More making-up-the-news from the Dominion Post in concocting a Valentine’s Day story, childishly claiming an Auckland café’s sign promotes violence against women. What absolute cock, moreso as a day later, having created the story, they editorialised condemning the contemporary vogue of offence taking as with the Valentine’s day café incident.
The sign read,
“On Valentine’s Day open the car door for her. After Valentine’s day, open the car boot for her”.
As a joke it’s mildly amusing albeit corny, the sort of stuff English comedians trotted out in the 1960s and ‘70s.
But accompanying the story, a grim-faced photo of the Women’s Refuge CEO, Dr Ang Jury, doubtless solicited for comment in the traditional news-creating fashion. She predictably delivered claiming, “the sign minimised New Zealand’s real problem with violence. The problem we have in New Zealand is real. Call it PC, I’m sure some people will, but it’s not”.
Yes, Dr Jury, you were being ludicrously PC, in the process harming your movement’s credibility.
The sign did not advocate violence. It was plainly a joke to even the meanest intelligence, as indeed 80% of the readers poll attached to the story reflected.
If you must ascribe imaginary messages to it you could just as well interpret it as saying to men, “don’t just treat your womenfolk nicely on a celebration day; treat them nicely every day”.
This sort of contrived offence-taking harms good causes, such as the Refuge movement. And I speak with some qualification for as Dr Jury will or should know, I played a significant role in its establishment in the 1980s.
