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Wig and robes not enough
From news.com.au (sent in by Brenda)
From correspondents in Auckland
25-07-2006
From: AAPA PROMINENT New Zealand lawyer – bald and moustachioed – turned up to court wearing a skirt and blouse and carrying a handbag to protest what he says is a
male-dominated judiciary.Rob Moodie, 67, fronted Wellington’s High Court yesterday dressed in a navy blue skirt suit with added female extras, The Dominion Post newspaper reported.
“I will now, as a lawyer, be wearing women’s clothing,” Mr Moodie was quoted as saying .
“The deeper the cover-up, the prettier the frocks.”
Mr Moodie is heterosexual and married with three children.
But he said he was born with an innate understanding of the female gender.
“I prefer and relate to the gender which is involved in the creation and nurturing of life: giving, sharing and also, I believe, fairness,” he said.
“My confidence in the male ethos is zilch. It’s a culture of intimidation, authority, power and control.”
He was not sure which toilet he would be using at the court.
“I call it a flash of lace at the urinal.”
It is not the first time Mr Moodie, a one-time rugby player, has challenged convention.
In the 1970s he wore kaftans and women’s clothing while working as secretary of New Zealand’s Police Association.
In the past few years, Mr Moodie has litigated in a number of high-profile cases.
He was in court yesterday fighting contempt charges brought against him by the solicitor-general, over the posting on the Internet of a suppressed report.
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3 Replies
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This comment is what grabbed me:
“My confidence in the male ethos is zilch. It’s a culture of intimidation, authority, power and control.”
It’s so true, you see it everyday.
The only thing about this comment is that its a very cutting generalised comment with nothing to support it or back it up.. so it comes across as a personally opinion with the view to attack. Which is good but to most people its no doubt bad.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/14/ap/strange/mainD8N9OD980.shtml
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Feb. 14, 2007
(AP)(AP) A male lawyer who appeared in court dressed in women’s clothes as a protest against what he said was New Zealand’s overly-masculine judiciary was suspended Wednesday after being found to be in contempt of court.
The High Court found Rob Moodie, a 68-year-old, balding man who appeared in court in dresses and toting a handbag, was in contempt for circulating suppressed documents outside the court in one of his cases.
Moodie officially changed his name to “Miss Alice” as part of his protest against the “old boys network” that he said runs the nation’s judiciary, and was granted an award for the most bizarre conduct by a lawyer in 2006 by London’s The Times newspaper.
The protest began after a coroner’s inquest largely blamed a farming couple for the collapse of a bridge on their property built by the army.
Moodie obtained documents apportioning much of the blame for the collapse to faulty wood used by New Zealand Defense Force engineers, and posted the report on the Internet despite a judge’s order it not be distributed.
The High Court on Wednesday found Moodie guilty of contempt of court, suspended him for three months, fined him and ordered him to pay costs.
Moodie announced after the ruling he would quit the law altogether, and end his cross-dressing protest because he no longer needed to appear “in a 19th-century Alice in Wonderland environment that allows pomp, self-importance and deference to the court to eclipse the truth.”
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in media talk, there is an assumption that the average reading age of the general punter is 12, and so in newspapers and magazines of general circulation, the sentences are short. Words are not too long. And the issues are not made to be too complex.
elitist? yes. arrogant? i fear it to be. expoitative? very probably. assembled to sell? what do you think?
so do you think good tranny stories ever make the headlines?
my view is that the bias is such that trannies are treated as sort of way out in left field. more a case of filler when there is nothing else to drag (no pun intended) through the dirt. a lot of the tabloids are like that. look at what they are doing to britney spears. she used to be in the mickey mouse club … now how mainstream was that? but they want to hound her and chase her down. she’s barely in her twenties, and they have taken away any sense of privacy and any chance of a normal lifestyle she may have had. given that attitude, how do you think they would portray tranny stories?
so, even though rob moodie was trying to make a point, i think that it was not reported that way. his point was that the nz army stuffed up and it cost his clients big time. and the institutions of government have decided that this information should not be made public. so the story comes out emphasising him cross dressing, not his very valid point.
what happened to the fourth estate, impartial reporting, and the exposure of poor government and institutions?
maybe i’m biased, but then, that’s my ten cents worth.
in hope for better times …
hugs,
v
xox
