Christine Rankin’s personal life and dress sense…does it really matter?

Here we have another perfect example of NZ society/media blowing a small, and in this case insignificant, thing totally out of proportion.

While the rest of the world is waiting to hear the next bit of news about the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, NZ sits on the edge of there seat to find out about how short Christine Rankin’s skirt is, how dangly her earrings are and the intimate details of her marriage.

This issue is rather irrelevant. We are not talking about a fashion personality, nor are we talking about some Hollywood drama, we are talking about the new Families commissioner, thus, what she is wearing has nothing to do with how well she can perform her job. Perhaps there would be an issue if she was wearing T-shirts that said “I put the sensual back in non-consensual” or not wearing clothing at all. However, when the issue is her earrings are dangly and she wears shoulder pads I hardly see the problem. How will this affect her ability to do her job?

Somehow this non-news has turned dangly earrings into the headline dinner table conversation over the past few weeks, frankly I’m sick of it.

I would have to agree with this quote from Paul Holmes’ Blog What is so wrong with Christine rankin?: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10572726

It has come from the left, of course, from Labour, who saw to her earlier destruction as the chief executive of Work and Income NZ for no fathomable reason apart from what appeared to be their leader's contempt for her short skirts and an eclectic taste in earrings.Christine Rankin is seen as a threat to Labour and the Greens because she is non-PC and speaks her own mind.

She has been labled an ‘anti-establishment feminist’…someone didn’t get their facts right before they said that. This is an excerpt from an interview with Christine Rankin in which it would be hard to call her a feminist.

I worry about New Zealand men. I went through the feminist movement. Today's women in their 20s and early 30s have it easier. They expect too much of their men, and take things for granted."If you look at many family breakdowns, it's often because of men's confusion about their role. I believe women become wise at 50. Young women need to be sensible about what they expect. Men are supposed to earn big bucks, be macho and still be in touch with their feminine side. It's too difficult.

I am a Labour supported myself but find it audacious that an attack like this is simply because she does not fit the mould of the fat cats in parliament. It seems some what petty that the agenda setting of the media has been focused on her dress sense. Despite my defense I don’t actually care about weather or not she is the right person for the job, I just feel the rest of the world must be laughing at us with our tops stories being such ridiculous topics! Who decides what is news worthy in New Zealand? I think they flew right off the mark. This is the stuff they put in trashy woman’s magazines, not on the 6 o’clock news! Gutlung and Ruge must be turning in their graves. I can understand the queries over her marital status, but since when has a CV or job description required you to state the number of relationships you’ve been in. I guarantee if this was the case, half of the country would be unemployed. If she performs the job well, then gives flying fart about her marriages.

This article http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10572760 is a fantastic example of what I mentioned before about trashy woman’s magazines. I’m sure I have read similar stories about Brad and Angela. On a more positive note however, by now, she must know her stuff:"People give up too easily in relationships. I did. I asserted myself: 'I will not do this and that'. It's the one precious thing that you can give a child - a mum and dad that love each other. It's hard but it's achievable.

"Relationships are hard enough to maintain, and you have to put time into them. What are we doing to our people? If people are working from 6am to 7pm then something is wrong".

Still, my previous feelings stand: When these topics become the highlight of the 6 o’clock news, one has to wonder what sort of values we hold as a country. We are more concerned over Christine Rankin’s marriages than the possible on set of nuclear war. Well done New Zealand, get your priorities in the right order next time. I also believe that using the word ‘insensitive’ is a relative term, thus some what redundant in a true news story. So, I’m going to turn off New Zealand news until some one tells me there’s something newsworthy to watch! Until then, I’ll say hello to BBC for some global perspective!

If you want to read the whole Christine Rankin interview, follow this link: http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/inspired-people/2008/2/11/blog-an-interview-with-christine-rankin/?c_id=3