Let’s go back to 1945…
Let’s not… Let’s play a game called “Context Matters!”
That picture on the left, so iconic and romantic? Yeah, that’s a sexual assault right there. That man was a stranger, a strong stranger who grabbed a random woman on the street, and “kissed” her. In her words:
Suddenly, I was grabbed by a sailor. It wasn’t that much of a kiss… “I felt that he was very strong. He was just holding me tight. I’m not sure about the kiss…it was just somebody celebrating. It wasn’t a romantic event.
That picture on the right, the one that looks like a man holding a woman down in the mists of a riot, her clothes disheveled as he kissed her hard? That man is her boyfriend. He’s comforting her. Her real attackers are the police. An eyewitness stated:
The girl who was knocked over landed head first on the pavement with her boyfriend landing partially on top of her. She was in visible pain, crying, but the two officers gave them a parting shove and moved on.
The left picture: an icon of sexism, male privilege, and female objectification.
The right: real love in the face of brutal state force.
Fuck 1945
