Back to the dark ages
Where do you draw the line when it comes to domestic violence? The Women’s Desk (see the opinion under ‘Taboo’ in the Letters to the Editor section) considers the Monday and Friday girl this newspaper publishes as something that crossed the line. We disagree.
The Women’s Desk describes one of these pictures as a “scantily dressed young woman” in a “very suggestive position.” The model in question is actually wearing a swimsuit and there is nothing scantily about it, let alone that our photographer let her take on a suggestive pose. The only thing different from other Monday or Friday girls is the angle from which the picture was taken.
So, for starters, we disagree with the suggestion that our pictures contribute to domestic violence and we’ll explain why we take this position.
In a free world, women and girls have complete liberty to dress the way they want. They are also at liberty to agree or disagree with a photo shoot. Our photographer does not put a gun to their heads.
But let’s look at this issue from the opposite angle: the situation of women in Muslim countries who wear clothing that covers them completely, like a niqab, a hijab, a burka, a chador or a dupatta.
In Western countries these Muslim outfits are seen as tools to suppress women. The clothing covers the hair, the shoulders and, like with the burka, everything but the eyes.
Does a girl who is wearing a mini skirt invite men to assault or rape them? We don’t think so. If a woman feels good in sexy clothing it is an expression of her personality, the way guys go for tattoos and those ridiculous hipster hair styles. Who cares?
If we go down this road, telling girls to dress ‘modestly’ we’d be following guidelines from the Q’uran – but that is not the society we live in. It would limit the freedom women and girls have in our community and drive them back to Victorian times – if anybody still knows what that represents.
And then there is this: like a government cannot tell its people which language to speak, society cannot tell people – women and girls, men and boys – what clothes to wear or which photo shoots they agree or disagree with.
Sure, this newspaper could decide not to publish its Monday and Friday girls anymore but by doing that we would be going back to the dark ages – and we don’t want to be there.
On the other hand, we want to send a strong message to men that even the most provocatively dressed woman is not a free ticket to sexual assault. It is not an invitation for free sex, or a reason for a firm beating. Keep your hands where they belong: to yourself and – unless otherwise invited – keep your trousers zipped up.
