Looking at flogging in a different light...

[espnchick1920]

The Political is Sexual
by Laurie Fendrich

We’ve got so many problems at home right now that the last thing Americans want to think about is the predicament of women in faraway places. But if you’re at all like me, you were deeply shocked by the video of the flogging of the young woman in Pakistan that surfaced on the Internet last week. Look, it’s

Comments

[scorpio_msn]

I understand the human rights issue, but calling them sexual perverts for something that many Americans watch in BDSM films all the time in this country seems...well, way off base to me. I get that they don't usually much of any skin on women because of their strict religious views, but is it really a sexual perversion for a straight man to watch a woman get a spanking? A human rights perversion that they would all stand around and let this happen because she wasn't being obedient to the men in her society, but a sexual perversion? I don't think so. It's just that in my mind, perversion implies some type of crossing the line from healthy human sexuality to psycho illness like pedophiles.

Here's the difference...

[espnchick1920]

Even with BDSM, both participants are willing and the person to whom the pain is being inflicted derives some pleasure from it. Additionally, there is a cultural difference in that it is not considered a sin worth torture to show some skin. Seeing a breast or thigh might be temporarily tantilizing, there is no shock. In those cultures, even seeing a naked ankle is like OMG OMG OMG...PORN!!! But that's a digreesion. I still see a difference between this and watching BDSM.

That said...I didn't necessarily say I agreed wholeheartedly.It IS a different way of looking at it, though.

Re: You know I got something to say.

[scorpio_msn]

I understand the difference between BDSM and what happened here. My point is simply that watching this woman get flogged for violating their religious rules doesn't make them "sickos" and sexual perverts.

Re: You know I got something to say.

[espnchick1920]

My point is simply that watching this woman get flogged for violating their religious rules

Aw, but therein lies the rub. Typically speaking, what is the purpose of public punishment, whether religious or civic? People are punished publicly so that others may be dissuaded from engaging in similar behavior. This woman was flogged for being a WOMAN for violated religious rules. If her punishment was supposed to serve as a deterrent for other women, why were there no other women present? Why were there no children present? They hang men who are accused of being gay in full public view of women, men, and children. Yet, when it comes to a woman supposedly violating religious law and being punished for it, only men can witness it? When you ask that question, especially in light of the aforementioned cultural context (i.e. relative comfort with views of unclothed flesh), I think it becomes a bit easier to see the difference between normal, healthy BDSM and this situation.

[fa_ikaika]

as usual you lay down the science. How come I never friended you? Would that be OK?

[espnchick1920]

FRiend away, sweets! I'ma friend you too...