Despite adamant denial, there is somewhat of a feminist lurking deep within me and every now and then she tends to boil up to the surface and lash out at any perceived 'male-dictated' standards in society today.
The other evening as I was wandering around my apartment in my birthday suit it occurred to me that I was "unable" to walk passed the window for fear of exposing the top half of my body to my unsuspecting neighbours. It got me thinking, 'Why on earth should I have to cover up my body because a) someone might get offended and/or b) someone might be attracted to my breasts?"
How did we as humans turn so lusty and uncontrollable that the very sight of quite possibly the most natural aspects of the female human form must be shunned and hidden away out of some sort of bizaare notion of modesty? Since when did women have to cast away the very things that nurture and bring to life other humans? Why are men allowed to wander around topless and nobody looks twice at them?
Are female breasts really so sacred that they can only be exposed on special occasions? Haven't we just been brought up on a very archaic way of thinking that humans have "private parts" that must be concealed from the world, simply because that's just what we've always done in the past?
And it also got me thinking about the issue of the perception of slutiness and the way a woman dresses. I admit I was once guilty of thinking that women who dressed in revealing clothing should, for some reason or another, not be wearing such types of attire. But since then, my perception has very much changed and now I firmly believe that a woman who dresses as, or in fact IS, a "slut" has every right in the world to do so as it is her choice. What it is not is giving permission for people to perceive her as "asking for it" or making her deserving of rape.
Enter: Slutwalk. An annual march which started in 2011 as a protest against the argument that excuses/justifies rape on the basis of what a woman is wearing. In all honesty, I cannot comprehend that such a case would hold up in the court of law but unfortunately this mentality certainly does exist on the street. The precursor to this march was when a Canadian police officer suggested that, to remain safe, "women should avoid dressing like sluts." What a joke.
Let us examine the recent incidents in India and Ohio
where women were raped solely due to the reason of how they were perceived
by the men who raped them. The latter incident occurred when a young
woman, who had found herself in the company of a football team, was
repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted while she was unconscious and
the team, instead of realising that what they were doing was
actually WRONG, instead took photo's and videos and shared them on
social media sites because they thought it was FUNNY.
Again, the point here being that even though the woman may wear short, tight revealing clothing or sleep with every other guy in the world, sex is still a CONSENSUAL act between the parties involved, no matter anything else.
In essence I agree with the fundamental purpose of Slutwalk, which to me means that we should educate people that a woman has the right to wear whatever she wants without someone perceiving her as asking for sex. What we should be teaching is that men should NOT rape no matter what the circumstances are and modernising our perceptions as a whole on the overall appearance of women, and sex in general.
For example, I very much admire the fact that in Amsterdam the occupation of a prostitute is viewed as a legitimate and functional job. Dutch prostitutes are not shunned or cast out as black sheep due to their profession, rather they are seen to serve a purpose in society, much like the barman or a nurse does. When you pay a massage therapist for the massage, did they essentially just prostitute their hands?
We need to liberate ourselves from this deep-rooted and very stale (not to mention very religious) mentality that sex and all things associated with it are sacred and profane when in essence, sex is just as natural and as fun as eating and shitting.
So returning back to my initial point - it's just another chest, fuck you neighbours.
How did we as humans turn so lusty and uncontrollable that the very sight of quite possibly the most natural aspects of the female human form must be shunned and hidden away out of some sort of bizaare notion of modesty? Since when did women have to cast away the very things that nurture and bring to life other humans? Why are men allowed to wander around topless and nobody looks twice at them?
Are female breasts really so sacred that they can only be exposed on special occasions? Haven't we just been brought up on a very archaic way of thinking that humans have "private parts" that must be concealed from the world, simply because that's just what we've always done in the past?
And it also got me thinking about the issue of the perception of slutiness and the way a woman dresses. I admit I was once guilty of thinking that women who dressed in revealing clothing should, for some reason or another, not be wearing such types of attire. But since then, my perception has very much changed and now I firmly believe that a woman who dresses as, or in fact IS, a "slut" has every right in the world to do so as it is her choice. What it is not is giving permission for people to perceive her as "asking for it" or making her deserving of rape.
Enter: Slutwalk. An annual march which started in 2011 as a protest against the argument that excuses/justifies rape on the basis of what a woman is wearing. In all honesty, I cannot comprehend that such a case would hold up in the court of law but unfortunately this mentality certainly does exist on the street. The precursor to this march was when a Canadian police officer suggested that, to remain safe, "women should avoid dressing like sluts." What a joke.
Let us examine the recent incidents in India and Ohio
where women were raped solely due to the reason of how they were perceived
by the men who raped them. The latter incident occurred when a young
woman, who had found herself in the company of a football team, was
repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted while she was unconscious and
the team, instead of realising that what they were doing was
actually WRONG, instead took photo's and videos and shared them on
social media sites because they thought it was FUNNY.Again, the point here being that even though the woman may wear short, tight revealing clothing or sleep with every other guy in the world, sex is still a CONSENSUAL act between the parties involved, no matter anything else.
In essence I agree with the fundamental purpose of Slutwalk, which to me means that we should educate people that a woman has the right to wear whatever she wants without someone perceiving her as asking for sex. What we should be teaching is that men should NOT rape no matter what the circumstances are and modernising our perceptions as a whole on the overall appearance of women, and sex in general.
For example, I very much admire the fact that in Amsterdam the occupation of a prostitute is viewed as a legitimate and functional job. Dutch prostitutes are not shunned or cast out as black sheep due to their profession, rather they are seen to serve a purpose in society, much like the barman or a nurse does. When you pay a massage therapist for the massage, did they essentially just prostitute their hands?
We need to liberate ourselves from this deep-rooted and very stale (not to mention very religious) mentality that sex and all things associated with it are sacred and profane when in essence, sex is just as natural and as fun as eating and shitting.
So returning back to my initial point - it's just another chest, fuck you neighbours.
No comments:
Post a Comment