12 Wairarapa Midweek Opinion Wednesday, May 11, 2022 EDITORIAL
Opinion
No time for sexism
Why are we still having to remind some folks that not all opinions need to be spoken out loud? Last week, it emerged that multimillionaire CEO Simon Henry, during an interview with NBR, took aim at grocery delivery business My Food Bag and its co-founder Nadia Lim Citing a photo of Lim in My Food Bag’s Prospectus, he referred to her as “a bit of Eurasian fluff…with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage” — and accused the company of using Lim’s sex appeal to sell its wares. Here we are, Wairarapa – it’s 2022 and a woman can’t show her decolletage in public without a rich white dude losing his darn mind. Not to mention: Lim is a successful chef, food writer and businesswoman. And somehow, she’s “fluff” — shallow, insubstantial, flimsy. Too pretty for the boardroom, apparently. Oh, and to paraphrase another well-known Kiwi: “that was racist as ****.” Henry’s attack on Lim is just the latest in an onslaught of misogynist abuse meted out to Kiwi women in the public eye. We’ve all seen it online
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Erin Kavanagh-Hall these last couple of years: Jacinda Ardern (jibes about her teeth, vicious rumours about her family, actual death threats), Siouxsie Wiles (repeated fat shaming), Judith Collins (compared to the Bride of Chucky). Then you add racism to the mix: with Nanaia Mahuta, Debbie NgarewaPacker, Golriz Ghahraman, and Maori Affairs reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui being emailed racial slurs, stalked, and threatened with shotguns. Speaking to The Guardian, Kate Hannah of Auckland University’s Disinformation Project said “hateful comments” directed at women leaders have increased exponentially over the last year. Hannah defined misogyny as “the punishment of women challenging male dominance” — manifested online in rhetoric
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objectifying women and seeking to “put them in their place”. This same attitude belies Henry’s pot shots at Lim. A woman in the maledominated business world poses a threat — so, for exposing her collarbone, she is relegated to sultry temptress and cute window dressing. As Lim told Newshub: “Young people who hear these things over and over again… start to believe they are less capable and have less to contribute than their peers.” Is it any wonder women of colour are underrepresented in parliament chambers and company boardrooms? There’s no quick fix for misogyny and racism - but we start by calling it out. Naming comments like Henry’s as what they are – discriminatory, meanspirited drivel that has no place in modern society. A reminder, Mr Henry: silence is golden.
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