Thursday, October 1, 2009

Roman Polanski. Where to begin?

OK, so I'm pretty left of centre.  That's right, lefty pinko hippie scum here.  I worship Noam Chomsky like the god that he is, have a small shrine to Barack Obama's election victory in my kitchen, and would happily do pretty much whatever Naomi Wolf tells me to.   

I regret that my first real post here is all gung-ho and law enforcement-y, but Roman Polanski RAPED a 13 YEAR OLD.  The fact that he managed to escape punishment for 32 years, and that he directed some pretty kick-ass movies doesn't change that fact.  He admitted to it at the time,was charged and convicted, and has since been quoted talking about how all men want to 'fuck young girls'.  Classy.  

The creation of this blog was in part due to a lengthy argument I had in another blog's comments section over the fact that a 13 year old's sexual history is not in fact relevant to any subsequent rape.  The guy with whom I was arguing kept returning to it, like 'but, but she had had sex already!  And it wasn't the first time she'd had champagne!  Clearly she tempted him, the little minx!  And, like, did you ever think about how hard it is for men when teenage girls dress like sluts?'  

Explaining to him that 13 year olds lack the capacity to consent, that in any case she hadn't consented to any sexual contact and that a 13 year old's sexual history makes her a victim of multiple rapes, not a slut made for one of the most pointless and creepy afternoons I've ever spent.  I gave up when it became fairly clear that he was simply looking for a forum for some pretty hard core misogyny.  

"What the fuck" is pretty much all I have to say about this.  That, and I hope that the victim has been able to heal - my heart goes out to her.  I hope to live to see a time when women and girls no longer have to deal with this rubbish, but sadly I'm not holding my breath.  

See Kate Harding's article at Salon on this - she is brilliant and way more articulate than I will ever be.  http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/ 

I'm fairly sure that nobody will ever read this, but....

The purpose of this blog is to provide me with an anonymous place in which to vent my spleen, since my ceaseless diatribes occasionally cross the line from impassioned to just plain crazy. 
Thank goodness for the internet, otherwise I'm pretty sure my patient and lovely family, friends, workmates and fellow public transport users would have revoked my talking privileges a long time ago.  

Rants to follow, also recipes, book recommendations and possibly YouTube videos of Boris Yeltsin dancing.