Davidson was heading to an Auckland counter-protest to British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull last Saturday when she was hit by a motorcyclist.
Davidson later required medical attention and was reportedly in shock, but she continued on to the rally. While en route, Davidson was approached on the street by Counterspin media host Hannah Spierer and told her: “I am a prevention violence minister, and I know what causes violence in this world and it’s white cis men.”
Davidson has since clarified her comments and acknowledged that at the time, she was still quite shaken and was “not as clear in my comments ... as I should have been”, indicating her intention was to say it was not trans people who were causing violence but cis men in general. Some of Davidson’s male political opponents have been having a field day with her initial comments. During a radio interview, Act Party leader David Seymour claimed if he were PM, he would have sacked Davidson for her comments.
New Zealand First leader and former MP Winston Peters called for Davidson to resign, calling her comments “offensive, racist, and sexist”. National Party leader Christopher Luxon wants an apology on behalf of all cis white men.
I happen to think this reeks of cis male fragility and, after Davidson clarified what she meant to say, I absolutely do not think she owes a single one of those men - or any cisgender man, for that matter - an apology. It’s embarrassing that these men continue to make a song and dance over something that she said in the heat of the moment, which in my humble opinion wasn’t too far off the truth if we take into consideration the colonial and patriarchal constructs that continue to systematically exploit and oppress women. But, that’s a whole other story and I digress.
I’m not going to bore you with statistics because I don’t want to waste my word count, but trans people are not a threat to women’s rights, nor their safety. It was, and still is, cisgender men who have and continue to be the greatest threat to women’s equality and welfare.
The hypocrisy from men like Luxon demanding Davidson apologise for her initial misstep makes me cringe. Many were deeply offended by Luxon’s dog whistle stereotyping of South Aucklanders sitting in their garages and discussing joining gangs. Luxon said he was “sorry if anyone is offended”. He was asked to clarify if he was sorry for the comments, but avoided giving a clear answer.
“The bottom line is I’m not apologising for having serious, substantive conversations about what causes crime. I just would say, ‘Look, if we can’t actually talk about these things in a really upfront kind of way, we have some really serious challenges in New Zealand.’
“I’d hate to think anyone was offended, but the reality is we’ve got to talk straight up about what’s going on, otherwise we can’t solve the problems that we have,” Luxon said.
How is Davidson’s remark any different? If she were a cis white man being “straight up about what’s going on”, would the backlash have been the same? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say no.
