Photos of a Manitoba judge in bondage and performing sex acts turned up on the internet, apparently without the judge's knowledge or consent. The judge is a woman. There are many ways that reports on this happening could take a turn for the disgustingly sexist. Based on public responses to the release of sex tapes without the consent of one of the partners, people - including a number of feminists (*cough* Mary Elizabeth Williams *cough* Jezebel commenters *cough*) - get really victim-blamey and slut-shamey.
And yet, this is the thought that The Toronto Star ends their article with:
[Bruce] Ryder, of Osgoode, believes if a judge isn't involved in anything illegal or something that could give rise to a conflict of interest - such as a citizen's crusade against city hall - their private lives should not be up for discussion.
"We really have to start by asking ourselves, what exactly has Justice Douglas done wrong?
"Based on what we know so far," said Ryder, "maybe she deserves our sympathy more than our condemnation, because it seems she has been the victim of an egregious invasion of privacy."Yes. Thank you.
Go Toronto Star! I wrote about this story this week as well, but I did not stumble across any positive news concerning Judge Douglas and that made my rage-o-meter fill up quite a bit. Thanks for posting about this!
ReplyDeleteWHOA. I'm kinda blown away by something so reasonable being printed in a regular newspaper.
ReplyDelete