You know the Patriarchy is an instrument of evil …

… when it’s forcing me to defend Pauline Hanson.

I mean, it’s bloody Sarah Palin all over again.

Attack her policies.  Attack her actions.  Attack her statements.  But for the love of fuck, stop attacking her because she’s a woman.  Stop attacking her in ways only women (and gay men feminized for the occasion) get attacked.

An Australian newspaper, which no, I’m not linking to, has allegedly received sexual/nude photos allegedly of Pauline Hanson from, allegedly, over thirty fucking years ago.

Cue every fucking media outlet covering the story, not to add anything, not to comment on the political situation around her or her recent activities as a politician*, but just so they can fucking splash those photos around as much as possible.  Fuck, they’re probably even telling themselves it has something to do with The Public’s Right To Know.

Does the public have a right to know that at some point a young woman who may or may not be Pauline Hanson posed for nude photos?  And if so, why?

Is it because using any excuse to call a woman a slut – especially a powerful/influential/high-profile/older woman – is a good excuse?  Or because the easiest way to attack a woman’s credibility is to bandy about the notion that at some point in her life she may have done it with boys and, Gods forbid, enjoyed herself? Clearly signs of an immoral personality who shouldn’t be allowed any kind of power – why, forget that you might find her actual policies or ideology reprehensible or anything, she might just be too busy having it off to even show up!

God, this shit gets tiring some times. So I’m going to leave you with the words of the fantastic, sadly fictional, Laine Hanson (creepy synchronicity!):

I just wouldn’t be using sex as leverage if I were you. Because, you know, there’s one thing you don’t want. It’s a woman with her finger on the button who isn’t getting laid.

*I specifically note “as a politician”, because of course the TV media, never sated by static images, naturally grabbed footage of her stint on Australian Dancing With The Stars and overdubbed it, “She certainly had no objection to squeezing into black lycra on television” – absolving themselves from responsibility for flashing the photos up on screen time and time again BECAUSE THE SLUT WAS ASKING FOR IT, YOU SEE.  Rape myths:  they’re not just for sexual assault any more!

Related Post:  Clem at The Dawn Chorus commends Pauline Hanson’s reaction to the ZOMGSCANDAL.  Laine would be proud.

Let’s see that again!

Not that I expect any better from the Herald, let’s be honest.

School in dilemma over prostitute teacher

I’m sorry, I think the headline you were looking for is

Teacher’s job threatened by moralising busybodies

And it doesn’t get better.

We can has abortion on demand?

Update: and now this has hit the blogosphere in force, there’s also a round-up of posts at The Hand Mirror, in addition to what I’ve garnered at the end of this post.

…

Via PublicAddress, I learn of a High Court review, instigated by Right to Zygote Life NZ, of the workings of our Abortion Supervisory Committee.

And it’s kind of, do-I-laugh-or-do-I-cry:

In a review of the workings of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, initiated by Right To Life New Zealand, Justice Forrest Miller said there was a reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions.

Here’s the deal in the liberal hippie communist paradise of the South Pacific, bastion of human rights and progressive thinking (see also Women’s Suffrage, Abyssinia, nukes, Georgina Beyer):

Just fuck you, ALAC. Fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on.

I don’t really have words, at this point. I can’t believe these things need to be said. I can’t believe multiple organisations are still trying to claim that this isn’t victim-blaming.

Background: ALAC, the Alcohol Advisory Council of NZ, have launched a campaign called “Had Enough?”

Two of their ads feature men getting drunk, acting like dicks, doing awful things and then feeling like shit afterwards.

Which makes total sense.

The third ad, on the other hand, features a woman getting drunk, acting drunk … and being dragged down a dark alleyway by a seedy-looking guy. As her increasingly panicked shrieks ring forth from the television, ALAC points out that THE DEMON DRINK IS BAD, Y’ALL.

All three can be viewed here.

Those of you used to discussing feminist and/or sexual assault issues in any forum will of course be utterly unsurprised just how much people are willing to say that there isn’t a qualitative difference between those advertisements.

It Is Delicious Hypocrisy, You Will Love It

It was nearly three weeks ago, and I’m still so bloody mad about this.

One of my vicious pet hates is the fascinatingly obvious hypocrisy of people. Middle-class white woman in Hummer driving the littlies to private school is snapped by speed camera? MY GOD, IT’S A BLIGHT ON SOCIETY, IT’S JUST A REVENUE-GATHERING EXERCISE. Asian student in Mercedes is snapped by speed camera? GET THESE FOREIGN DEVILS OFF THE ROADS, THEY’RE ENDANGERING THE KIDDIES.

But truly nothing in my two-decades-plus-some on this planet ever really prepared me for this: