Latte Leftie weighs in on the thorny issue of how to deal with inappropriate behaviour from a non-white, heteronormative male
Dear LL – When I came back to work following a holiday down the South Coast a male co-worker remarked,
“That tan looks lovely on you, Clem.” Now normally I would, of course, scurry off to HR to have said co-worker immediately sacked for sexual harassment. Then go to the police to see if I could get him charged with verbal rape. Then launch a social media hate campaign so thousands of my sisters could eviscerate this patriarchal tyrant online and post about how his remark demonstrates all white men are entitled, woman-hating, slut-shaming evil-doers. However, most inconveniently, this guy is the son of Pakistani migrants leaving me wondering whether my cosmopolitan commitment to multiculturalism outweighs my feminist responsibility to fearlessly call out rapey activity wherever I imagine I see it. Your thoughts?
Clementine, Annandale
LL replies: Are you insane, you disgusting Islamophobe? Do you want to be responsible for setting off another VB-fuelled bogan race riot in The Shire? Are you happy to facilitate the Bolter smugly proclaiming, “I told you so” in the Hate Press? And could you live with yourself if you were responsible for Pauline Hanson riding an anti-immigration backlash all the way into the Lodge? I demand you forget this alleged incident ever took place. In future, how about showing some cultural sensitivity and wearing a niqab 24/7 rather than risk flaunting your seductively dusky epidermis in front of those with different but equally valid cultural values? Granted, there are difficult conversations to be had about the paradox of being a womynist, pro gay marriage Greens voter who also wants to import large numbers of unreconstructed men who see nothing out of order about throwing homosexuals off buildings or stoning to death women who go out unaccompanied in public. But those conversations must be avoided at all costs. Now let us never speak of this matter again.
