I have been very troubled by JCs writing in The Sun. I immediately got the GoT reference. And that's because I found that scene one of the most disturbing moments of TV I had seen. There are others, usually a rape scene, done all too well. Those and that scene, her walking having just had her hair roughly cut and stripped naked, paraded in that way made my stomach turn. It still haunts me, when I recall it, accidently or because it is presented, I feel a visceral unease. It was deeply unpleasant and although fiction I felt it summed up so much about hatred thrown at women. How we must be punished for doing what men do. thinking of it makes me feel vulnerable and afraid. It felt all too real and very possible, because this happens to women, metaphorically and physically.
For him to reference it and for that to be being used as an excuse has made me physically angry. I am appalled by it. Horrified it was allowed to be put into the public domain and all for money. It will have caused more men and sadly women to believe this level of hatred and violence is not only acceptable but normal. It will have validated many with whom misogyny is part of their every day, and may well have concreted the rationale for such a mindset for many more.
I am grateful to every person who has been as angry about it as me and has spoken out, including his daughter and I am in disbelief at anyone who can defend his words or the paper for allowing it to go to print. One prominent Headteacher and I think behaviour tzar has tried to minimise this. I have no respect for that view and cannot fathom why she waded in. I have seen girls come to school distress at their hair being cut as a punishment, I have talked to girls and women for whom being stripped has been used as a punishment, I have known the fear of just the threat of if can produce. How can anyone minimise the intent behind those words.
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