She warns against "positive discrimination", an Amerikkkan policy. So, being a right-winger, she therefore chooses negative discrimination by focusing on minority groups. A pro-Bush-talkback-host-lesbian-femme, her first targets in New Zealand are women and Maori.
She urges women, Maori and other minorities to get out of the "ghetto" and compete in mainstream society.I wonder if she ever bothered to stop and think that she could be alienating alot of Maori women this way. I doubt it.
But look - there's that word thats been popping up alot lately - "mainstream".
Do you think she's been talking to Don Brash? Fellow minority Tze Ming Mok wrote a rather fun piece on being mainstream in her entertaining blog, Yellow Peril.
But back to this word - mainstream.
Its a term with derogatory associations for me. I've always held a fond hatred for anything I deemed to be too "mainstream". This usually applied to musical genres. I used to revolt at the mere thought of having to sit through a Top 40 show when I was a self-righteous lil Gothic Punk. Once I discovered there was an alternative to the bland banal crap they played on the radio I never looked back! I didn't want to listen to soppy love songs or stupid old baby boomer hippies talking about their dicks. I would much rather listen to Nick Cave yelling in the Birthday Party, Ian Astbury bellowing about horse nations, Wayney crooning over his Tower of Strength, Peter Murphy being a Stigmata Martyr... it goes on.
Being part of the "mainstream" meant having to conform to someone elses ideals and aesthetics. Which I could never do; not just because of a basic subversive element in my psychological makeup but well, I just don't fit "mainstream" standards of beauty, behaviour or character. I deliberately went out of my way to not dress like the other girls at my school so I wouldn't be considered the same as them. If I was going to be different, well I was going to flaunt it and enjoy it while I could!
As I got older, it got worse, to the point where I actively try to limit my consumption of "mainstream" artists/labels and supporting the DIY underground with my purchasing power. (Note to self, must check to see if that Jeniger album is still at the Freedom Shop). Dressing differently no longer requires any thought or shock, but I certainly do not bother trying to conform to "mainstream" sexist dress standards. If I want to dress in pants, I'll wear pants. If I want to wear a dress, I'll wear a dress. If I wanna dress up, I'll dress up. I do not feel obliged to look a certain way because some external pressure dictates it so. No amount of tawdry bitchy remarks from my peers about how 'butch', 'granny' or 'slutty' I am looking today will deter me. I hope you lightweights made a note of that.
These are only some of the ways in which I feel I've limited my "mainstream" activities. I certainly do not go to bars or socialise in circles outside of the Aotearoa underground. Why would I? I guess it could almost go to the point of elitism, but I'm over the way people point and look at you as if you're some sort of novelty item. I don't want to associate with people like that anymore, the novelty of being a novelty has worn off. My social circle consists of a mix of punks, goths, metallers, artists, musicians, politicos, cats and assorted freaks. I'm still not too keen on hippies. And I'm getting even less keener on people as a whole.
These days, the "mainstream" has come to represent all that is abhorrent about the greater society we live in. In "mainstream" society, it is perfectly acceptable to exhibit racist behaviour. Note Don Brash's Orewa speech last year, and Winston Peters' recent Iraqi witch-hunt. Right-wing centrists like this give rise to the true nut-jobs like the National Front, who have established their Red Watch hitlist. In a "mainstream" society you can sexualise minors in advertising yet express your moral outrage when a pedophile like Graham Capill is caught or moves to your town. When you agree to compete in New Zealands' "mainstream" society, as a woman, you can look forward to perhaps running the country some day. But you probably still won't be paid as much as a man to do it. Your personal life will be scrutinised and you will be expected to behave like a man by at least sacrificing some of the most important aspects of your feminity (the child-bearing ones) in order to get ahead.
In "mainstream" New Zealand society, you can look forward to working a job you hate, to buy shit you don't need.
Yes, I know, very Fight Club. It's still relevant.
And this American Imperialist (I don't care how gay or feminist she is) has come here to tell minorities like me that we should be getting ourselves out of the ghetto and competing in "mainstream" society.
I don't want to compete. Life, for me, is not a competition or a race. If anyone wants to beat me at it, they are more than welcome to cross the finish line before me.
I'm quite happy being last.
