I'm so torn.So it seems that, for the first time, Malaysian correctional officials have caned three Muslim women for having extramarital affairs. Perhaps as a response to public outcries over recent charges against another woman who was "caught" drinking beer, Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said he wanted to publicize the case of these three women because of “too much hype” over the earlier case.
"People are saying that no woman has been caned before," he was quoted in a recent Christian Science Monitor report, "(but)today I am announcing that we have already done it," adding that the women 'didn’t suffer any cuts or bruises' from the caning.
Yeah, sure.
With the exception of a thin apron tied around the waist, the subjects are nude. Under the supervision of a medical officer, their wrists are then bound to the upper peak of a A-frame while charges against them are read aloud by officials, who then require the recipient to verbally repeat and confirm the punishment they are about to receive. Up to twenty-four full-force strokes to the buttocks are then administered with a rotan jenayah, the larger of two varieties of rattan canes used in Malaysian corporal punishment. Those supervising make certain that the ends of the canes make contact with the body, allowing for maximum effect. The trained caners are paid RM10 Malaysian ringgit (about $3 Canadian) for each blow they deliver.
Then, is this where I stand on the soapbox with a pro-feminist T-shirt and defend the socio-sexual rights of women (well, anyone, really) to explore their bliss without fear of physical reprisal by the proponents of organized religion? Again?
Or is this where I stand next to a St. Andrew's cross with my jackboots and tell those Malaysian coppers that a good caning should be part of a decent extramarital affair, and not a punishment for one?
Decisions, decisions.
sigh
3 comments:
Rogue,
Dolores YK Haze here. I just thought you should know, speaking of spanking, that a popular crime show, "Castle" has an episode on bondage recently, entitled "The Mistress Always Spanks Twice." In my personal opinion (as a recent convert) I think it could do a better job at being more tolerant of kink, since it effectively paints all Doms and Subs as people somehow inherently "wrong."
I'd really be interested to hear your take on it, since you know so much more about the subculture than, say, me. Check it out; it's on hulu. I'd love to hear what you have to say, oh great and powerful wizard of Ahhs.
Dolores YK Haze
I like your blog, but this post leaves me with a bad feeling. The canings that these Malaysian women are experiencing are non-consensual, and will probably be a source of great sorrow, public censure, pain and trauma. Why is that wacky? And what does it have to do with anybody's consensual sex life? It definitely kills my girl-boner.
yours grumpily.
Dolores, daahlingk ~
I'll definitely look for it. :)
nika ~
You're completely correct. In this post, I was being a little tongue-in-cheek and snarky, but you're absolutely right in that these women are being subjected to a form of legal corporal punishment that we in the West have trouble relating to and can be easily outraged by.
I suppose the source of my snarkiness was in a somewhat twisted view on how such a non-consensual act can, in its own way, feed into the fantasyspace of others. For example, it's probably safe to say that paddlings administered in English boarding schools aren't at all desirable by those receiving them, and yet the existence of same plays an unarguable role in certain adult fantasy territories.
Perhaps I blurred the line by commenting on both the presence of these punishments in Malaysia and trying to fuse that into a remark on the fantasy foffer of same. But then, as I mentioned at the post's outset, I was torn as to how I wanted to approach this.
Either way, unforgivable of me to wilt your grrl stiffie.
Thanx for commenting and otherwise enjoying.
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