JANE CAMPION’S Top of the Lake is memorable for many, many reasons. But the scene I found hardest to forget was the one in which the heroine finds herself alone in the company of what the Americans would call “good ole boys”. (“Bogans” is probably the best attempt at describing the type in idiomatic New Zealand English – although it doesn’t quite capture the admiration implicit in the American term.)
One of the men asks menacingly: “Are you a feminist?”
Campion’s genius as a filmmaker is manifest in the way she makes this simple question positively crackle with the static electricity of stored-up violence just waiting for the opportunity to arc. The whole scene is charged with the same overpowering feelings of dread as those set in the Deep South of the United States, when the pickup-truck filled with good ole boys pulls up alongside the black man walking alone down an isolated country road. Or, the war movie, when the Jewish refugees are just about to escape across the border, and the SS officer demands to see their identity papers.
Recalling Campion’s television series about predatory masculinity, rape and feminine power was probably inevitable in a week dominated by the spreading stain of the Roastbusters scandal. The sordid exploits of these West Auckland adolescent males certainly reinforces the theme of Campion’s Top of the Lake: that something dark and ugly dwells in the psyche of the ordinary New Zealand male; something driven by his deep-seated fear and hatred of women.
In the television series, the sexual predation and violence driving the story grew out of an unholy alliance between violent criminals and corrupt police. The narrative linkages with the Roastbusters case are striking. While there is no evidence of actual corruption in the West Auckland Police’s handling of the matter, there is certainly suspicion that the failure to prevent and prosecute the stupefaction and statutory rape of underage girls is in some way linked to the fact that one of the alleged perpetrators is the son of a police officer.
Making the whole story even more disturbing is the way in which a number of prominent men have appeared to exculpate the behaviour of the Roastbusters by repeating the age-old lies about women “dressing like sluts”, “asking for it” and “leading men on”. The unspoken claim here is that men are helpless before the all-powerful and irresistible force of female sexuality. That unless women are securely sequestered by their fathers, brothers and husbands, and decently clothed by their mothers, they will necessarily fall prey to the sexual advances that the mere proximity of unchaperoned female flesh incites.
The slightest knowledge of what actually happens in cultures that attempt to enforce this “stop me before I rape again” view of masculine sexuality immediately exposes its nonsensical character. Far from making them safer, the sequestering of women merely provides men with the protected social space in which to perpetrate the sexual violence they claim to be preventing.
That violence lies so close to the surface of our daily lives puts all of us on edge. And that, of course, is what invests Campion’s scene with its unsettling power. That all it takes for our “rape culture” to manifest itself is for a woman to find herself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people.
Aggravating this latent aggression towards women is the inculcation among men of a subterranean language of abuse and humiliation. Contemporary pornography gives men a repertoire of sexual acts calculated to reduce women to consumable flesh. In all probability, the etymology of “Roastbusters” goes beyond the obvious popular cultural references to the Ghostbusters movie and the televised “roasting” of celebrities, to the “spit-roasting” of women in the context of group sex acts. Details of the practice emerged a few years ago during the rape trials of Australian Rugby League players. It would be surprising if both the language and the practice did not have currency on both sides of the Tasman.
How must it feel to live in a society in which your half the population is constantly forced to come to terms with the fact of its own vulnerability? A world in which a roomful of fun and laughter can, in an instant, become a crime scene. Where what you believed to be a group of friends suddenly turns into a gang of rapists.
The creation of such a society is far from accidental. In the Deep South both the imminence and the immanence of racial violence was indispensable to both the creation and preservation of White supremacy. In Nazi Germany the visible humiliation of the Jews was crucial to the fostering of national solidarity. It was something from which all Germans – even those who took no active part in Hitler’s institutionalised anti-Semitism – benefited.
New Zealand men should ponder these parallels. For it is surely significant that Jane Campion, in revealing what lies at the dark heart of the New Zealand soul, shines her artistic light not upon the wrongs associated with class and race, but upon our distorted perceptions of gender.
Chris, who protects? Dads Mums Sisters Brothers? Or the Corporate Police. Family vs the Corp. Love and Family vs the commoditisation of sex.
I find it interesting that no one anywhere has commented on the race or culture of those involved in the roastbusters group, although in any other context this would probably be commented on – this is part of that culture in the same way that a certain wellknown Maori entertainer once commented on New Zealand television, when asked how he discovered he was homosexual, and he replied, as a child when his “uncles” let him get into bed with them. It surprised me at that time that there was no comment anywhere on that statement.
@ John Wendt: I’d noticed this as well. Misogyny does seem to be normalised in Maori and Pacific societies. It doesn’t win one votes to point it out, however.
Further, misogyny isn’t confined to that part of society, unfortunately. Just take a look at the tone of the comments in response to blog posts about issues such as female representation in Parliament: it cannot be the case that all such comments come from Maori and Pacific males.
The problem of support and cover up for those who rape and gang rape under age girls is rife in NZ. Our daughter was victim of a the St John gang when she was 14. Their methods were identical to those of the Roast Busters. When we went to authorities for help we were ignored, slandered, gagged and sidelined. The rapist were presented with Queens awards by NZ’s Governor General, who knew of their past. It is high time NZ held a proper Royal Commission of Enquiry into these matters so that families such as ours are given a proper forum for justice. We have a mass of concrete evidence that is ready for an appropriate forum. So far, even though our experiences have been discussed in a debate in the British parliament, NZ authorities remain silent and in complicit cover up mode.
Thanks for this Chris. I have been pondering my teenage youth and many other components of my life and sadly for women, this terrifying male culture you have described is utterly endemic in our lives. It is something we have to put up with and learn to navigate but this misogyny starts at a very young age and still continues all though I am way past 40. I fear for our young women, and still for myself. Even more sadly feminism has now been branded a dirty word when actually it is the liberation to allow women to be themselves in any way they want without prejudice or fear, and for men to celebrate their magnificence and in the process their own magnificence. Sigh…. And please let us keep our pubic hair as it is a pain to remove all the time just because guys like it (as porn stars have no hair), or be told you have a “70s Retro Muff” as was once told. Honestly is there nothing we do or are that men don’t want to control or judge????… sigh…
The Roast Busters case has brought back a lot of unpleasant things for me that I have, as Helen says (whether for the same reasons or not), “learned to live with and navigate”. I am sure it has for many, many women (and men).
One thing I’d like to point out is that we are brought up with the ‘stranger danger’ mentality – to be fearful of those we do not know. Does this push us too far the other way? The majority of rapes and assaults are at the hands of those we do know, or at least acquaintances of ours. We should not be fearful of everyone, but we must find a balance in awareness in education early on, as it seems this isn’t being addressed.
For exactly the same reasons as that 13-year-old girl suffered at the hands of police – reliving and re-enacting the crime, being questioned about her actions and appearance – those are reasons why most cases are not reported. Those are the reasons we think about what we wear and what we say, when these should never be a factor in how we are treated or perceived. Those are reasons victims of sexual violence wrongly live with guilt and shame.
There is a gaping lack of support for victims, and rape crisis centres are being forced to close. Is this not important enough?
These kinds of crimes break people’s foundations. They challenge everything we believe in, and cannot be ‘gotten over’. Rather they are dealt with – in many ways – for a lifetime.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/sext_up_kids_how_growing_up_in_a_hypersexualized_culture_hurts_our_kids/ – the pervasive nature of internet porn in the lives of the young men and women involved is not something those over 25 can really understand. This film helps to shine some light on it. Prepare to be shocked. I was…
Good points but I take issue with “that something dark and ugly dwells in the psyche of the ordinary New Zealand male; something driven by his deep-seated fear and hatred of women.”
I’m not aware of any data on this but I’d be very surprised if “the ordinary New Zealand male” fears or hates women. I think you are incorrectly and unfairly applying a minority attribute to a majority.
We do have a problem with a minority of misogynists who think their views are “normal” because they are not challenged on them by the majority, but that’s a different issue.
One positive from the Roast Busters issue coming to light is the signs that “the ordinary New Zealand male” has been provoked into speaking up. I hope this speaking up and standing up for decent male respect of females (and fellow males) continues and increases.
“One positive from the Roast Busters issue coming to light is the signs that “the ordinary New Zealand male” has been provoked into speaking up…”
Acknowledged, agree and I’m thankful I know many decent blokes.
But many of them also indulged in “Aunty Helen” comments and bemoaned “The Nanny State” during her time as PM.
Many male journalists (e.g.Duncan Garner) repeatedly reminded us of how many women were holding the top jobs, always finishing off with some little snide aside, delivered with a passive-aggressive smirk and a wink. Rally against these attitudes over dinner, during the years of our first female PM – and you’d be labelled an out-right man hater in a country gone pc-crazy soft.
So yeah, decent blokes can rightly be outraged by these teenage statutory rapists. But all men do need to reflect on how their own attitudes and daily opinions contributes to the wider acceptable norms we’re all supposed to swallow.
@ Pete George: “I’d be very surprised if “the ordinary New Zealand male” fears or hates women.”
I’ve been around a long time; men who genuinely like women – as companions and intellectual sparring partners, not just as a potential lay – aren’t as common as you might think. However, the situation may be better here than in Australia, where misogyny is ingrained in the male population, and, sadly, women there seem to accept it.
But, like you, I do take heart at the fact that many men are indeed speaking up against the outrage in Auckland. And against the dreadful interview conducted by Tamihere and Jackson on Radio Live. Those two should get the push from that show.
Oh Chris. You had me right up until you went all Godwin’s Law on it. Completely unnecessary.
People who can’t accept the truth because of a silly little anecdote are, well, silly.
Yes I was thinking of Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake as all of this has unfolded. She is fantastic and Top Of The Lake should be a mandatory watch and learn for the police recruits.
“The unspoken claim here is that men are helpless before the all-powerful and irresistible force of female sexuality.”
Agreed, Chris: this statement sums up the attitude which seems to underlie the debate about rape, both here and elsewhere. It’s akin to the violent man’s “look what you made me do” meme: the victim is blamed for the crime.
I’m greatly puzzled that men – especially that catchment of men who are convinced that they’re superior to women in every way and therefore uniquely qualified to rule the world – could countenance being seen as so weak and lacking in moral character.
Sure, we understand that men have urges: don’t we all! But men can exercise self-control: many clearly manage to do so. Or is it that they just assume that it is legitimate for them to satisfy those urges – because they are male, and that’s what men have always done?
Totally agree that we as a society have issues to deal with and this sooner rather than later. Or that based on our history humans are violent and do despicable things with regularity. But elements of this article are sexist cant, which if brown skin was portrayed alongside some rant on crime in our cities would be easily exposed for the racist article that it would represent.
This article along with some comments has shades of Marilyn French’s “All men are rapists and that is all they are” whose obnoxious rhetoric alongside the similar ilk on the evils of the nuclear family and the so-called patriarchy came to occupy our halls of academia in the guise of womens and gender studies. This thinking would by degrees infiltrate our social thinking and policies. The sad reality starting to be exposed by some enlightened feminist writers is the possibility that the gender war was a necessary element for the aims of neo-liberal capitalism and changes to the market place such as globalisation. I would describe the gender divide as a side show of divide and rule that suits the financial elite in their endeavours.
However for the sake of addressing the obnoxious thinking in this article. Respect is an absolutely laudable aim for all people in society. However It is a ‘multi laned street’ to navigate. For example where in the widely promoted white ribbon campaign are males presented as equally disserving of protection from violence? Any half honest look at domestic violence shows it as a human issue not that of a problem gender. At what age does the male child change from being the child to protect to being a male to watch, to suspect of being willing to commit some heinous act against the perennial female as hapless victim always being done to. Or when is it acceptable that your father, brother or son is to be watched for evidence of deviances be all other unknowing of him in our society? Or when is acceptable that teenaged girls can now think such and thus routinely make glib throw away comments about paedophiles when viewing a mid aged man in the street? Where in this poor view of males in our society, does the British man and father in the recent Kenyan tragedy fit, who offered himself up as a target to be killed to buy time for children to escape?
Or more pertinent to home what happens to respect across this bs gender divide well shored up in the media when we now have a growing raft of socially disenfranchised young men evidenced by such as the now one third male to two third female undergrads coming out of our universities? Or the mid-aged woman teacher in primary school that is allowed to have all the girl student desks arranged around hers and the boys pushed out to the class margins?
Totally agree that these particular young men who stupefied and raped young teen girls and indeed doing this anyone, should feel the full weight of social disgust. But our society created them, not men or male thinking. They were parented by both women and men and in that both sexes need to take responsibility. I would also point a finger at modern parenting styles where children have become the centre of the parents universe rather than just part of it. What potentially arises are self centred people with little empathy for their fellow humans.
As for desired changes to our society, women make up more than fifty percent of the voting public so stop pretending there is no female power to make changes in our society.
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