OPINION:
“Ridiculous!” cried the host of Three’s AM breakfast show, Ryan Bridge. Jacinda Ardern had resigned. Bridge read out a headline saying Ardern was driven from office by online trolls. “Melodramatic!”
Ardern has said she didn’t resign because of the abuse. Many commentators have seized on this with almost comical relief as the last word on the matter. Nothing to see here. Political commentator Liam Hehir declared in an online piece that, “The libs in the media lay Labour’s decline [sic] fortunes at the feet of misogynists on Reddit.” At time of writing, Chris Hipkins has yet to be asked in the mainstream media about his reproductive plans. He hasn’t been called the equivalent of “Queen Cindy”. He hasn’t been asked what he will be wearing for leader’s debates later this year. It hasn’t been implied that, as a single father, he will be a part-time PM. If only the sexism was just online.
Ardern says abuse wasn’t the cause of her resignation. Most of the reasons she might not want to dwell on it can be summed up by the cod Latin rallying cry from The Handmaid’s Tale: Nolite tes bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. Don’t let them make young women inspired by Ardern’s career path feel afraid to follow it. Don’t give the sort of people who have used threats and words for which there is no real equivalent for men – the “c” word, “witch” - more ammunition.
Defence policy analyst Paul Buchanan told RNZ that Ardern will need more ongoing security and protection than any former New Zealand Prime Minister. That prediction makes me feel ashamed of us. The ugly side of our national nature doesn’t just affect victims. The experience of being bullied in, say, the workplace is horrific. Seeing someone else being battered on a regular basis and feeling powerless is another kind of hell. The eagerness to discount the impact is a sort of denial.