why women are victims and men are suspects

At 5:30 a.m. in Springfield, Virginia, a woman was cutting through a stranger's yard, whereupon (for reasons best known to her), she looked into the window of the house and saw the guy who lived there, making a cup of coffee in the nude. She called the cops, who actually came and arrested him.

For being naked in his own house in the wee hours of the morning.

Michele Catalano takes a close look at the case, and she has some good questions:

What if the tables were turned? What if Williamson were a woman and a man walked by the house instead of a woman? What if that man happened to look into the window, staring long enough to see that the woman inside was naked? Would he call the cops to say he was flashed? Probably not, because he would end up in handcuffs for being a peeping Tom. A woman looks in on a naked man and thinks he is committing a crime. A man looks in on a naked woman and she thinks he is committing a crime. Weird how that works.

So now Eric Williamson is branded a criminal, a pervert, a flasher. Even if he did walk to another window as the mother was walking, the mother was trespassing. She had no right to expect that she would be shielded from anything going on in the house, nor did she have any right to be close enough to the window to look in on a man making coffee.

Yes, it is weird how that works. It's a double standard, and I've commented on it before.

As it happens, the complaining "victim" also happens to be the wife of a local police officer, which probably explains why her call was taken seriously.

The moral lesson here is that only women can be victims of nudity when they trespass. No trespassing man looking in a window would ever be likely to seen as a victim. That's because males occupy the suspect role, and women have the victim role.

A man who took a shortcut through someone's yard would inherently be a suspect -- regardless of the attire or the sex of the resident. I consider any stranger I see walking through my yard to be a suspect. However, I would assume that the police would take a call from me more seriously if I complained about a man walking through my yard than a woman walking through my yard. Is this sexist? Sexual profiling? I don't know, but it is just the way the world works.

And if I were to cut through someone's yard (especially at 5:30 a.m.) and see a guy naked inside, I'd feel a little ashamed of myself for invading his privacy. It would never, ever, in my wildest dreams occur to me to call the cops, and I would expect to be laughed (or worse) at if I did. If I saw a naked woman, I'd run, for I would expect her to call the cops. And if I saw a naked adolescent girl, I'd run even faster, lest I be accused by her mother of stalking a child.

While none of this is fair, it's the way the world works.

Men are evil and perverted, and women are victims and innocent.

On this point, right and left tend to agree.

posted by Eric on 10.25.09 at 10:55 AM





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Men are evil and perverted, and women are victims and innocent.

Which is why the next step would be to classify this offense as a hate crime.

I'm sure they'll find a way.

Patrick in Des Moines   ·  October 25, 2009 06:14 PM

The relevant fact is the woman's personal relation with Law Enforcement. She was outraged;her friends arrested a man who was doing nothing.

That's corruption. That is why police are not held in the same high regard they hold of themselves.

Brett   ·  October 29, 2009 09:11 AM

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