By MICHELE HEWITSON
Denise Ritchie is trying hard not to appear defensive. But the Auckland lawyer has had a week from hell that she says may well end her career.
Ms Ritchie is the woman who put her head above a parapet when she called for a national "Men's Day of
Shame".
Men, she said, should take to the streets and apologise for sexual abuse inflicted on children.
She reportedly said such a day should take place on Father's Day.
But Ms Ritchie, who is the national coordinator for End Child Pornography and Trafficking (Ecpat), says she suggested it could be held on "a day significant to men. I said it could be around Father's Day. I proposed the Sunday before".
The response to what she says was an impromptu address given at a foreign correspondents' club in Bangkok has been volatile.
Ms Ritchie has been the target of talkback callers, and angry letters have poured into the Herald.
She has been called a feminazi, accused of being anti-men and told to "Get lost!" All, she says, "for standing up to uphold the rights of children in this country to be free from being sexually abused, and I am getting slated for it".
"Anyone would think I'm standing up for abusers."
Her call for collective responsibility and a collective apology has touched an already jangling nerve.
The response, says Rex McCann, director of Essentially Men, a support network for men, is a result of 30 years of "blame and shame". While he regards the tenor of the response as "kneejerk", he believes it is valid.
"It exposes men's resentment at being targeted for being the cause of problems."
Dr Heather Worth, of the Research on Gender Institute at the University of Auckland, says the idea of the collective apology is fashionable but "who would take part?"
Dr Worth says the response to Ms Ritchie personally interests her more. It is "absolutely rabid against the woman who is actually talking about men apologising to children."
On Monday, the man who speaks for children, Commissioner for Children Roger McClay, put up his hand in support of Ms Ritchie's remarks.
By yesterday he was talking about the need to "get a bit of expertise in on the PR side", saying that "every day is a day of shame ... but I'm not sure that a national men's day of shame is a great idea".
No, he said, he was not backing down. He talks, as does everyone, of highlighting the issue as always being worthwhile.
The family law section of the Law Society was quick to put brake lights on in the form of a media release.
It said it was "moving quickly to distance itself from a call for a national 'Men's Day of Shame' coinciding with Father's Day."
The release was a preemptive move, said Sarah Spears, manager of the section, which has been targeted by men's groups with a view that "the Family Court is biased against men as carers of children".
Ms Ritchie is a specialist in family law. She says she has had discussions with the Law Society.
She is not, understandably, prepared to share the content of those discussions.
She will say - and her tone suggests that she does so with a shrug - that if her law career is over, "so be it."
It is unlikely that she is feeling quite so philosophical about straying, if even in passing, on to the hallowed ground that is Father's Day.
By MICHELE HEWITSON
Denise Ritchie is trying hard not to appear defensive. But the Auckland lawyer has had a week from hell that she says may well end her career.
Ms Ritchie is the woman who put her head above a parapet when she called for a national "Men's Day of
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