A penalty of being good-looking




The story below is from Kate Jones (above), a former Queensland politician.  She is one of a number of women I have encountered or read about who say that their good looks are a curse in some ways, evoking inappropriate reactions from some men.  

A lot depends on perception, however. What is harassment?  I know well a self-confident and attractive lady who tells me that she deliberately wore short skirts while in her teens and early 20s.  She enjoyed the whistles and other reactions that it evoked.  She regarded them as compliments

Amid all the current furore about sexual harassment of women,the big question is whether the harassment is rare or common.  Amid all the propaganda about the matter, it is hard to tell. I am inclined to think that it is common where the woman is good-looking -- which is deplorable but probably unalterable

To say that "education" can alter the way men interact with women is a bit of a laugh.  Stalin thought that education could make a new Soviet man.  It didn't


It may help to understand the teenage Kate Jones story if you know that she had well-developed breasts from an early age. That was bound to attract frequent male attention, not all of it sophisticated. She hersef diagnosed that problem by having her breasts reduced when she was 20 -- a most regrettable recourse


From when I was 15 years of age, I could not walk out my front door without men calling out at me, ogling me and even following me. It was a daily occurrence.

Just walking down the Queen Street Mall I was approached to work in strip clubs and pornography with promises of big money.

I was still at school.

I was groped by colleagues, taxi drivers, driving instructors, customers and strangers.

Once I had completed school and was a little older it just got worse and more brazen.

Having the operation gave me the opportunity to be seen and heard as a person for the first time. It was truly liberating.

That’s why when I started my first ministerial office job at 21, with my new-found confidence, I was gutted when an older and more senior advisor who worked for another Minister, started sexually harassing me.

I felt betrayed that this was happening even in government. That even in this professional environment which should be the benchmark that I couldn’t count on this behaviour being in my past.

I realised it would instead be very much a part of my future that I would have to continue to cope with like so many other women.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/i-could-not-walk-out-my-front-door-kate-jones-shares-harassment-pain/news-story/13b698a8cef6948cacdf4addf92aea85

1 comment:

  1. There are men who do drag their knuckles around and do dumb s*it for a living. There are men who are quite reasonable but sometimes do stupid s*it. There are also evil men who do despicable and horrible things to women.

    Men tend to be obvious in their ways and in their errors. What is obvious is plain for the eye to see, which becomes plain for the mind to understand and plain to convey to others in order for them to become aware of something. Women on the other hand tend to be subtle in their errors and manipulative. This fact leads to a an interesting question, which sex is more likely to be held accountable for their misdeeds? As far education goes, it is easier to self-correct what is obvious rather than what is hidden and out of view.

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