Wednesday, September 24, 1997
Letters
Issue exposed
Few, if any, feminists have denounced the Ontario Court of Appeal's ruling that,
unlike men, women do not have the legal right to publicly expose their breasts for
a sexual or commercial purpose; in fact, many feminists have specifically expressed
support for it.
These hypocrites are only selectively opposed to discrimination against women; they
are advocates of limited, rather than complete, legal equality of the genders.
What they are primarily opposed to is the abolition of gender-based discrimination
against female sex-trade workers; they do not want these women to have the same
legal rights as male sex-trade workers.
It is bad enough that they support treating male sex-trade workers as second-class
citizens, but even worse, they advocate treating female ones as third-class citizens,
citizens who are doubly discriminated against by the legal system. To these sexually
Brahmanic feminists, female sex-trade workers are sexual untouchables.
I have a question that I would like to ask the three Ontario Court of Appeal judges
responsible for the aforementioned ruling. Except for yourselves, Gwen Jacob, Anne
Hansen, Fatima Pereira Henson and other sexually Brahmanic feminists -- a fraction
of all Canadians -- who in Canadian society will "tolerate" women publicly
exposing their breasts for any purpose that is neither sexual nor commercial, but
will not "tolerate" them doing this for any purpose that is either sexual
or commercial?
Suzie Diamond
Executive director, Association for
LEPERS (Legal Enforcement of
Prostitutes' Equal
Rights in Society)
Toronto