Random Stupid

[aesmael]

    lost_angelwings showed me this article a few minutes ago. There does not seem much point to it - rambling and not-quite attempts humorous sexual remarks made regarding a sexual assault trial. Eventually dutiful acknowledgement is made of the seriousness of the charges and that humour is inappropriate, although it is still referenced immediately after.
    The main focus seems to be on the described-as-provocative dress of Catholic schoolgirls in the audience on excursion.
    The writer says the asked the woman next to her, "a prostitute and sex-trade worker advocate" - quoted because her language is unclear and I do not wish to risk an incorrect paraphrase - why the girls all want to look like sluts.
    "They don't understand their sexuality yet, the powers they have, and the danger it puts them in," Anastasia Kuzyk observed. "And none of them remember Paul Bernardo."
    That is the answer that comes back. I think it a rather dreadful one. This idea, that women have magical sex powers which men are helpless against, and that if they are not covered up and careful, something bad will happen to them, is just the same sort of rhetoric I see from religious leaders (I was going to say Muslim clerics but realised they have no monopoly) about why Western women need to dress more modestly.
    And if they do not comply, there is the threat of violence.

    I am so sick and disgusted with this species for enforcing conformity with threatened violence, I really do not know what to do with them. Oh, I am not going to give up on them, not going to stop hoping entirely, but at times like this it runs very low indeed.

    And then the closing lines of the article:

Probably, those courtroom girls see no similarities between the image that they project and, say, the professional peelers who took the stand.

I've no problem with the sex industry. I just wish girls would aspire to something better, especially in their lovely adolescent innocence.

    Let's try some substitutions to bring that out more clearly. "I've no problem with [accountancy]. I just wish girls would aspire to something better[.]"

"I've no problem with [professors]. I just wish girls would aspire to something better[.]"

"I've no problem with [homosexuality]. I just wish [kids] would aspire to something better[.]"

    Hm. Doesn't really sound like no problem, does it?
    Don't think I missed the fetishising of youth and innocence, either, the idea that young girls ought to be somehow pure and spoil themselves by expressing sexuality.
    I suppose I do not have a point either, except I think these attitudes are harmful. Putting women on a pedestal and holding them responsible for the actions of others does not seem to me an at all helpful thing to do.

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

I'm shocked that a sex trade worker could be so stereotyping and sexist :(

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

Me too. Maybe I should have said something. I was writing this post and thinking what a dreadful attitude she had, and could she possibly do a good job if that was what she thinks?

[flynnacatri.livejournal.com]

...they didn't even stay on track, they just wandered around making vague snipes.

[freelark.livejournal.com]

This is a good thing to bring to people's attention. Thank you.