Let’s be as charitable as we can about Marama’s crusade to reclaim the C word

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
22
20

I vote Green.

I know Marama.

I want the Greens to get to 20%.

But their tactics and strategy failure seem to consistently collapse upon them and sometimes my frustration at such needless self-mutilation causes me to write mean blogs, like yesterdays one, so today let’s be as charitable as we can towards Marama’s desire to reclaim the C word.

The Co-Leader of the Greens was subject to a vile death threat towards herself and her whanau that used the C word as a weapon.

Marama righteously decided that she would rob these vile cretins of the power of the C word and decided to reclaim it.

She used it multiple times at the anti-Free Speech protest in Aotea Square.

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So far, so righteous.

However, after speaking with people inside the Party, I do not believe that the Co-Leader of the Greens had any media plan whatsoever when the inevitable media attention came to ask her about her use of the word in public.

I do not believe the Green Party had any strategy or forward thinking positions to take once that media attention started.

The inevitable lack of foresight saw the news media ask every significant political personality from Jacinda, to Winston to Paula Bennett who universally criticised Marama.

James Shaw refused to comment.

The Cartoons that shape public opinion came thick and fast…

 

…amongst the Green Party’s Fourth Wave Feminist, gender-fluid woke twitter activist base, Marama’s reclamation of Cunt is not only a blow against the heteronormative patriarchy, any criticism against Marama for taking her stand is proof positive of being a card carrying member of rape culture.

For the Woke, the issue is one of a woman who has used the words of a death threat against her to empower herself.

To everyone else it looks like the Green Party are no longer an environmental movement and are now just a vehicle for middle class Identity Politics.

For a Party that barely managed to scrape over the 5% threshold, this perception is the kiss of death.

Some staunch defenders will attack the Media for tripping Marama up, and they would be absolutely right – but the bloody media did that to Metiria as well, how many fucking times does the Green Party Leadership need to keep doing this before they learn the fucking media aren’t their friends?

There was no plan to this, no strategy on how to frame it and no sense whatsofucking ever of how it would play out in the wider media.

This follows Minister Sage’s total confusion over what her powers were when she rolled over for Chinese business interests stealing our water, the decision to give National their Parliamentary questions and their seeming surprise mining permits were being issued for National Parks.

This zero planning of how to frame the reclamation of the word Cunt is either grotesque naivety or criminal incompetence. It isn’t leadership, it’s self-mutilation.

As a Green voter, I feel like a Blues fan.

I’m so depressed I’m making Rugby analogies.

 

 

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22 COMMENTS

  2. You started out being charitable but have ended up highlighting the truth of it – niche identity politics is revolting and a turn off to voters.
    Wiser heads than mine will know if the Greens awful showing is leadership failure or media savvy, probably both.
    Good to see the action on plastic bags today (not clear who gets credit…)

    • i suggested to them that they combine those two campaigns –

      – and run with the slogan: ‘only cunts use plastic bags’…

      i haven’t heard back from them yet…

  3. personally I think the ‘C..t’ word is used as a weapon….just as the words ‘P..ck, D.ck, C.ck, C..k S..ker, Sl.t etc are used as verbal weapons…they are meant to be offensive and a put down

    ….so it makes no sense to legitimise them and celebrate them

    …and what is the etymology history of the term ‘C..t’ anyway?

    http://www.matthewhunt.com/cunt/

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/the-infamous-c-word_n_1231543.html

    https://qz.com/1045607/the-most-offensive-curse-word-in-english-has-powerful-feminist-origins/

    (imo the Greens should keep away from identity politics and stick to their knitting ie the ENVIRONMENT and global warming…that is if they want to stay a viable political party)

    • Why so squeamish about cunt et al?
      Here’s what happens – people write C..nt or c*nt or c-bomb and so on to absolve themselves from uttering the “offensive” word and abdicate that to the reader/hearer to offend themselves by converting it into cunt.
      If there’s any good in Marama’s exposing the word cunt it’s to show up our weird prissiness and hypocrisy around language.

      • @ E-CLECTIC…maybe some people like to keep swear words for the occasion of extremism and not common vernacular

        re “If there’s any good in Marama’s exposing the word cunt it’s to show up our weird prissiness and hypocrisy around language.”

        ….yup and the Greens are the radicals to do this no doubt… because they are so revolutionary and moral and politically correct!

        …but will New Zealanders be flocking to the Greens for their courageous stand in liberating the word cunt?…or will they be laughing at the Greens?

        maybe because I was brought up to be polite and only swear in extremism

        …perhaps you are

        • (delete last two sentences above)

          what I meant to say is that ….swear words only have impact if they are used rarely…(this is the way I was brought up)

          if you use swear words all the time people just think you are lowering the standard of the English language ,speech in general, and that you are pretty IGNORANT and UNEDUCATED

          … is this the image the Green Party wants?…”ignorant” and “uneducated”?

          …if so , I doubt their environmental supporters will support them with their votes or their donations ( I am already considering this)

          …the Green Party is now so way off their original mandate for the environment that one can’t but help wondering if they have their heads up their CUNTS !

    • 100% correct RED BUZZARD.

      When i was in the green Party it was focused on the ENVIRONMENT and global warming and was well on their way to become a viable political party, and when In left they were decending into a mainstream political Party bogged down wiith populist ideologys and now have lost their pure environmentaal heart I loved then in 2000.

      • This was always the danger – getting sucked into the system – and the pundits were always pressing for them to do that as they were always (paradoxically) more dangerous as outsiders.

  4. The Greens are not strong on political strategy – and they need to be
    because that’s what gaining votes is all about – you cannot get distracted by minor side-issues, however virtuous some people believe them to be.
    There is time and a place – and judgement is all.

  5. New Zealand has not been in the eye of the world media for some time. In the past we have created media waves with our votes for women,and our nuclear free stance standing up to the warmongers of the West and their duplicitous stance to nuclear weapons.We have stood up to the treacherous Israelis and their attempted theft of our passports. But Marama Davidson has put N.Z right back into the forefront of the world’s media. A perusal of the worlds press reveals the world is gripped and transfixed by the images conjured up by Marama’s bold declaration.NZ stars on RT. The Russians are gaping with astonishment! The Japanese are perplexed! The Chinese are amazed. Russian meddling may be driven from the front page of the new York times!If you can’t be famous, well, settle for infamous! We will be known henceforth as: Aotearoa, land of the stupid c**ts!!!

  6. Maybe from a political point of view it wasn’t the best idea – but personally, so what? Sometimes politics is about just about being real and straight up about things.

    It’s a bit like marijuana – the mainstream might be shocked but how many of those under 40 or even 50 are really going to be shocked. In many ways it is an indication of how the media and those in respectable positions of power, are separate from large portions of the general population, especially the young.

  7. “The aquifers under Beijing supply 50% of the city’s water, but their levels are falling by a meter a year , causing the ground to sink throughout the region as groundwater is extracted.”

    Environment, Scarcity and Violence. Thomas F Homer-Dixon Princeton Univ Press 1999

    This is the sort of issue I’d be expecting Greens & the Environment Minister to be looking at before flogging off our water offshore – and it is an issue that would gain traction. Especially perhaps in the areas near poor Christchurch, which was built on alluvial plain.I think.

    …Any even seemingly-harmless word can be used offensively – the angry stalled truck driver who called me an old bag weaponised both words fairly effectively…

  8. #misogynist Nottingham brothers mistook me for blogger ‘hukildaspida’ #Lauda_Finem (AKA ‘The Beagle Boys’ by police etc) stalked & posted #death_threats online, calling me an “old brown #cunt, who will not be missed when the time is right”. I am severely disabled so congratulate @MaramaDavidson for speaking truth about the abusive death threats she gets.

    • And we would have taken Marama seriously if she kept the ‘death threats’ were kept and shown\sent to police…as it stands its only her word, a word I hold no credence for. Perhaps she should keep her correspondence for all the people calling her a c*nt!?…ohhh wait, according to her she will just see that as not being a problem eh?

  9. @ E-CLECTIC…maybe some people like to keep swear words for the occasion of extremism and not common vernacular

    re “If there’s any good in Marama’s exposing the word cunt it’s to show up our weird prissiness and hypocrisy around language.”

    ….yup and the Greens are the radicals to do this no doubt… because they are so revolutionary and moral and politically correct!

    …but will New Zealanders be flocking to the Greens for their courageous stand in liberating the word ‘cunt’ ?…or will they be laughing at the Greens?…and thinking they are FUCKWITS

    maybe because I was brought up to be polite and only swear in extremism

    …perhaps you are

  11. This lack of preparedness reminds me of when Metiria made her announcement with no follow-up plan.

    They could do with your help, Martyn.

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