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This Week In The War On Women [1]
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Date: 2023-01-14
Violence and Exploitation
In this section I want to focus on two stories — the Air India incident where a man urinated on an elderly woman during an international flight, and the issues raised by the lawsuit filed by Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey over the nude bedroom scene in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet. Both stories deal with problems we have dealt with repeatedly in this series of vulnerability and power relationships.
Air India
On an international flight last November, a drunk man (a bank executive who has since been fired) went over to an elderly woman’s seat and urinated on her. Through the rest of the flight, the crew futher abused the victim by making her face the man against her wishes, and by keeping her uncomfortably seated (ending up back in the same seat) although there were empty seats in first class.
The woman’s account of the way the crew treated her is harrowing.
“I asked the staff for a change of seat but was told that no other seats were available. However, another business class passenger who had witnessed my plight and was advocating for me pointed out that there were seats available in first class,” the victim was quoted as saying in the FIR. After standing for 20 minutes, the victim was offered a small seat used by airline staff where she sat for about two hours. She was then asked to return to her own seat. When she refused, the victim was offered the steward’s seat for the rest of the journey, the FIR stated. ... Later, the flight staff informed the victim that the offender wanted to apologise to her. In response, she said that she did not wish to interact with him or see his face and wanted him to be arrested on arrival. “…However, the crew brought the offender before me against my wishes and we were made to sit opposite each other in the crew seats. I was stunned when he started crying and profusely apologising to me, begging me not to lodge a complaint against him because he is a family man and did not want his wife and child to be affected by this incident. indianexpress.com/...
It’s a frequent misunderstanding of Restorative Justice that we have seen in rape cases as well, that solutions should be negotiated between victim and perpetrator, no matter what the incident or the victim’s wishes, thus furthering the abuse.
The man has denied this, and accused the woman of urinating on herself. He is being held under 14-day judicial custody, and there could be consequences for Air India.
www.nytimes.com/…
But whether traveling on international flights or walking down the street, women have to be on guard, as always.
indianexpress.com/...
Romeo and Juliet
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, who at 16 and 15 starred in the 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet, have filed suit in Los Angeles for child sexual abuse, sexual harrassment, and fraud.
They claim Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, initially told them they would wear flesh-coloured underwear in the bedroom scene. But on the morning of the shoot, they allege the director told them they would wear only body make-up, while assuring them the camera would be positioned to not show nudity. In the final film, Whiting's bare buttocks and Hussey's bare breasts were briefly shown during the scene. Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude "or the picture would fail" and their careers would be hurt, the pair claim in the lawsuit. The actors "believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded". www.bbc.com/…
This brings up issues of power in Hollywood, but also of the exploitation of children and teens in films. Nudity feature in a number of movies both in Europe and the US for several decades, and of the ongoing sexualization of children. Here are some interesting articles considering these issues:
www.theguardian.com/…
www.theguardian.com/…
Other Stuff
An anthropological study of villages in Tibet and China looks at the different living arrangements upon marriage in different cultures and how they affect the fact that women work harder (measured in number of steps per day).
www.sciencealert.com/…
In England, there is concern that women’s maternity experiences have seriously declined.
www.theguardian.com/…
*****
As always, thanks to the WoW crew, this week including elenacarlena, Angmar, mettle fatigue, Tara TASW, and SandraLLAP.
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