Renée Gerlich

07/09/2026

"One problem with wanting to be exemplary by going first is that being first can make you a guinea pig rather than a leader. New Zealanders can’t always tell the difference, but it would be prudent for us to learn how, especially since it’s not only ambitious politicians and entrepreneurs who consider New Zealand a convenient social laboratory or ‘Noah’s ark’. International lobbies also perceive us that way."

Influential New Zealanders often want to be seen as world leaders. But does going ‘first’ make us pioneers or guinea pigs?

24/08/2026

Read the Tao te Ching! Let me know if you have a copy (or if you got one after this!)

And feel free to follow my upcoming series on religion and spiritual traditions at reneegerlich.substack.com

24/08/2026

reneegerlich.substack.com

02/07/2026

"New Zealand has a reputation for “the best race relations in the world.” This essay looks beyond that myth to the conditions that led to the 1975 Māori Land March."

New Zealand has a reputation for “the best race relations in the world.” This essay looks beyond that myth to the conditions that led to the 1975 Māori Land March.

02/07/2026

"This culture that deemed s*x shameful and taboo fostered s*xual naivety among young women. It left them vulnerable to pressure, uncertain and confused by their first s*xual encounters, unprepared to make free and informed choices, and too afraid to ask questions or seek advice. A lack of female s*xual sovereignty combined with male s*xual entitlement and denial of access to newly available contraceptives to create the perfect recipe for unplanned pregnancy. When this happened, women were left to face the consequences: undersupported motherhood, forced adoption or criminalised abortion."

Lack of s*x education, criminalised abortion, undersupported motherhood, forced adoption and unequal pay were major issues for feminists in 1970s New Zealand.

19/03/2026

"During both world wars, New Zealand was exceptional in the number of conscientious objectors imprisoned and the severity of its policy."

This is a history that's important to know and grapple with right now:

During both world wars, New Zealand was exceptional in the number of conscientious objectors imprisoned and the severity of its policy.

12/03/2026

"For men who married women, common caricatures and stereotypes helped them escape the feminising influence of the home. Men were classified — in a tongue-in-cheek, yet apparently convincing manner — as biologically “incapable” of housework, “their intervention … not desired.” A complex division of labour emerged: “The man would not cook unless it was over a campfire; he would not clean unless it was the car; he was prepared to garden so long as it was always vegetables and not the herbaceous border [flowers]; he was prepared to mend things so long as it was a washer and not socks; and he was ready to cut wood.” (After which he “deserved a DB.”)"

As New Zealand urbanised, men feared the ‘feminising’ influences of women, home and city. How did this fear shape Kiwi culture?

05/03/2026

New Zealand's first nationwide census in 1851 recorded about 26,707 Europeans: 15,035 male and 11,672 female. That’s 776 women to every thousand men.

By 1861, after the gold rush attracted more “footloose” males, the s*x ratio was 662:1000.

As Jock Phillips’ notes in 'A Man’s Country?: The Image of the Pakeha Male: A History' (1987): “Here was the demographic basis for a rich male culture, fertile soil for the growth of all-male institutions.”

If New Zealand feels culturally sparse, perhaps it’s not because we’re a small country but because we were established as a man’s country.

26/02/2026

"Starting at the bottom, continuing along the bottom and finally ending up at the bottom. It's a Flight of the Conchords joke-plotline — but it was also the early colonial plan for New Zealand."

Starting at the bottom, continuing along the bottom and finally ending up at the bottom. It's a Flight of the Conchords joke-plotline — but it was also the early colonial plan for New Zealand.

23/01/2026

"From the mid-2010s, transgender ideology started mainstreaming rapidly. It seemed like one moment, transs*xualism was ‘fringe’, and the next, many young people were identifying as trans or non-binary. By 2014 there had been a 400 per cent spike in media coverage, and the state and corporate funded Pride Parades began. Soon, almost everyone had a transgender uncle or cousin or niece, public figures were supporting the movement, and people were declaring their he/him or she/they pronouns on work emails.

The quick spread of transgenderism is especially curious, because it requires proponents to deny biological s*x — something as readily observable as night and day or the weather. Several important preconditions explain this. They are:

1. The rise of online po*******hy
2. Neoliberalism and the expansion of the s*x trade
3. Academic postmodernism
4. The history of eugenics giving rise to s*x reassignment methods and technology
5. Historic and continued undermining of the mother-child bond

We’ll examine each of these briefly."

Transgender ideology spread quickly because of five key preconditions: online p**n, neoliberalism, postmodernism, eugenics-based technologies, and systemic undermining of the mother-child bond.