Cough-cough. Look I appreciate the country has baby brain, but what about that housing affordability and inequality eh?

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Forget the idea that new Mums have ‘baby brain’, I think the country has baby brain.

I’m not talking about the roars of dinosaurs who don’t comprehend that they are extinct yet brain farting out crude stereotypes of how women shouldn’t wear hemlines above their ankles or be pregnant while in charge of the country, I’m talking about the bizarre cultural gag reflex that has kicked into place with a frightening familiarity of those wishing to maximise the cultural symbolism of the pregnancy of an unwed woman  to a stay at home Dad that has erupted like small pox on social media.

Jacinda has babysat my daughter and I know Clarke from when we worked together on Channel Z as DJs in the late 1990s. I’d say proximity wise I’m far closer to the both of them than the majority of those on Twitter, yet not even I would dare to feel like I have the prerogative, audacity or arrogance to advice them on parenthood or suddenly start knitting booties for them!

The creepy way everyone has suddenly involved themselves in this pregnancy is proof positive of the weird cult of Motherhood which straightjackets so many women and ultimately mutates their own self worth with a hyper harsh judgmental criticism is in full effect and suddenly everyone feels like they have a right to be part of this very private and personal moment.

Ugh.

Fatherhood is in now way worshipped with the same frenzied evangelical gushing that has swamped social media recently and while all this hyper emotional gushing would normally just be a bit of harmless fun, there is a danger.

The danger is that our devotion to the cult of Motherhood blinds us to the far more important and far more pressing issues that we demanded this new Government fix.

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National are privately screaming that their New Year attack plan to target Jacinda as incompetent and inexperienced are now in tatters because of her pregnancy, and they must now rely on filibuster tactics inside the legislative process and attacking Unions to gain their political traction, but the cult of Motherhood enthralment also hurts those wishing to push the new Government on issues we voted them into fix.

Growing inequality and housing affordability are more important than a single baby and we’ve already seen policy that was supposed to start fixing these issues have had their numbers overcooked and in the case of the $50 a week student allowance, actually become counter productive!

I’m not negging on babies or new mums, but Jesus Christ folks, let’s put the cult of Motherhood to one side and keep focusing on the things that matter. Knit the booties if you must, but let’s not pretend those booties are anything more than a diversion to far bigger issues.

It’s not about Jacinda and Clarke’s baby, it’s about every baby being born.

8 COMMENTS

    • These days, you are considered a ‘worthy’ tenant, when you present the lowest risk, and that is often decided by prejudicial judgment on income and ethnic or cultural belonging.

      No matter the law, discrimination is rampant in New Zealand, it goes both ways, or into many ways.

      I know of Chinese having a very dim view of Pacific Islanders and Maori, and vice versa, and we know how biased or racist many whitish Kiwis are, as they also prefer certain suburbs, and to send their kids to schools that have more kids that belong to their ethnic group.

      In any case, that matter is scandalous, and with the HRRT being so short funded, as Martyn writes in another post, there will be little prospect to have the issue remedied any time soon.

  1. “$50 a week student allowance, actually become counter productive!”..shock horror..in my 30 years of renting I’ve never seen an increase in the minimum wage not be matched (and more) by rent increases.

    I will be very surprised to see any prosecutions arise from the 100 formal complaints….rent increases will be all down to “demand and the market’…ha!

    Same with insulation subsidies…just another excuse for landlords to increase rents to unaffordable levels, even though the improvements are a subsidy to make their business viable, rather than letting their business continue to be a health hazard. .

    Such a radical rethink is required on housing, we need something NEW. not just a watered down replay of previous solutions, which may have worked when housing wasn’t considered to be primarily a ‘commodity’ but are simply not going to cut the mustard now.

  2. I can’t speak for social media Bomber, because I don’t “do” social media, but the small exposure I allow myself to RNZ and TVNZ news certainly displays an abnormal level of hysteria over motherhood.

    I blame the maryolatrous (?) papists.

    And (more so) the corporate news media demons desperate to keep public observation away from the huge rubbish dump of shit nine years of National cuts have left lying around.

  3. “The fact that the extra $50 a week to students has simply been handed immediately over to exploitative landlords. “

    Just the same as National’s ‘generous hike to benefits’ (and Super, by extension).

    These gracious increases are NEVER destined for helping people to finally enjoy a teeny spot of discretionary saving or spending (such as, ‘Wow! If I save all year I can get my teeth done/replaced. Or get my glasses updated with a proper prescription. Or buy some regular fresh fruit instead of scrounging in the Reduced to Clear trolley. Just wow!)

    Oh dear me, no. If it’s not property-let people it’ll be the utilities and councils, in like vultures, to take all the largesse and a little bit more. Plus our wonderful medical providers.

    See the piece of pie! Smell the piece of pie! Now watch as it vanishes into the swirl of moneys that will never-ever benefit the likes of you. Enjoy! You’re helping our GDP even if you are basically worthless.

    The best corporate welfare tax money can buy.

    • Agreed and a lot of this money is going into the corporate bank accounts to be shipped off overseas. Also when the execs get sick of of nz which they will they will follow that money overseas. These people at the top of the corporate tree don’t care about NZ once they have run down the country they will be off to find a new country to deplete its all a game and they don’t care about society…

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