With his insistence on the importance of "virtuous women" in society, Bh kicks off his descent into what can only be described as broad scoping and very dangerous ignorance. The entire article is a tapestry of slut shaming, victim blaming and racism stitched together with terrible semantics and bad jokes. And yet, when asked for comment on the backlash he has so far received, he doesn't understand what he's done wrong?
Well today is your lucky day, Colin. I'm here to set you straight.
Proceeding from the aforementioned necessity of virtuous women for the continued stability of nations, Bh moves that the laws recently passed were lacking the reviewal and critique of what he calls "mature sincere males" a group we can only hope he does not include himself in. Because, obviously if there are flaws in something it's because a man wasn't involved right? Separately, I would like to privately move that perhaps one of these faultlessly wise "mature sincere males" should have intervened before Bh's article was published in the first place, since it's entirely impossible that they were present in the editorial process. But I digress. Carrying on down the mountain of future material for letters of apology our faithful narrator takes us further down the rabbit hole and discusses a quaint little anecdote whose validity I cannot vouch for but nonetheless must critique:
But then you follow it with rape apologism used to support a theory that was homophobic at best, and then here I am, ripping my hair out trying to understand what kind of person writes these things down and doesn't immediately rip up the paper, what kind of person thinks these things and doesn't try to just forget it, and worse than that, what kind of editors would read this filth and deem it suitable for mass consumption. Because you and the editors who allowed your garbage to be published are hallmarks of the institutionalised misogyny that permeates every facet of culture in Belize. You prove that even the media supports this disgusting way of thinking and you exemplify why it will continue to be unsafe for women in our country because when the media at one of it's highest levels appears to promote violence against women, what is safe?
Rape is rape and rape is heinous. It doesn't matter how many sexual partners the victim had beforehand, it doesn't matter if the victim is male or female (although the statistics prove that female rape is more of an endemic), it doesn't matter how she dresses, it doesn't matter if the rapists thinks she was "provoking him." If a crime is visited upon an innocent party, and your response is to tell the woman that she was "entirely whorish, so the act is of little consequence," then Colin Bh, my rebuttal is simple; you are entirely ignorant, so the act of me bashing in your skull is of little consequence.
If the Amandala wishes to remain a respected media outlet and salvage what little respect is still allocatable for them they will sever all ties with columnist Colin Bh, because unless they wish to have themselves forever aligned with someone who believes that there are any positive results possible from rape of any kind there is no other option. It is dangerous to allow someone to publish ideas that could even slightly (though there was nothing slight about Bh's tirade) seem to be supporting violence against women. Keeping him on would both be a terrible business move and socially irresponsible. In any other country, Bh would have already been booted out the door upon his first draft reaching the spell checker. This man no longer deserves his soap box. It's time to take it away.
*bolded for emphasis
The other day a man couldn't resist a girl with a very sexy behind, and he patted her on that part. Now, every red-blooded male in this land has, at some time, and maybe numerous times, have had to exert some major restraint around some very sexy girl. Can you believe that the man went to jail?! Sometimes I wonder wherefrom our women get their counselling. Because the sexy female in the sexy attire exerts a magnetic pull on the male (it's in our genetic code), the conscious mind does not have to tell the hands to touch. Of it's own instinctively, the hand moves. The conscious mind has to intervene and tell the hand: whoa, don't do that!In which Colin Bh, a nationally published columnist stipulates that men are nothing but their animal desires and are entirely governed by hormones and testosterone, making the choice not to infringe upon the personal liberties of another human being something very difficult - something you should be proud you can do (because men are red-blooded animals who are hard wired to chase skirts dontchaknow!). That, to me gives men too little credit and were I on the other end of the gender spectrum, I would be furious that someone deigned to portray me in such a barbaric light. But it's in the genetic code to be a lecherous perv, Samantha! No. It's not. There is no genetic excuse to support the pat on the back you want to give yourself for respecting someone. You don't get a cookie for not grabbing a strangers ass. You don't get a trophy for exhibiting basic human decency. It's not hard to not molest someone and if it really is that hard for anyone, their continued presence in society is terrifying.
Of course it is not our right to touch. The little girl is off limits and the big girl has to give permission. Yes, the male is in severe error when he doesn't resist. But why do we have to go for fine and confine? A fine is no penalty for a rich man, so that's bogus. And incarcerating a person is one of the most inhumane punishments devised by man. The punishment for touching (fondling) has to be a good LASHING.Of course it is not your right to touch, but thank you for stating the obvious. I will grant to you your Foucauldian claim that imprisonment is an awful form of punishment, but that is all I will grant. If only we applied this type of logic to issues that were not chiefly womens'. Yeah theft is bad but prison is too serious a punishment! Yeah embezzling is bad, but they'd be able to pay the fine anyways. You know what actually is really bad? Molesting an innocent party. You know what is arguably worse? Deciding that something you have never and will never experience is not terrible enough to warrant a certain kind of punishment then proceeding to release a dangerous article about it. You know what is definitely worse than that? Involving racial 'humour' (this was an attempt at humour right?) in what was already a steaming pile of applied prejudices:
I have heard it being promulgated by some ignorant "black people" in the USA that lashing must be outlawed because it reminds of slavery. I say, lashing did not begin when slaves were taken from Mother African and brought to the New World. Aha, simple-minded "white people" in the USA are only too willing to yield to this back way thinking.If you're still with me folks, don't you worry, it gets better - and by better I mean it slowly descends to depths you would not think possible considering that at this point, we are already far below sea level. But we are still going lower. This article was the Marianna's trench of awful, and the submarine is descending, fast.
I can't believe that some of our women believe that there is no difference between stealing a young boy and stealing a young girl. (I heard Ms. Alpuche discussing this matter). I am sorry to be rude to our beautiful women, but unu noh di mek sense ya. I challenge them to find and present the parents who would say if they were faced with the decision of having their 12-year-old son molested by a thirty-year-old woman or their 12-year-old daughter molested by a thirty-year-old man, "give up the girl." It is impossible that these crimes carry the same penalty.
Rape is the most heinous of crimes and deservedly carries severe penalties.
If I were to change one thing about this article it would be to black out everything but that one line,"rape is the most heinous of crimes and deservedly carries severe penalties." This, Bh, is the only thing you got right, the only thing you didn't manage to cook the goodness out of using one part ink and two parts ignorance. This is the only thing you did not ruin.But the rape of a male by a male is more heinous than the rape of a female by a male. Consider that (1) the female might one day fall in love with the male; (2), the female provoked the immature/crazy male to commit this act; (3), it is a natural act; 94), the female might be entirely whorish, so the act is of little consequence.*
But then you follow it with rape apologism used to support a theory that was homophobic at best, and then here I am, ripping my hair out trying to understand what kind of person writes these things down and doesn't immediately rip up the paper, what kind of person thinks these things and doesn't try to just forget it, and worse than that, what kind of editors would read this filth and deem it suitable for mass consumption. Because you and the editors who allowed your garbage to be published are hallmarks of the institutionalised misogyny that permeates every facet of culture in Belize. You prove that even the media supports this disgusting way of thinking and you exemplify why it will continue to be unsafe for women in our country because when the media at one of it's highest levels appears to promote violence against women, what is safe?
Rape is rape and rape is heinous. It doesn't matter how many sexual partners the victim had beforehand, it doesn't matter if the victim is male or female (although the statistics prove that female rape is more of an endemic), it doesn't matter how she dresses, it doesn't matter if the rapists thinks she was "provoking him." If a crime is visited upon an innocent party, and your response is to tell the woman that she was "entirely whorish, so the act is of little consequence," then Colin Bh, my rebuttal is simple; you are entirely ignorant, so the act of me bashing in your skull is of little consequence.
If the Amandala wishes to remain a respected media outlet and salvage what little respect is still allocatable for them they will sever all ties with columnist Colin Bh, because unless they wish to have themselves forever aligned with someone who believes that there are any positive results possible from rape of any kind there is no other option. It is dangerous to allow someone to publish ideas that could even slightly (though there was nothing slight about Bh's tirade) seem to be supporting violence against women. Keeping him on would both be a terrible business move and socially irresponsible. In any other country, Bh would have already been booted out the door upon his first draft reaching the spell checker. This man no longer deserves his soap box. It's time to take it away.
Hey, because of space constraints I will withhold my comments on the penalties for sex with an underage person until next week.Here's hoping we never have to hear what he thinks about sex with a minor. That's all up to you, Amandala.
*bolded for emphasis
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