Viewing this posting an incident reported in the papers returned to my mind: a woman in Palm Beach filed suit against a man she claimed had raped her. The judge, being prompted to do so as a result of preliminary hearings, ordered her to come to the trial dressed as she had been at the time in question. Her appearance settled the case in the favor of the rapist.
On a spur of the moment I posted this as a comment to the original post. One of the readers replied:
"That judge was ignorant. You don't blame women and shame them for their clothing. You teach young men to respect women. God calls us to not be stumbling blocks to others even in the way we dress. But NEVER does God say it's okay to rape someone/sexually harass someone because their outfit was "asking for it". That judge you talk about made a horrendous judgement and I pray to God he does not judge like that normally."
The fashionably incessant invocation of God to protect us against the consequences of our mistaken choices and to do good for us is what gets me every time. He, indeed, is the highest authority, and not only does He call us on subjects as this reply contains but he is even more outspoken on morals, and on the mode of behavior necessary to let people live side by side in peace. The teaching of men, requested by this you writer, is up to you, as parents, and up to us, as the society in which we all live, and it is not to be limited to young men but naturally must include young women as well.
To point the way to modern and effective self help, a friend of the one who wrote this reply advised to get a gun and a concealed carry permit.
Yessss, way to go, Tommy. You're da man!
At first, I was tempted to respond and continue this thread, but then decided that FB was not the forum to use for sharing views on life. In the privacy of my Blog, I will step on but a few toes.
Some fifty five years ago a very popular song about an 'Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini' made the scene *. The title was also part of the chorus and there was an injunction in the rhymes: 'don't go near the water so your bikini won't get wet'. Coming up from the islands, I suppose, bikinis had just a little before that time appeared on the northern beaches and created endless controversies and some pleasant visions. When we went to the beaches, the far distant horizon over the sea was seldom in the focus of our eyes. There were always groups of girls strolling up along the shore, without aim, after a while turning around and strolling back, again without aim.
The philosophical meaning of the text should be clear to every thinking man and woman.
And the trend towards undress continues from beach wear to formal wear and all wear in between. Please get a picture of female celebrities attending gala affairs. To scramble an old metaphor: only the last shreds of modesty remain.
Even men are not unaffected. Just look at the tuxedoes worn with open collar and shirts unbuttened to the navel, perhaps a toupee on the chest.
Some women are indeed 'asking for it'. They can be seen lingering at street corners or are slowly strolling along side walks close to the curb and they are dressed exactly like our chaste, innocent, young girls who dash about as if they were going somewhere. That's how you can tell one from the other, sometime. Boys don leather chaps, hang toy guns from wide low slung belts and wear broad rimed felt hats drawn deep over their eyes in order to achieve - what? The very image of John Wayne and Jimmy Cassidy? I'm an old timer OK. Today it's spider suits and supermanT's and death masks and light sabers instead of old-fashioned guns. But it is the same, the young want to appear to be what they are not, but, perhaps, secretly or openly admire. Occasionally a boy gets shot in the street because he playfully drew his toy revolvers at the wrong time in front of a man with a real gun. The girls - ?
As for teaching men to respect women - the days of chivalry have vaned under the bright lights of women's lib, which prompts many women to abandon respect to men. Respect is a earned and deserved feeling extended from one person to another, not a constitutional right granted to part of the population only. The God we address so feel speaks of modesty. where is it?
I will not dwell on the presumptuous claim that the judge was ignorant. If ignorance enters the picture at all, it must be sought elsewhere.
* "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" is a novelty song telling the story of a shy girl wearing a revealing polka-dot bikini at the beach. It was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss and first released in June 1960 by Brian Hyland with orchestra conducted by John Dixon.)
No comments:
Post a Comment