***
I am especially depressed today, because of 2 things I read in the news:
1)
According to PAVE (the centre for Promoting Alternatives to ViolencE), it seems the only form of relationship abuse is male-on-female.
However, what was even worse was:
2) Australian accused of molest walks free
"Mr Woodburn was also charged with insulting her modesty by showing her his middle finger at about the same time"
In Singapore, you can insult a woman's modesty by showing her your middle finger.
This is doubtless Section 223 of the Penal Code: Word or gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman, but so far it'd mostly been used to prosecute upskirt cases.
Being jailed for 2 weeks for kissing a woman's hand and 6 months for holding "on to her left shoulder to get her attention" and then kissing her hand was bad enough, and 2 weeks in jail for sending lewd SMSes possibly worse, but we're now plumbing new depths.
I think I'll go cry in the toilet now.
Given that I'd promised that "If GST doesn't rise within a year of the election (Polling Day) I'm donating my $400 pork-barrel money to charity", and it looks like it won't (not least from what I've heard from Civil Servant friends), I was reflecting on which charities I should gratify.
If AWARE protests about either of these cases within the next week, I shall allocate part of it to a cause they would surely approve of. Given how concerned they were about Section 157(d) of Evidence Act ("which makes it possible to discredit an alleged sexual assault victim through her sexual history"), surely they would be eager to show that just a woman of "generally immoral character" can still be sexually assaulted, the female character is not so vulnerable that it can be sullied by the display of the middle finger (or indeed a chaste kiss on the hand). The two are fruits of the same logic, so if you're opposed to one you should also denounce the other.
(for the record, I doubt this will come to pass, since people fight harder for their interests than others' rights, but I will check next week anyway)
Addendum: I gave AWARE an additional 2 days but of course nothing appeared on their website.
Naturally they were too busy bitching about women in advertisements, focusing on a feminist perspective and ignoring a female one.
Suggested alternative perspectives (some of them female):
- women sexualise and objectify themselves
- women have fantasies of submission
- people do not mindlessly ape what they see in the media
- women like men to buy them drinks
- girls just want to have fun