It's a natural fact
Ooh! Look-a there ain't she pretty!
Ooh! Look at her ain't that chick a beauty!
I like-a the dress, I like-a the hose,
I like-a the hat, get a load-a that pose!
"Ooh! Look-a there! Ain't she pretty!"
- Clarence Todd, Carmen Lombardo
Frequently quoted is Emma Goldman's clever admonition: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution!"
In the same spirit of hefting high the banner of fun-in-the-midst-of-seriousness, I would tweak Goldman's phrase: If I can't girl-watch, I don't want to be part of your 'progress.'
Some today are of the bent that any reference to attractiveness or sexuality, regardless of complimentary intent, is demeaning. An act of hostility.
The advocacy site StopSexualHarassment.org endorses a definition of harassment that groups mere "looks" with obvious potential offenses: “By looks, words, and gestures, the man asserts his right to intrude on the woman’s attention, defining her as a sexual object, and forcing her to interact with him.”- Micaela di Leonardo, author of “Political Economy of Street Harassment” (1981).
(All that, by merely looking?)
To the cause-fraught minds advocating such twaddle, each innocent and benign compliment equals 'hate-speech.' A wink is tantamount to a ravishing. (Think I'm exaggerating? 'Stare rape' is a phrase in present vogue among the grimly self-righteous.)
Two purported examples of girl-admiring men as victimizers turned up online not long ago.
The viral video "10 hours walking in New York City as a woman" captured street harassment. Producers betrayed their bias and undid the endeavor's soundness by packing innocent salutations under the harassment umbrella.
(Business Insider, the Daily Mail, and others now report that the video's starring stroller has filed suit against both the producer and "anti-harassment" group Hollaback! Shoshana Roberts is seeking "at least 500, 000," according to Business Insider, for unauthorized use of her image.)
A second viral video, "Drunk girl in public," portrayed calculating men seeking to take advantage of a sloshed damsel in distress on LA's Hollywood Boulevard.
Each apparently damning video was soon exposed as misrepresentative-by-design. Media sources as diverse as Slate and the Huffington Post were critical. And at least some actors who'd participated admitted the falseness.
That harassment abounds is a reality whose end cannot come quickly enough. (It hardly needs to be contrived.) But respectful regard has never been the fellow of predation. The two entertain distinct ambitions.
All facets of a woman should be esteemed -- no one to the slighting of another. Natural abilities, studied and honed qualities such as intellect, integrity, philosophical character, and professional accomplishment are to be acknowledged and respected.
And so, too, is beauty. It's a natural fact.
Ooh! Look-a there ain't she pretty!
Ooh! Look at her ain't that chick a beauty!
I like-a the dress, I like-a the hose,
I like-a the hat, get a load-a that pose!
"Ooh! Look-a there! Ain't she pretty!"
- Clarence Todd, Carmen Lombardo
Frequently quoted is Emma Goldman's clever admonition: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution!"
In the same spirit of hefting high the banner of fun-in-the-midst-of-seriousness, I would tweak Goldman's phrase: If I can't girl-watch, I don't want to be part of your 'progress.'
Some today are of the bent that any reference to attractiveness or sexuality, regardless of complimentary intent, is demeaning. An act of hostility.
The advocacy site StopSexualHarassment.org endorses a definition of harassment that groups mere "looks" with obvious potential offenses: “By looks, words, and gestures, the man asserts his right to intrude on the woman’s attention, defining her as a sexual object, and forcing her to interact with him.”- Micaela di Leonardo, author of “Political Economy of Street Harassment” (1981).
(All that, by merely looking?)
To the cause-fraught minds advocating such twaddle, each innocent and benign compliment equals 'hate-speech.' A wink is tantamount to a ravishing. (Think I'm exaggerating? 'Stare rape' is a phrase in present vogue among the grimly self-righteous.)
Two purported examples of girl-admiring men as victimizers turned up online not long ago.
The viral video "10 hours walking in New York City as a woman" captured street harassment. Producers betrayed their bias and undid the endeavor's soundness by packing innocent salutations under the harassment umbrella.
(Business Insider, the Daily Mail, and others now report that the video's starring stroller has filed suit against both the producer and "anti-harassment" group Hollaback! Shoshana Roberts is seeking "at least 500, 000," according to Business Insider, for unauthorized use of her image.)
A second viral video, "Drunk girl in public," portrayed calculating men seeking to take advantage of a sloshed damsel in distress on LA's Hollywood Boulevard.
Each apparently damning video was soon exposed as misrepresentative-by-design. Media sources as diverse as Slate and the Huffington Post were critical. And at least some actors who'd participated admitted the falseness.
That harassment abounds is a reality whose end cannot come quickly enough. (It hardly needs to be contrived.) But respectful regard has never been the fellow of predation. The two entertain distinct ambitions.
All facets of a woman should be esteemed -- no one to the slighting of another. Natural abilities, studied and honed qualities such as intellect, integrity, philosophical character, and professional accomplishment are to be acknowledged and respected.
And so, too, is beauty. It's a natural fact.
posted by DC Larson at
July 16, 2015
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