Public Address | Public Address Radio | 180 Seconds: Sexing Up Maggie

Jan Farr

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:14:10 +1200

I'm gobsmacked! This is a fight I thought we'd won hands-down in the 70s. Now pink for girls is in with a vengeance, marriage with all the frills is back and obviously the media's interest in what women wear has moved beyond the descriptive to the psycho-babbular (I just made…

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:37:55 +1200

Cheers! Will we see it on tv or film?

If TVNZ runs true to form, neither iteration of Thatcher will be deemed worthy of a prime time slot, if they're shown at all. I'm still seriously pissed off with the truly excellent BBC adaptation of Bleak House (and I'm saying…

Jan Farr

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:26:41 +1200

Cheers! Will we see it on tv or film?

Kerry Weston

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:40:07 +1200

It's like you can have whatever version you want of a person these days – guess that's postmodernism for you, every version is valid for someone.

I agree that it's a cheap version of Maggie, designed to titillate the audience rather than shine a light on something more substantial. It…

Jan Farr

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:18:45 +1200

I agree with your ankle-flashing points.

I just think that Jenny Shipley is charming and quite bright and Maggie Thatcher and Ruth Richardson are clever and also superficial but not particularly intelligent or insightful – or even ethical – and I suppose that my inherent labour bias makes me squirm…

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:49:52 +1200

Not really, I do get that, in your book, Ruth Richardson and Jenny Shipley are the Brides of Dracula and nothing I say would shift you one micron from that view. Not exactly fair enough, but I'm not going to waste any time or energy trying to shift an unmovable…

Jan Farr

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:34:32 +1200

I think I just did.

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:30:20 +1200

Gosh Craig. Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley and intelligence? Now there's a couple of oxymoronic concepts, wouldn't you say?

I wouldn't say — then again, I don't operate on the assumption that everyone whose politics I disagree with (and that would include Helen Clark) are stupid. Discuss.

Jan Farr

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:01:45 +1200

Let’s just hope that we’re going to give a little more credit to the likes of Clark, Shipley and Richardson. And ourselves. Because you don’t have to be a bra-burning feminist to find that there’s nothing clever about treating intelligence like a turn off.

Gosh Craig. Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley…

Russell Brown

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:13:49 +1200

If current polls turn out to be accurate (and I have my doubts), Helen Clark has more pressing concerns that how the world will mark the 50th anniversary of her entry into public life. I just hope it will be a little more seemly that the treatment of Margaret Thatcher…