Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: There's a lot of remarkable things about yesterday's c-word column

There are a lot of remarkable things about that C-word column yesterday, and one of them is that it is still up online, and apparently no one is sorry for this.

If you haven't seen this column, let me get you up to speed on this:

Yesterday, Sunday Star Times columnist Andrea Vance did something that I would venture no other mainstream columnist has ever done in this country - she called a minister of the Crown a c-word in the newspaper. 

She didn't write the c-word out, she wrote it as c....

The subject of it was the gender pay equity revamp, the minister was Nicola Willis and Andrea wrote - "turns out you can have it all, so long as you're prepared to be a C...."

Now, I don't even know how to start explaining to you how wild it is that that happened yesterday, that Andrea dropped the C-bomb in the Sunday Star Times.

That word is the 2nd most banned word on radio. We are not allowed to say it - and if we do, go to town on us and complain because somebody is going to get in a huge amount of trouble, and we will be saying sorry.

But at least on the radio, to some extent, I think we have the defence of being able to say - Hey, look, it was the heat of the moment and the words slipped out of my mouth.

That is not what happens in newspapers. Words don't just slip out onto the paper, you write it down, you consider it, you rewrite it, you reread it. You make sure that every single word is exactly what you mean to say.

Nothing about that is in the heat of the moment. And then you send it to your editors, and your editors read it, and they look at it and they go - yep, that's okay, they can go in the newspaper. And that it what happened.

Now, I'm not a prude. I am not offended by swearing, I swear myself, and I have also done exactly what Andrea has done. I have said things about ministers that I shouldn't have said, and I've regretted and I've apologized for it.

But this is out of hand, what has happened here. There has to be some decorum. I mean, we can hardly complain about anonymous trolls on social media attacking our female politicians when our very own columnists do it in print with their names attached to it.

And reverse this, by the way, if you're not offended by it:

Imagine it was Jacinda. Imagine that a columnist had written this about Jacinda, how much outrage that would have caused, how cancelled that person would have been. There were other c-words we weren't allowed to say about Jacinda. Cindy was one of them, communist was another.

And if you said either of them, people would flip out.

Well, imagine how people would have flipped out if we'd said the c-word. It is very hard to respect an argument about how Nicola Willis isn't a real feminist in a column that attacks her in the most un-feminist way, right?

It uses the most gendered putdown that you can think of. It uses terms like girl math to basically suggest that she can't balance the country's books because she's a woman.

Now for the record, I think Andrea Vance is a fantastic journalist and an incredibly incisive opinion writer, and I think that her editor Tracy Watkins is the best at what she does, but this was a mistake and it lets everyone down when we drag the tone down that badly.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are a lot of remarkable things about that sea
word column yesterday, and one of them is that it
is still up online and apparently no one is sorry
for this. Now, if you haven't seen this column, let
me get you up to speed on this. Yesterday, Sunday
Star Times columnist Andrea Advance did something that I would
venture no other mainstream columnist has ever done in this country.

(00:21):
She called a minister of the Crown a sea word
in the newspaper. I shouldn't write the sea word out,
she wrote, se dot dot dot. The subject of it
was the gender pay equity revamp. The minister was Nikola Willison.
Andrea wrote, turns out you can have it all so
long as you're prepared to be a sa dot dot dot. Now,
I don't even know how to start explaining to you

(00:42):
how wild it is that that happened yesterday, that Andrea
dropped the sea bomb in the Sunday Star Times. That
word is the second most banned word on radio. We
are not allowed to say it. Like if we say it,
go to town on us complain because somebody is going
to get in a huge amount of trouble and we
will be saying sorry. But at least on the radio.

(01:04):
To some extent, I think we have the defense of
being able to say, hey, look, it was the heat
of the moment and the words slipped out of my mouth.
That is not what happens in newspapers, right. Words don't
just slip out onto the paper. You write it down,
you consider it, you rewrite it, you reread it, you
make sure that every single word is exactly what you
mean to say. It is nothing about that is in
the heat of the moment. And then you send it

(01:24):
to your editors, and your editors read it and they
look at it and they go, yep, that's okay. That
can go in the newspaper. And that is what happened. Now.
I'm not a prude. I am not offended by swearing.
I swear myself, and I have also done exactly what
Andrew has done. I have said things about ministers that
I shouldn't have said, and I've regretted and I've apologized
for it. But this is out of hand what has

(01:45):
happened here. There has to be some decorum. I mean,
we can hardly complain about anonymous trolls on social media
attacking our female politicians when our very own columnists do
it in print with their names attached to it, and
reverse this. By the way, if you're not offended by
I feel like now she had a coming to her,
reverse it, reverse it. Imagine it was Jacinda. Imagine that

(02:06):
a columnist had written this about Jasinda. How much outrage
that would have caused, How canceled that person would have been.
There were other sea words we weren't allowed to say
about you, Cinda, Cindy was one of them. Communist was
another one. And if you said either of the people
would flip out. Well, imagine how people would have flipped
out if we'd said the sea word. It is very
hard to respect an argument about how Nicola Willis isn't

(02:27):
a real feminist in a column that attacks her in
the most unfeminist way. Right, it uses the most gendered
put down that you can think of. It uses terms
like girl math to basically suggest that she can't balance
the country's books because she's a woman. Now, for the record,
I think Andrea Vants is a fantastic journalist and an
incredibly incisive opinion writer, and I think that her editor,

(02:50):
Tracy Watkins, is the best at what she does. But
this was a mistake. And it lets everyone down when
we drag the tone down that badly. For more from
Heather du Classie, Allen Drive and Live to News Talks,
it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio