 ... In backward cultures, women are overprotected and invisible; so men lose all resistance to images--and all self-restraint. In downtown Kandahar, for example, a display of female ankle is proof of flooziness most damnable. In that world, men are rarely required to resist temptation. Consider this clip from Dubai TV, in which an Egyptian rapist on death row is interviewed:Rapist: Even if she's unmarried, or a little girl, when someone sees her short clothes, he will find the courage, and won't leave her alone. A girl like this makes a guy. . . .
Interviewer: She seduces him?
Rapist: Yes, she makes him take her, even if it's in the middle of town. Even if he has to kill or die, he will still take her. In the West, by important contrast, men modulate their behavior when faced with seductive images. They have to. Women judge them by their ability to do so. And they are trained, at an early age, to take responsibility for their own lust.
Everywhere, and rightly, there are limits. Paris Hilton is not selling herself: She is merely selling burgers. Tawdry though it may be, there is proof in all this of the distance we've traveled from a barbarous state. And there's proof, also, of the humor we've acquired along the way.
Mr. Varadarajan is editorial features editor of The Wall Street Journal.
| Ah, yes. I do love Paris. She has her own face. She is the only one out of the current crop of celebrity blondes I can pick out in a group photo. Other than being looked at, and the enthusiasm she brings to the bedroom, she seems to have no discernable talents. She is an unashamed ditz, which makes me suspect that behind the ill-clothed facade lies a cool intellect that laughs along with the rest of us at her antics while socking away dollars by the barrel. Wotta babe! |
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