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This Week’s Issue

Pauline's Piece

A word about ‘stale, pale and male’

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Written by

Pauline Stewart

Published on

September 2, 2025

The great men in our community.

This message to all readers is squeezed in by three men Rowan Garrett, Lou Sikking, and Grassy Mangin. They all fit the description of ‘stale, pale and male’. This is a currently popular phrase used by some to describe a certain segment of the male population to whom those who use the phrase, feel these word are an apt description o fthe men in their focus or men in general.

Sometimes that phrase has crossed my mind but very rarely. I have experienced the arrogance ad innuendoes of insensitivity and superiority of some men. However, I am against classifying the white men that I know and many of them are the same age as me – I guess it is the stale age.

In my teens and early working years, even at University I was insired by many men – who were older, and white. The reality is that I see a number of white men in their older years who are totally movitated to work selflessly in their communities to improve things. I observe in them and in their attitudes – gentleness, compassion and passion, humility, creativity and care. I see it expressed in so many ways and on the Peninsula and on the plains, I have seen that so much of the projects and community work and the social services of clubs is done by men whom you could say fit this description.

It‘s a fallacy. So many generalisations and clever phrases just don’t apply and they kill the possibility of a meaningful relationship. The three men you will read about have all died. All three led very different lives. All tried to live fully until the last. Retirement was not opting out from life or a wish to be stale and irrelevant. They loved a cause and they loved their community. Not one of them was perfect and sometimes they erred magnificently. However, so do brown and tan men and young men and women in every sector. So let’s leave the phrases out and look for goodness and genuine care. It will help you see more and it will help you vote.