tariana is co-leader of the Maori party, and Metiria is co-leader of the Greens.

Not sure what you're getting at.

Anonymous said...

I just went and watched the video and it was just all around creepy. The part at the end where Richard pleaded media misrepresentation of Destiny's policies was comedy gold. A statement recorded word for word and presented in context is not misrepresentation.

AMJ

Julie said...

SORRY, you are right, Tariana is a leader too, I thought when I put the footnote in that I was wrong, but still stuffed it up. Can't correct it from where I am now, but will do so when I can.

Julie said...

I actually don't have a problem with MPs going to a political forum they were invited to hosted by Destiny. I imagine many others don't feel that way, and this possibly isn't the thread to have that scrap in.

Destiny endorsed the Family Party in 2008. Will be interesting to see if they hand out an endorsement this time around. Looks like it won't be the Greens!

PJ said...

He was definitely creepy, Julie, like everything about Destiny. Their conference was like a B-Grade horror for me: cheap and creepy the whole way through, and actually scary on occasion. But I thought Metiria rebuffed Lewis with such a brilliant zinger. I'm still replaying it incessantly on my browser.