Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Eh

Oy this again
I don't want to be protected. I want to be able to protect myself (quite possibly with high kicking kung fu moves. This is why I like Black Canary so much).
Christian vlaues did not stop sexual exploitation from flooding the town square. That's why there's always been prostitution. And rape. Sure, it may have kept it out of sight and condemned the women more than the men, but..oh right..that's not good is it?
The chilvalric code kept politeness but maybe not respect? I'd rather respect.
I don't want a society where the solution to gender inequality is that women have to rely on men to protect them. I want a society where I am not at risk of being raped, or mugged, or threatened or leered at. I want a society where the words slut, whore, slag, etc are not insults. Because it shouldn't matter what a women does in her privtae life. having sex does not denigrate her status as a human being. And using these words as insults does denigrate women.

Right now I'd settle for comics and literature that show a wide variety of possible nasty things that can hurt women at night. And also shows these women turning to face their intended attackers and having some power.
Let me explain. Currently, when women in comics are walking alone at night, one or more men will turn up, leer at her, and make sexual violence threats to her. You know, they never wanna just mug her or beat her up. there's always the sexual undertone. And the women always scream and run. They never turn round to face their attacker and stand up for themselves to fight, or laugh in their face, or anything. Their role is to run away. Fine, in the real life I guess this happens a lot. But I am sick of reading of women as victim. Some women fight back you know.
Some women aren't victims. I read a story in a women's magazine a couple of years ago where this women 'talked her way out of rape'. She got in a dodgy cab, the faux taxi driver drove off in the wrong direction, she realised what was happening and screamed and yelled and took control. She didn't get raped. (I can't remember how she got out of the cab - I'm 99% certain she wasn't left in the middle of nowhere though.)
So you know, it does happen. we can take control.

So stop showing me fiction where women can't help themselves. That doesn't gel with my experience as a woman. And I don't get threatened with rape every time I go outside at night.

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