Well, here we go. Another blog from a stupid feminist, ranting about things that don’t matter. Doesn’t she know that there is equality between the sexes now? I mean, women have the vote and everything. They can even be Prime Minister. If anything, it’s gone too far, what with all this Me Too stuff, men are now frightened to even look at a woman.
Do you believe all that? I’d love to. I’d love to think that it’s all true but today, is a bad day for women because two things have happened that make me question our world.
Firstly, our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has pulled off a master stroke of hepeating. He’s come back from Brussels saying, “Look, I’ve negotiated a deal with the EU, aren’t I clever?” It’s the deal Theresa May negotiated but a bit worse but never mind because he’s a man and people will listen. Actually, I do t know if they’ll listen because it’s Brexit and the whole thing is messed up.
I’m only talking about that to avoid the thing that has really upset me: The Paul Gascoigne sexual abuse trial. He was found ‘not guilty’, so he didn’t do it, right? Get off his case, leave him alone, stop picking on him, some women are just trouble makers; jumping on a man’s fame.
Except...
I’ve been following this case from early on and I do not understand how the verdict has happened, unless the world hates women.
Paul Gascoigne, troubled ex-footballer and supposedly reformed alcoholic was on a train, smelling boozy and slurring his words, when he, uninvited, sat on a young woman’s lap and kissed her “forcibly and sloppily” on the lips leaving her “very shaken”. She reported it to the police and witnesses told them who the man had been (she was too young to know of his fame, I presume).
When the police turned up at his house he said, “I know what this is about. It’s because I kissed a fat lass.”
Cut and dried, I thought. He assaulted her, he admitted it and there were witnesses.
It goes to trial.
People take their children to stand outside the court to get his autograph. What? Yes, really. Come on, don’t be so sensitive. Everyone wants a famous footballer’s autograph. But he’s on trial for sexual assault? Oh, that? It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.
He stands in the witness box and says that he absolutely did do it but he only did it to boost her confidence. What? When I was twenty a drunk man sticking his tongue down my throat on the train would have made me feel so much more confident. I’d have suddenly known it was safe to walk sown dark alleys alone at night! Then he says that it wasn’t sexual. Right! It’s just a kiss. Stop being so sensitive. Kissing isn’t sexual at all, you kiss your granny, right? Probably, not like that and not without some clue that you are going to do it, like saying “Bye Nan, take care, see you next week.”
The jury agree with him. He cries a bit, smirks and thanks his dentist, who has explained the slurring by suggesting ill-fitting dental work. His fans cheer. Men go on twitter to lambast the poor girl, who is now called a complainant, rather than victim.
Let’s think about how this would have worked with a different crime and a non famous person. Fred the burglar cleans out your house, your neighbours see him and when the police go round he says, “I know why you are here, it’s about number 42.” On trial he says that it doesn’t matter because all the stuff he stole was shit. The jury would obviously let him off then.
His feelings trump hers. He is a man. He is famous. He is more important.
The message is that it’s fine for a man to launch himself at you with no warning and put a part of his body in yours, as long as he didn’t mean it sexually. It’s absolutely ok for him to admit to it, as long as he can come up with a good story afterwards. Your feelings matter a lot less than his.
It’s definitely a bad day day for women.
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