My first thoughts were …comedy, maybe? The subject was a serious one though. Some barrister was on the radio saying that by dressing provocatively and getting hammered on alcoholic drink ,women were actively encouraging slavering ,drooling men to rape them. He was n’t blaming the men .Those poor crude beasties , he implied , had no control over their lust-filled cojones and were doing what came naturally, preying on likely easy targets ,who dressed as though they were in the market for some knuckle -dragger with aggressive sex on his mind .He blamed the women for presenting the rapists with sex- on- a- plate.His take on it was that there was no point in crying “rape!” in the clear light of sober dawn , when they’d encouraged it all along.In his world, the women were endangering themselves.I had to think that any woman appearing before such a barrister would be on a losing streak immediately.Should someone like that be expected to practice fairly?
Of course, this subject brought out a busload of comedy too . Someone called “Mrs White” , which may well be a pseudonym for a “Mrs Whitehouse” clone {of 1960’s infamy} was on the radio declaring that it was all caused by that “awful feminism”. Immodesty, she said , was a big factor in unleashing the baser animal lusts of the male of the species.Of course , it has to be said that rape is a horrendous crime of the abuse of power and can involve the rape of men and children too. How a small child or another man appeared provocative to their attacker, would be a question I would have asked .
It makes you wonder did she actually understand how and why the world of humanity kept on spinning and how we as a species went about attracting mates down through the eons of time ; why did she think people were attracted to each other in the first place , if not by physical presentation, initially. Even birds of paradise and peacocks have evolved methods of decoration to display their best sides to attract a mate . They wave their exquisite, feathered , finery for the world to see ,in the hope that a potential mate will be impressed .Female birds queue up in the hope of being mated and the male hopes his display will please them. Whole industries have grown up around constantly changing fashions, cosmetics and ever evolving hairstyles.Even in war time , silk stockings and lipstick were a currency of barter , while mayhem raged all around. You could be assured that if every other business went to the wall and closed down, even small towns would still be replete with several beauty parlours, hairdressing salons, numerous nail-bars,sunbed tanning parlours, keep -fit gyms and barbershops. People will always find money for the latest fashion trend , pots of skin -enhancing potions or lipstick, even when they can’t afford food. It brought to mind a few lines from the Johnny Mercer song…
“You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between”
People, and especially women, will always want to dress-up and feel attractive. That doesn’t mean that they want someone to savagely rape them .They want to sculpt their hair , bodies and faces with dyes and make-up. They want to enhance their bodies with plastic surgery and botox.Sometimes that will go all wrong for them, but they’ll try it anyway. If they have good legs , they’ll want to display them. If they haven’t such a sublime shape ,they’ll want to disguise that fact with some very clever corsetry. They’ll pluck every single body hair out of existence to present skin as smooth as a billiard -ball.They’ll do all those things to present themselves in their best possible light, for their own self-esteem , to compete with other women and ultimately to attract a mate of whatever sex…
Strangely enough, this being Norneverland , there was not a complete consensus on this , even from the women involved in the conversation. If “Mrs White” was a pantomime , production creation , possibly voiced by an actor, she couldn’t have appeared as any more of a cartoon character.Presenting herself as right of Hitler , she proceeded to quietly rant about what she thought was appropriate or not .It was all beginning to sound like the Taliban when she stated that a woman’s dress should be at least three inches below the knee. In her world , I imagine she saw lipstick as the ultimate provocation.It’s all in the mind , you see.
It was at this point when I thought that television companies in Norneverland were really missing a trick .Surely there is room for a satirical programme starring this “Mrs White”. it could be the “Till Death Do Us Part” for the 21st century. Someone needs to write this one.
“You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium’s
Liable to walk upon the scene”……Johnny Mercer
Harry, you may enjoy mocking Mrs White, but if she ever decided to go into politics her views would gain her instant promotion in some parties – large and small!
Rape is totally reprehensible, but if a couple get blind drunk, wind up in bed having had sex, and she suddenly sobers up, how come when she cries rape it is the guy, who was equally plastered at the time, is the only one with any responsibility?
The pure as the driven snow idea is very romantic, but it bears little resemblance to the wiles of some of today’s ambitious females seeing an opportunity for fame and fortune.
Sherdy ….does Mrs White really exist? ..or is she a character that someone made up? Don’t get me wrong, there are enough crazies out there to vote for her alright, whether fiction or not . This place has been politically sustained by a political family tree of absurd individuals down the years. As for rape…well sure we’re not all as pure as the driven snow but that wasn’t what we were talking about .We were talking about how it is apparently the woman’s fault for encouraging someone to rape her by the way she dresses.. Are you saying they all really want that secretly and only change their minds in the cold light of day ..simply out of shame or malice? Sure …people will lie about anything and everything ..even to themselves …and a few will defame an innocent person. That doesn’t mean that everyone is like that. It takes quite a brave or very manipulative woman or man to actually approach a police station and make a complaint after the event.I don’t think many do that lightly and without a just reason. .
Paddy, we have enough problems with frictional politicians without you introducing the idea of fictional ones. Though possibly if they were fictional they would do less harm.
The point I was trying to make about rape is that when you have two drunks equally inebriated, can it be a good law which says the male is automatically guilty?
But don’t try to read into what I said anything other than what is exactly on the page, as I’m sure you’re aware, trying to interpret people’s thoughts is a real nightmare which I am not brave/foolish enough to step into the middle of.
Mrs white did enter politics once. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/this-woman-wants-homosexuality-criminalised-adultery-made-illegal-and-rock-groups-banned-and-now-she-wants-your-vote-30275867.html
She did garner 67 votes though
This is great Paul G….As they are fond of saying, ….you couldn’t make it up ….So my take on it is that she has a an extended family who all voted for her? That sounds about right.
…….” Mrs White’s campaign is based on 10 principles drawn up by Dr Alan Clifford, a Norwich-based minister whose anti-gay and anti-Islam rants have led to police investigations in the past.”…..
I think we can all agree that rape is an unpleasant business- to say the least but a line has to be drawn between “normal” rape and the rape of men (by men) and children which is perverse and wrong by any standards. However it’s not totally about power. A sense of responsibility must come into it. If you get a skinfull and put on a GAA top and then wander into a loyalist drinking den, I think you must bear a certain responsibility for what will happen. If I was an attractive girl,sitting putting my make up and nice clothes. Would it ever cross my mind to be careful. Young people go out to get blitzed and to he’ll with the consequences. That’s life here and now. Most of the girls don’t get raped but some do. Why?
Fiosrach, what is “normal” rape? .
Where one adult takes sexual advantage of a different sex adult. Children and same sex I count as grievious bodily harm
I see the argument your trying to make here fiosrach but regardless what a girl chooses to wear a man who then decides to attack and rape her is solely to blame and the girl is the innocent party. To also think that rapes only occur because a girl is wearing attractive clothing is simply not factual. Many women who dress “appropriately” have been sexually assaulted. Many rapes occur during home robberies too.
We live in a democracy, we should all be allowed to dress whatever way we want without fear of being attacked, that includes women too. No woman “asks” to be raped due to how shes dressed, that’s the kind of argument that you would hear being championed in places like Saudi Arabia…..
I’m not sure that you really believe what you just wrote Fiosrach.I sort of hope that it isn’t the case but I could be wrong. Let’s get it clear…there is no such thing as “ordinary rape” . It’s something like an oxymoron. Rape is an act of violence against someone else… against their will… and the age and sex of the victim are not what it’s all about..
The act is not a “normal ” part of our social order in any way. It is an invasive violent thing to do to someone against their will. The victim doesn’t want it to happen…and that could be an ex-husband assaulting his estranged wife ..even though they had regular sex many times before they broke up.That’s the straight deal It’s unwanted…..Anything else we can argue about the details …but that is what it is .
There may be mixed signals of course but that is a personal perception and that perception may be completely out of kilter…as you say with drink or drugs onboard. As you say , the assailant may have had a skinful …but then again who can perform the sexual act itself with that quantity of grog in your belly? …an amount to make you otherwise an imbecile but still otherwise priapic .
Also ..you’re basically saying that the poor wee lamb may get himself hammered senselessly and didn’t know what he was doing.anyway. i’d say that people can do many foolish things but really they are still responsible for the things that they do, should that be drinking until madness…. otherwise who would let them out on the streets .We’d all be in danger from them. Some women get raped simply because there are people out there who think it is perfectly acceptable to act like a barbarian if they think they can get away with it …just like there are bullies of any kind who do get away with all kinds of violent behaviour until they are caught . They don’t all look like Jimmy Savile or Gary Glitter either ..but their opportunism is the same.
Yep. Agree with most of that,paddy