"The co-president of the St. Johns Rotary Club is promising an investigation into how a cut-out cardboard mask of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ended up taped to a toilet seat.
"The investigation is happening basically because our media demanded it. Why this co-president didn’t respond to enquiring journalists with a sharp ‘FUCK OFF’ ... will long remain a mystery to me. Harassment from intolerable puritans surely warrants nothing less? ...
"In a free and open democracy politicians people feel are subpar end up on toilet seats and the like ... When a politician is considered saintly, to the point their image can’t be tarnished by satire or even the lowest forms of comedy, this says people are caught up in a brand and not the leader’s substance....
"[P]oliticians need criticism – ferocious criticism – and to be ridiculed, otherwise they have no reason to do the right thing.
"Why a responsible media would seek protect the powerful from low-level offence is beyond me.... There’s not a politician, living or dead, whose face doesn’t belong on a toilet seat."~ Dane Giraud, from his post 'Every politician’s face belongs on a toilet seat'
Monday 8 May 2023
"There’s not a politician, living or dead, whose face doesn’t belong on a toilet seat"
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8 comments:
Because fear of the "toxic masculinity" label. A man would usually be considered fair game.
"Why a responsible media would seek protect the powerful from low-level offence is beyond me"
That's not it at all. They know that the powerful don't need protection from low-level offense.
What they're doing is making it clear to the "low-level" folks that thinking ill of the powerful won't be tolerated. It's punishment of wrongthink, not protection.
@Duncan: Bingo!
It also has a long tradition. When the Union took control of Louisiana during the Civil War they put one of their generals, Benjamin Butler, in charge of the city, and the locals came to hate his guts, calling him “Beast” Butler and putting images of him on chamber pots.
I always laugh at the order he gave after a number of Confederate ladies poured the contents of said chamber pots on the heads of Confederate soldiers walking on the streets:
As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her…. avocation.
Naturally they then hated him even more for the slur.
Oh jeez, and over on Kiwiblog where I also made that comment I see the next one got a "Moderator" warning...
Aquarius
(Mod – we don’t make jokes on politicians appearance)
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1REPLY REPORTMAY 6, 2023 3:32PM
Really? Why not?
@Tom Hunter:
Why not indeed?!
It's shouldn't be the only criticism. But I can be a good start.
Especially since so many male politicians especially so clearly suffer from what used to be called "short-man syndrome," seeking power over others to compensate for their own embarrassment at their appearance.
Here's evidence for it being predominantly a feminist issue. I'm surprised the rest of you can't see it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131980358/verity-johnson-were-sick-of-jacinda-bashing
Kudos to the St John's Rotary club and their hilarious expression of free thought. Reading this story has brightened my day!
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