Tuesday, August 22, 2006
"admiring"?
i read this article in the train station over the weekend.
and i find it troubling. and i'm also having trouble articulating exactly why, but i guess it has something to do with the simplicity of the story presented. this guy "admired" a passing woman? he "liked the woman" (and, if you check out the sentence, the self of the woman seems oddly equated with her hairstyle)? "'it's not a crime to say hello to someone'"?
it's not that those statements are false, it's that they bear the weight of some suspicion, which should have been investigated--or at least copped to. it isn't a crime to say hello to someone, but neither is it necessarily an unagressive act for a man to call out to a woman on the street. it isn't that this Mr. Buckle is an evil mysogynist, and certainly not that he deserved an assault--it the absolute lack of interest in examining the acts reported in a way that would at least acknowledge the complexity of issues of gender and power.
and it's that after reading this (via sheila, via daisey) a certain amount of equalibrium was restored by this story in which, for once, it was the person with the vagina who inflicted the damage. and it's that even though it's kind of ugly, i do wish a lot of times that the men who talk to me on the street might think that i have a steak knife in my purse, and that i might have less compunction than they'd assume about using it.
please, no comments about how evil i am for wanting to stab someone. i'll stipulate to it.
and i find it troubling. and i'm also having trouble articulating exactly why, but i guess it has something to do with the simplicity of the story presented. this guy "admired" a passing woman? he "liked the woman" (and, if you check out the sentence, the self of the woman seems oddly equated with her hairstyle)? "'it's not a crime to say hello to someone'"?
it's not that those statements are false, it's that they bear the weight of some suspicion, which should have been investigated--or at least copped to. it isn't a crime to say hello to someone, but neither is it necessarily an unagressive act for a man to call out to a woman on the street. it isn't that this Mr. Buckle is an evil mysogynist, and certainly not that he deserved an assault--it the absolute lack of interest in examining the acts reported in a way that would at least acknowledge the complexity of issues of gender and power.
and it's that after reading this (via sheila, via daisey) a certain amount of equalibrium was restored by this story in which, for once, it was the person with the vagina who inflicted the damage. and it's that even though it's kind of ugly, i do wish a lot of times that the men who talk to me on the street might think that i have a steak knife in my purse, and that i might have less compunction than they'd assume about using it.
please, no comments about how evil i am for wanting to stab someone. i'll stipulate to it.
