OnPoint: On Freedom of Speech
326 Responses
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Emma:
I now have a mental picture of someone hiding behind a door sniggering with a six foot tall vagina, waiting to jump out at Jeremy.
Putting two and two together...
Sacha:
With real harm to NZ's reputation. That's likely to affect whether people want to move here, study here (remember previous waves of reporting about anti-Asian racism) or visit us with their tourist dollars. And who pays for that?
It's a bit like the fallout from the Indo-bashing incidents in Oz, but with vocabulary instead of fists. Even then, the hurt is no better.
So how do we make Tabloidistan pay for all this diplomatic incidence? A class-action lawsuit, maybe? In America, it seemed to work for the Southern Poverty Law Centre against the KKK.
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In the past, a national blurt about race - including irresponsible media coverage - might have been moderated by strong political leadership. Sadly that's far more likely in Auckland now than across the country, thanks to the limp 1990s free-marketeers in the big chairs.
Opportunists don't mind whistling up the base either. Watch Pita Sharples be about as frank as I've ever seen him in his disgust for Rodney Hide (CloseUp, 7 min clip).
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If you're not scared of war ghosts entering your vagina...
If I had a vagina I would be disappointed someone is trying to scare me with it.
I think it most apt that a discussion that began about freedom of speech and the marketplace of ideas has come to this - not sure where 'this' is but I for one can't get enough of talk about vaginas, cunts, twats and ghosts. What ever happened to wanker(s)? I wouldn't want to exclude anyone...
Just a note on freedom as I understand it. As citizens of a liberal democracy (women and wankers alike - not sure about ghosts) we hold rights to exercise our freedom in so far as our actions, including our words, respect the equal freedoms of others. Most of these freedoms are negative freedoms from interference rather than positive freedoms to act. I believe this means we are not free to say or write - in public - anything we like in protection of the other person's right against harmful interference. To be prevented from harming others or punished for doing so is not an infringement of right. Though it's up to a court or the BSA or other official agency to decide what is harmful - and good luck to them with that in the case of words (not to mention pictures!!!). Sticks and stones are a bit more cut and dry.
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Look a white,blue eyed Miss India winner in a beauty pageant is a story anywhere in the world. Celebrating Indian babes usually has a lot to do with their beautiful dark skin tones.
Actually, there's a whole motherload of touchy ethnic issues skimming under the surface there. Ever taken a look at your average lineup of Bollywood actresses? Ever compared their looks to your actual average Indian woman? They are significantly lighter-skinned; it's considered a sign of wealth and good breeding. People will take out marriage ads asking for fair-skinned (for a value of fair, obviously) brides. Darker skin tones are associated with being poor and lower-caste (and then there's the southern vs. northern thing - southern Indians are usually darker.)
Obviously there are an awful lot of people who do not think this way, and who are trying to change it, but the lighter-is-prettier standard of beauty is an ongoing issue in Indian society. It's one that doesn't usually get examined in the Western beauty media because if any attention is paid to South Asian women it's about their Exotic Good Looks, but I think it provides an important amount of context to the whole thing.
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That's the categories. What a Monster.
What no:
Miss Sogyny
Miss Conception
Miss Anthrope
Miss Behaving
Miss Feasance
Miss Apprehension
Miss Cegenation
Miss Fortune
Miss Smash
Miss Judged
Miss Shapen
Miss Stress
Miss Trussed
Miss Directed
Miss Tea-Eyed
Miss Understood
Miss UsedNiece work if you can get it....
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No miss-tique and not a Ms in sight (or a Mrs, for that matter)
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Keeping it "Indian":
I recently watched Chris Rock's documentary 'Good Hair'. While the whole thing was pretty jaw-dropping, the sequences on hair weaves were something else....
In short, lots of Indian Hindu women shave their heads as a sign of devotion, and the hair is then sold to the US to make hair weaves for black women, at around $4,000 a pop. From this article:
Human hair is India’s No. 1 export; thieves cut off the hair of unsuspecting women and sell it on the black market.
Dunno about 'no. 1 export', but still.
Anyhoo, as you were.
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And Miss Underestimated
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Aljazeera had a documentary about Indian hair exports earlier this year.
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Now you have the Daily Telegraph in Britain declaring New Zealand at centre of another race row
Well, the Daily Telegraph can STFU and put it's own house in order before pointing the finger.
When I was over in the UK in July, they ran an unpleasant anti-gypsy story which they spun out over several days, including an editorial in support of the free speech of a man who thought it was perfectly acceptable to write to his local council asking for 'those dirty gyppo scum' to be moved off land near his house.
Now, defending free speech is one thing, but writing an editorial badly stating that he was a victim and that there was nothing wrong with what he said is quite another.
Can't find the article online, but the results of this google search are quite depressingly informative of The Telegraphs mentaility.
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Wot? No Miss Quoted?
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But has Ben congratulated Liu Xiaobo yet? I don't see evidence of it on his blog. How long must we be kept waiting?
I've finally had time to be briefed by my media relations team, and have decided that going forward there will be synergies I can leverage from being associated with Liu Xiaobo.
So: congratulations to Noble Award Winner Liu Xiaobo.
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Actually, there's a whole motherload of touchy ethnic issues skimming under the surface there
Absolutely.There is no Miss Perfect skin.
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and talking of chaps speaking freely, from the herald.
"Bolger: Telecom sale a mistake "
Jesus, Roger Douglas screwed up.
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Yes, a textbook case of the pot calling the kettle stupid.
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Miss India NZ reminds me of a mate who went on an American Field Scholarship as a 16 year old. He's part Maori, and said so in his application. The family that opted to take him on were African American. Apparently, the mother was super bitter when he got there, because he didn't look Maori enough (although any NZer would be able to see the Maori features, he just has pale skin is all), and routinely accused him of lying on his application, and was just generally quite a bitch the whole time he was with them.
She was the only one - the father and the rest of the family had no problem with him.
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You know, I think that saying that Paul Henry is a cunt is an entirely respectable product in the marketplace of ideas. After all, he is, and given that he sells himself on his personality, it's a perfectly fair retort.
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I actually think it's a pity to use that part of a woman's anatomy to describe a man/child who can't behave properly...it lessens the word.
Remember being shocked whenever I came across it in D H Lawrence's work, but there was a wonderful bit of graffiti I saw in the London Underground when I was there in the sixties (around the time I was reading DHL) - A big poster of a blindfolded young woman, pouting prettily at the camera, lips fairly smothered in a bright lipstick. May have been for Arpege, or some French makeup. Caption "How can you tell she's a Frenchwoman?" Added, scrawled underneath "by her cunt".
Needless to say, I can appreciate it much better now than I could then! NZers, especially women, would never use words like that in those days.
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Obviously there are an awful lot of people who do not think this way, and who are trying to change it, but the lighter-is-prettier standard of beauty is an ongoing issue in Indian society. It's one that doesn't usually get examined in the Western beauty media because if any attention is paid to South Asian women it's about their Exotic Good Looks, but I think it provides an important amount of context to the whole thing.
Totally awesome context there, Lucy.
[Looks in vain for the "Like" button]
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You know, I think that saying that Paul Henry is a cunt is an entirely respectable product in the marketplace of ideas.
I suspect there's one or two feminists who'd be serving fresh hot "shut the fuck up" pies at their stalls in response to that notion.
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I suspect there's one or two feminists who'd be serving fresh hot "shut the fuck up" pies at their stalls in response to that notion.
If you count certain "internet feminists" in the category , you'd probably find those stalls would be serving more pies than the White Lady 24/7.
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I believe "shut the consensual intercourse up" may be the preferred phrase, actually.
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Well, that was the wording used above.
(And also: I'm willing to call people `shit', `cock', `arsehole' and various other anatomical rude words. I don't think there's much of a reason to treat `cunt' differently from arsehole or cock, and I am rather suspicious of attempts to do so.)
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I suspect there's one or two feminists who'd be serving fresh hot "shut the fuck up" pies at their stalls in response to that notion.
Craig: Despite what you think, sometimes, "cock" just isn't enough.
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