This week it has been hard to find something to write about that isn't tied up in my political despondency.
I've been caught up, like most everyone else, in election frenzy and it has been quite hard to focus on anything else.
At least one thing that happened outside of New Zealand does bear talking about, though, and that is Emma Watson and her He For She programme.
Watson, an actress best known for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, was recently chosen to be a Women's Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.
On Monday, Watson gave her first speech to the United Nations, introducing a campaign that she hopes will change misinformed conceptions of feminism and inspire solidarity between men and women.
I admire Emma Watson, I really do.
She is intelligent, well-spoken, ambitious, and clear about her political and social standpoints.
Playing the role of Hermione Granger has made her an influential figure for people of my generation; there is no doubt about that.
But I do have one or two problems with her speech and with her campaign.
Watson is intent upon reminding us that patriarchy hurts men, too.
Yes, it does.
But that's really not the point.
That patriarchy is damaging for men as well as women is self-evident.
Obviously destructive masculine ideologies need to be addressed, but the conversation doesn't always have to be about men and what feminism can do for them.
Particularly not while women are still having acid thrown in their faces for disobeying their husbands.
It is really quite tiring to find that many men are only willing to acknowledge the benefits of feminism when they directly pertain to themselves.
Arguably, making men the stars of the narrative might be the only way to effect significant social change, but this seems counterintuitive.
Some sensible soul put it well when they said on Twitter that of course it is important to acknowledge that patriarchy hurts men but the fact that it hurts women should be enough on its own to warrant change.
Watson is right, though, in that it is largely about educating people.
I lie awake in bed at night and think about how lovely it would be if, going through the school system, there was consistent emphasis on the pervasive and dangerous nature of masculine bias.
It wouldn't take much, it could be incorporated into the pre-existing social studies curriculum.
As it stands, gender issues are avoided like the plague in our education system and many people leave school thinking we live in a post-sexist society.
And, even worse, many people leave school not knowing how their behaviour can be threatening and harmful to women.
Personally, I would feel a lot safer on campus (and in general) if I knew that male students had some basic understanding of their inherent privilege.
For the most part, it seems that in spite of their tertiary education, they lack the ability to consider their societal position in relation to others because they simply haven't been told that they are operating within a society that is still incredibly biased against women.
I don't have high hopes, but maybe this term the Government will consider some positive education reform.
There are a lot of things we should be teaching young people, and in my view feminism is right up there with how to pay bills and how to fix a blown fuse.
I hope that Emma Watson's campaign is successful but I really hope that we get past this fear that feminism is going to offend men, because sexism is not an argument, it is an overwhelmingly awful reality.
-Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.
