Oh, sigh….
Why do some men think women's bodies are there for the touching? Powerful men, like the Premier of New Zealand, apparently felt that he had a right to torment a waitress by repeatedly pulling her hair when he stopped at her diner.
New Zealand’s prime minister, John Key, has apologized to a cafe worker who accused him of a form of torment usually associated with playground bullies: hair-pulling.
The waitress made her complaint public in an anonymous blog post on Wednesday, saying that Mr. Key, a frequent visitor to the Auckland cafe where she works, had tugged on her ponytail repeatedly over a period of months, starting during the general election campaign last year. Mr. Key, the prime minister since 2008, won a third term with his center-right National Party’s victory in September.
The beleaguered waitress tells her story, anonymously and at length,
on a NZ blog:
…..So the game continued. He would come up behind me when I was at the ordering terminal, tug on my hair and then pretend that his wife, Bronagh, had done it (much to her embarrassment), and she would tell him to stop it. As he rounded the corner behind me he commented “that’s a very tantalising ponytail”.
On Saturday, 28th February (which I specifically recall as there was to be a protest outside his home the following day) he approached me from behind, security personnel by his side, as I stood with my back to him filling water glasses, and he pulled my hair before once again pointing the blame at Bronagh. I couldn’t believe it, he was still persisting and by now he had definitely got the message that I was not enjoying it – that seemed to be why he was enjoying it so damn much. It had really crossed the line by this point and I didn’t need to tell him to stop because now Bronagh herself was already telling him to stop what he was doing, and not for the first time I might add. I exclaimed “Really?!!”, to my manager beside me, and shot him a look of utter disbelief and frustration.
What more could I do? How humiliating would it be to have to stand before the Prime Minister, his wife and security personnel and a handful of customers and say John, Mr Prime Minister, Sir, could you please stop tugging on my hair, I don’t like it, please stop, please… I felt I shouldn’t HAVE to do that. I certainly couldn’t reciprocate his actions, maybe see if he liked to have his hair pulled. Who would dare do that to a man with his own personal security? I told his security that I was sick of having my hair pulled and one day I’ll snap and i’ll punch him in the face. I hoped that maybe they’d tell him that enough’s enough and it’s time to draw it to an end. I posted on the National Party and the John Key Facebook pages a message along the lines of “Stop pulling my hair – I don’t like it!”. Maybe between social media and his security buddies and my body language and his wife’s advice he might finally get the message?
After the worker's blog post appeared, Premier Key said he was just "horsing around." By way of apology, he brought the waitress two bottles of New Zealand pinot noir.
Green party leader Metiria Turei had this to say:
"A lot of New Zealanders know what it's like to feel as if you're not taken seriously in a job. As politicians our job is to make people feel safe at work, not bullied."
"This is another case of National men behaving badly. We should expect higher standards of behaviour from our Prime Minister, not this weird hair pulling."
Sigh...