HDPA says don’t let tolerance be a cop out

HDPA writes:

It’s what seems to have happened to the Minister for Women, whose reaction betrayed her own gender. Julie Anne Genter described the incident as a “really tricky area” because, while she firmly believes in equal rights for women, she also wants to “respect people’s cultural practices”.

Really? She wants to respect a Muslim man’s refusal to touch a woman.

That’s a fail on the KPIs of the job of Minister for Women, don’t you think?

Sometimes tolerance is a cop out. Sometimes it’s just an excuse for not wanting to deal with the fall out of making someone angry. Sometimes it goes too far. There’s no excuse for being tolerant of ISIS dropping homosexuals off buildings. Nor is there any excuse for historic tolerance of South African Apartheid. Nor is there any excuse for tolerating misogyny.

And this handshake nonsense is out and out misogyny. Some may tell you it’s not. They’ll say it’s a sign of respect by the men, who instead place their hand over their hearts to greet a woman. Rubbish. The fact is that Islam has a major problem with the way it regards and treats women, right down to Saudi Arabia banning women from driving until very recently.

Equality is equality. No excuses. No tolerance of anything else.

What annoys me with this, is that those who plead tolerance ignore that it is all one way.

I’m all for respecting other cultures, but that should apply to respecting our culture also.

If you travel to say Saudia Arabia, you respect the local laws and cultures. You don’t walk around in shorts and t-shirts. I recall going to Singapore in the 1980s and being told (it is less strict now) not to wear shorts.

But the same should apply for people visiting New Zealand. Here men and women do shake hands. And yes it is rude and offensive in NZ to refuse to shake someone’s hand.

What’s more, tolerance cuts both ways. Those diplomats should’ve done their research and figured out that, in New Zealand, it’s bloody rude if someone extends their hand and you don’t take it.

It’s beautiful serendipity that this all happened in the year New Zealand is celebrating 125 years of women being allowed to vote in New Zealand. The vote thing’s ticked off. Next, we can start prioritising the expectations of our women over those of foreign, rude and intolerant men.

Well said.