All the best people are born in October but let's be honest, we're not great decision makers. It can take my friend and I (whose birthdays neatly sandwich David Cameron's) weeks to decide on a date when we can go out for a meal. "I don't mind. What do you think?" It's supposed to be a trait of those born under the sign of Libra that we can see all sides and therefore find it difficult to make a decision.
Too often, I see all sides and just end up feeling confused. I'm quite confused about the whole Jimmy Saville thing. I'm confused that it seems to have been a surprise. I always thought he was a dirty old man and I think there were lots of dirty old men around when I was growing up. Old men seemed to like young girls. There were girls in my year at school who were thrilled to have 28 year old boyfriends, who would pick them up from school in their cars. I think that they were just dirty old men. These days they would be described as predatory paedophiles. I think that's a good thing because it would stop girls thinking they were wonderful. Or would it? Do girls still go all giddy at the thought of being bought a drink, or nice things by a bloke with a car? They probably do. The girls that had 28 year old boyfriends weren't stroppy feminists like me. They just wanted someone to love them.
When I was at University a teacher made me feel very uncomfortable. He made jokes and told me I was beautiful and that I reminded him of his wife when she was younger. Nothing wrong with that. He was just being friendly, right? My personal tutor told me I should be flattered. He said that I must be talented because no lecturer would make a pass at a less than able student just in case they were accused of giving higher grades for sex. "SEX? Who mentioned sex? I just said he made me feel uncomfortable.!" A few months later, another girl was dating him and she was very pleased with herself. We were over age. He hadn't done anything wrong but I think he was a dirty old man.
Another dirty old man interviewed me for a job once. He locked his door after he showed me in and then he pointed at a chair on the other side of the room and asked me to put all my clothes in it. Being blessed with a healthy dose of logic I just sat in the other chair. I did wonder what other candidates had done. He said, "No one has ever got that as quickly as you did," and I swear he looked disappointed but maybe he was just looking for the most logical candidates.
I'm glad the world has changed. I'm glad Benny Hill shows aren't on the television any more. I'm glad we think there is more to women than how they look or the size of their breasts. But the world hasn't changed much. We still have page 3 and despite a campaign to get it removed from the Sun it is women who are standing up and saying that it's a woman's right to expose herself and earn loads of money for it. An ex- page 3 model on the TV said, "Children don't see breasts as something sexual. It's perfectly natural. When I get out of the bath my children don't think anything." Unfortunately, I've never seen a picture of a woman just getting out of a bath on page three. I think they are normally sticking their tongue out, playing with the elastic of their knickers and flicking their hair. There is usually a news in briefs piece next to it, implying that the young woman is too stupid to really have any true opinion on the news.
So maybe, I'm not very confused about these issues. I want women to be free to say, "No," to dirty old men. I want them to feel as though they are enough without these men. I want men to enjoy an equal companionship with women. I want women to be in school in every country in the land. I want people to support tomorrow's 'Day of the Girl Child.' and I'm going to sign the petition to remove boobs from page 3.
Petition against page 3 of the Sun
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