Key: "It could've been a man's hair" - Maybe it already has been!

Key's latest excuse for #Tailgate is that his conduct wasn't sexist because he could have carried out the same long-running campaign of workplace harassment against a male worker just as easily.

Now while it's rather telling that the PM's best stab at an equivocation is to suggest he's got little problem abusing *other* workers rather than just the one ... there was one thing that really struck me about his statement.

When he said it could've been a man's hair, I found myself wondering if maybe this had already happened:

Remember when National's Napier candidate cut off his pony-tail during the last election campaign?

At the time, he claimed this was because it was a "barrier to communication".

One wonders whether he meant a barrier to communication with the electorate, or with his own leader...

Oh and on a more serious note - Key's statement is exactly how the police in other countries justify things like structural racism. "Oh, it *could* have been an unarmed white teenager our officers just blew away..."

Just because it "technically would have been possible" for Key to do the same thing to a male hospitality worker, TOTALLY doesn't mitigate the sexist nature of his offence - or cast aside the overtones we've all attached to it.

I mean, come on. It does occur that Pita Sharples probably never had to put up with this sort of thing!