Field Theory: The old mail bag
46 Responses
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I had not realised, until now, that sexual assault could be a feminist statement.
One learns so much in this community.
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Yeah, I had a teacher in high school who used to do that and I found it pretty infuriating. Maybe I deserved because I was a male?
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A high school teacher, Giovanni? That ain't right. I'm not saying I'm proud of what I used to do. It was the times, you know. Like, the 80's. Reclaiming The Night, All Men Are Rapists, and all that. I guess you had to be there.
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Never been a big fan of all men are rapists, I must say. The teacher in question was nearing 70 so in a way the thing was bizarrely a-sexual. However.
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I guess you had to be there.
I'm glad I wasn't. I have been sexually assaulted in that way and, y'know, I didn't come away with the impression that I was a rapist. In fact, it didn't make me think about the Patriarchy at all. I was to busy feeling sullied and humiliated, as sexual assault victims do.
Oh well, at least you enjoyed yourself.
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Like, the 80's. Reclaiming The Night, All Men Are Rapists, and all that. I guess you had to be there.
I was there in the 90s, and unifeminism put me off any kind of feminism for over a decade.
But.
Uni-aged people are not known for their appreciation of subtleties and how complicated issues can be. They tend to grab an ideology and cling to it - and it doesn't really matter what that ideology is. Analysis comes later, with age and space and perhaps feeling more secure about yourself. Jackie has admitted doing something then she's not proud of now. I've got a whole bunch of those somethings*: doesn't everyone?
*Mostly people, to be fair. -
Doubtless the dirty old men who grope schoolgirls also say they are doing their victims some good. To their credit, at least they do not redefine their lechery as political activism.
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Jackie is clearly not proud, or is that another bit of a double standard?
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Eh, I don't know. Anyone who grabbed me like that all of a sudden without my say-so* would likely get a swift kick in the shins, but I'm happy enough to accept that Jackie actually wouldn't do such a thing now and leave it at that.
I have done my very best not to mention turning the other cheek here. Not quite, eh?
*There is a tiny tiny chance that this might be applied retroactively, but if not you'll very likely be tending two sore shins on your own, is what I'm saying.
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Can of worms, anyone? Look. As I said, you really had to be there. It was all fun and games - for everyone concerned. I was somewhat kidding about it being part of my feminist philosophy. As someone who was a pretty consistent member of Unifem, you can take it from me, that very few of the wimmin I hung out with in that particular milieu would have countenanced even touching a man, let alone having a grope. You have to understand that almost 28 years ago, which is how long ago it was that I started university, there were alot of young men of my acquaintance who did not respect the space nor bodies of young women, especially. Some of them did. but they were the quieter ones - the Comp Sci chappies. And to be truly respected, or listened to, as far as I was concerned, to a certain extent you had to be somewhat kickass, and aggressive. (In actual fact, I was more thought of as one of the lads. I was even made an honorary engineer). In the world I lived in, a bit of friendly groping was neither here nor there. Rape was a little more about stranger danger than it is now, so you had to make sure that everyone knew you weren't easy pickings.Or you might be. Especially if you were as aggressively sexual as I was. Hence the outrageous, and certainly obnoxious, habit of grabbing a strange man's bottom from time to time. Were they shocked? Usually. But mostly the men I did it to thought it was hilarious at the time. If I had been a boss....but then in the early 80's in NZ, women didn't have that sort of power. A different time indeed. Proud of it? No. Ashamed of it? No, not particularly. Agree with Emma that when you are young, sometimes subtlety escapes you? Absolutely.
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You are no different from the men who commit similar assaults: you justify your behaviour by the times and you refuse to accept responsibility for your actions. Most of your victims thought it was hilarious. Those who thought otherwise can be forgotten. In any case, you can justify it as Feminist dialectic and protecting yourself from rapists. And of course, you are not proud of it, you just want to shout about it on two threads at once.
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Wow, this got serious without me noticing
Jackie has admitted doing something then she's not proud of now. I've got a whole bunch of those somethings: doesn't everyone?
Quite.
So we can probably agree that should Jackie attempt any pinching now she could get anything from an angry glare to a shin kicking, and definitely get a stern talking to. And I imagine that should Jackie be able to travel through time that she would tell her past self just that (after she assassinated Hitler or something).
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Yes. Thankyou Hadyn.
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Yes.
Sorry I had to assume you'd do the Hitler thing first. Me, I'd probably go see dinosaurs first because it's a time machine, I can get around to the important stuff whenever I want, right?
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Hope I didn't come across too crazy before - I'm pretty much in agreement with Hadyn and Emma, and will be considerate of peoples' shins in the event of future misunderstandings.
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S'okay Sam. You can come back in the time machine with me. I could grope, you could kick - even stevens.
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Heh, if we're talking 1981 I could join my grandparents on the HART protests and maybe even kick some people who deserved it. Do those time-travel helmets double for riot use?
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Do those time-travel helmets double for riot use?
You're still using the helmet model? How antiquated. Wait, can a time machine be antiquated?
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Ahem. Some of us were there, actually. And some of us did kick some coppy shins. Not me, I hasten to add. Now that was a complex situation. Can you imagine coming out of police college and finding yourself on the Red Squad, and in full blown riot gear?. Very scary shit.
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You're still using the helmet model? How antiquated. Wait, can a time machine be antiquated?
I'd assumed you'd want some kind of head protection whilst using said time machine. Can a time machine be antiquated? Depends what direction you're going in, I suppose - if you're going backwards it'd be behind the times and futuristic in context simultaneously... this is going to give me a Copyright Must Change-grade headache if I let it.
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My uni years were a litany of taking things too far, too seriously and too personally. If I had a time machine the first thing I'd do would be go back and hit myself upside the head and say "stop being such a DORK".
Then dinosaurs. And also rock and roll.
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