The woman who threw a dildo at Steven Joyce at Waitangi said it was for ‘raping our sovereignty’. It’s fashionable to use the word ‘rape’ whenever someone does something others, particularly feminists, don’t like.

The legal definition of rape has also been expanded while the closely related offence of ‘sexual violation’ was invented to bring further vast expansion. These offences both carry exactly the same 20-year prison tariff and together cover all manner of relatively minor, unforceful sexual behaviour and even sexual activity for which consent was clearly present at the time it occured.

Similarly, the term ‘rape culture’ appears to refer to all kinds of things that aren’t rape.

Unsurprisingly, the dildo-throwing incident, that hit Mr Joyce’s face and was actually assault with a weapon, has been treated lightly and even as a bit of a joke by media. Apparently, police did not charge her for anything. This article by Ms Claire Trevett, the NZ Herald Deputy Political Editor, was headlined ‘Steven Joyce to go down in history as Dildo Baggins’ and treated the incident as amusing as well as claiming that the offender had entertained the country. Yeah, it’s a huge joke when a female commits violence against a male. Imagine how the whole thing would have been received and reported on if a male had thrown an object at a female speaker. If that item were a dildo this would be seen as even more appalling, the feminists and various Herald articles would have been crying ‘rape culture’ and the offender would probably have been charged with a sexual offence as well as ‘male assaults female’.

We will make a formal complaint about Ms Trevett’s trivialization and in fact celebration of violence when committed by a woman. If that kind of person is in senior positions at the Herald it’s no wonder the paper is so often pro-feminist and disregarding of men’s issues.