Posts by Lucy Stewart
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. I got so mad when One News referred to it as a "sex romp" last night.
And this would be why I've just given up on the TV news. It's just a glossy colour version of what I heard on National Radio at 7am, only with less content and more ew factor.
It was funnier than I've recounted here.
Sounds pretty funny as is, really. A sad state, indeed. *g*
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Just to be devils advocate here,Lucy, What would the Sun call her. You don't know her name ,do you?And I'm sorry but that is all it is so far, a Sex allegation.
You can be damn sure that if she was an accountant or a factory worker that wouldn't be mentioned. It would be perfectly acceptable to refer to her as a woman, teenager, girl - but, no, it's lapdancer all the way.
It's a rape allegation, which is somewhat different from a sex allegation. Making no judgements on the veracity thereof, to refer to it as a "sex allegation" is incorrect. That's not what has been alleged. And using the two phrases interchangeably conflates sex and rape in a way that they shouldn't be conflated.
The thing is, by making language changes like this the Sun creates an aura of saucy titillation around the whole thing - sex allegations! with a lapdancer! oooh! - which is totally inappropriate to the actual investigation. I don't think anyone here is willing to judge guilt or innocence based on what we know, because we don't know anything substantive. Or anything at all, really. But that doesn't mean we can't critique the media representation of the case.
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The names of the four players are now public though the matter remains confused.
And the Sun keeps it classy as always by describing them as being at the centre of "sex allegations", and consistently referring to the girl by her profession. Charming.
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"I tell you what, we are martial arts people, we know how to defend ourselves - a chair, a dustbin -anything can be a weapon"
Going by personal experience, the chosen weapon of Asians practicing martial arts (at least in Christchurch) actually tends to be the sabre. Unless they're cruelly forced into picking up an epee.
Mind you, that might just be the ones I know.
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I volunteer the guy who started that Asian crime-fighting group. He seems pretty eager to shoot someone.
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Yup -- because, Lucy, I just don't believe that kind of behaviour just comes out of the ether. Look at it this way, I go to work and am expected to meet various standards of professional conduct, not least among them I don't harass, intimidate or assault my co-workers in any way, shape or form. Also, there's a pretty reasonable expectation that if I'm representing my employer in public one doesn't act like the world's biggest walking rectum.
Fair enough. It was just a bit startling in an otherwise very sensible sentence when coming from the context of the other "our players are being attacked" comments. Your explanation makes somewhat more sense.
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The way the players are treated?
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Yeah, and unfortunately the major thing likely to dissuade her from making a complaint, assuming there's one to be made, is that the English press will doubtless orchestrate a smear campaign in favour of "our poor boys".
Probably not unlike the one that's starting to emerge already - although it's been directed so far mostly at our country in general, rather than the girl in particular.
It's probably worth bearing in mind here that Britain has an appallingly low rate of convictions for rape - 5.6% of cases prosecuted result in conviction. And half of those convictions stem from guilty pleas. It doesn't suggest a particularly enlightened attitude towards victims of rape (alleged or otherwise.)
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But l do think men are responsible for their own actions.
That was kind of my point; that men are responsible for their own actions, and the women-as-gatekeepers thing is a damaging myth because it tells a story where all men want sex all the time and so can't be held really responsible where sex is involved. And it's damaging because it's _completely untrue_.
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I'd like to think that consent is more readily communicated and understood within a relationship (perhaps not always) however it almost certainly isn't with someone you hardly know and under the influence of booze. In these instances, and god knows how many relationships start in this fashion, any doubt ought to cool your ardour.
Yes, that.
BTW, this brave new world of no mutual drunkenness and filling out consent forms before sex sounds like a pretty horrific one to me.
I don't know, this one where drunk sex with strangers is good clean fun and god knows how many unplanned pregnancies, STD infections, and rapes occur because of it is pretty horrific for me. And generally speaking, it's not even going to be risk-taking for good sex.