Male behaviour

In all the attention paid by the media to the sexual assault at the Labour Youth Camp, there is one aspect I have failed to see mentioned.

The 20-year-old youth who thought he was entitled to put his hand down the pants of teenage girls may have watched the 2016 United States presidential campaign.

If so, he would have seen a candidate publicly boast about his grabbing of women’s genitals and – despite that boasting – his subsequent election as US president. What a lesson for young men everywhere.

Rather than calling for the sacking of officials in the Labour Party machine, shouldn’t media and public outrage be directed at the ongoing belief by too many men that they are entitled to uninvited access to women’s bodies?

How come, after decades of feminist theory and action, we are still producing males who behave this way?

When are New Zealand men going to take responsibility for teaching their sons, their pupils, their team-mates, their political interns, to see women as equal human beings, not as bodies to be grabbed?

My respect for the Labour Party would increase if, as part of ensuring the future safety of its young women members, it set in place ongoing training for the whole party on gender issues and appropriate sexual behaviour. Let’s hope the external review of this incident will prompt such training. JILL ABIGAIL Otaki