Wednesday, August 12, 2015

I matter more than you do

Recently Megan Bachelor a news caster for CBC was reporting live from the Squamish Music Festival when a young teen jumped in, attempted to kiss her while taking a selfie of his effort. Ms. Bachelor was upset enough over the intrusion to file a police complaint. After seeing the furor, the young man reached out to her over social media. The two spoke on the phone. He apologized and that was good enough for Ms. Bachelor. The RCMP closed the file.
The interesting thing for me was tidal wave of hate and vitriol aimed at the reporter.

Here are some of the comments aimed at her on social media:

omg....what is wrong with that reporter acting like a stuck up c?.......she should feel complimented someone actually wanted to kiss her....the petty

Waste of time. I hereby decree that this discussion is an absolute waste of anyone's time, unless you are an intense feminist with no grasp on reality. In which case nobody cares what you think anyways. Pick an important topic, not an almost kiss on the cheek.

Get a grip Megan and go buy yourself a sense of humour.

come on really? If she was a good reporter she would have just rolled with it! It's harmless. Ugh I hate how society deems everything unexaptable. No one is allowed to have fun anymore.

She should be charged with abuse of the justice system and fined. Period. What a disgrace to all women and men who have truly suffered at the hands of others.

take her off the air! don't need that kind of cry baby stuff going on. that what she gets for going to a big gathering, asking for trouble.


That's a small sampling of comments from one feed but thousands more can be found that essentially repeat the same:
She shouldn't have been there if she didn't want that to happen.
And
She shouldn't have done anything about it once it did.

Typical victim blaming. It's all her fault.
Most of the those making comments are either ignorant of the current atmosphere for live reporters or they don't care.
A few months ago news was made when some young men at a soccer match took some pleasure in interrupting a live broadcast by shouting the now popular catch phrase FHRITP. My mom may read this blog so you'll have to Google it. One of the fellows famously lost his six figure job when he was identified. It's a heavy price to pay but I have no sympathy for him.
Many of the comments directed at Ms Bachelor sexualized the incident – though she never did.
I don't believe the young man's intentions, in this recent event, were sexual – even though they involved a kiss. I think he was just a kid who wanted to be funny in front of his friends and this was his genius plan. So why is she so upset? And why do I agree with her that she should be?
She's upset because once again, some selfish asshole has stood up and said “What I want is more important than what you want.” It didn't matter that she was trying to do her job and it didn't matter that he wasn't invited. He did what he did because clearly he believed he had a right to and the huge majority of those commenting on the matter agreed that he did, in fact, have that right.
If you say in one breath – “Well, it was wrong but she is overreacting. She shouldn't have alerted the authorities.” Then what you're saying is that there should be no repercussions for his actions and the next time he's at a party (as opposed to being in front of a national audience) and he wants to impress his friends, I wonder what he'll come up with and will the braying masses continue to support his actions? If you believe there should be no repercussions for an action then you are condoning that action.
Interrupting (mostly) women reporters with physical contact and the shouting of rude slogans is increasing because the morons engaging in the behavior seldom, if ever, have to pay a price.
But the tide is shifting. I'm glad it is.
Should the kid do hard time and go on the sexual offenders list? Of course not, but I sure wouldn't have opposed some community hours and a fine.
So good for you Megan Bachelor for taking a stand and saying enough is enough.

And those who support the crappy behavior - those who don't have the capacity to understand how violating the behavior is, are going to have to update their files because if they have young men and women in their lives who've been taught that their needs and desires outweigh the needs and desires of those around them, they may come to find it an expensive attitude to carry around.

Clint

3 comments:

Kent L. said...

I had to Google it.

Anonymous said...

Community labour only comes with a criminal conviction because the labour is done in lieu of imprisonment in Canada. Would you also support this 17 year old having a criminal record following him around? Just because something is inappropriate doesn't mean the law should step in and make it a crime. It is not sufficient consequence that the kid embarrassed himself on television?

People touch each other all the time in inappropriate or unwanted ways. I'm a guy and people put their hand on my shoulder, girls get gropey at the bar, sometimes teenagers or drunks will randomly throw a curse or an unprovoked "what are you looking at" my way. In fact the very first (pubescent-age) kiss I got was from a girl in middle school who on a dare snuck up behind me, grabbed my head and planted a wet one on my lips before I knew what was going on. I was thinking WTF while 5 girls giggled behind me as the success of their dare. All those minor annoyances I have a word for: LIFE. If I wilted like a flower and called the police ever time this kind of thing happened both myself and the police would be completely non-functional entities. You think you're being a pro-rights or gender equality advocate but all you're really doing is advocating the crimininalization of mildly inappropriate things that both men and women do.

Ever been making out with a girl, and you make a gentle attempt and the bra strap or the zipper and she bats your hand away lightly because she's not up for it? Be careful because that normal healthy interaction will land you in the gender rights social media washing machine for UNWANTED CONTACT DESERVING OF A FINE AND COMMUNITY SERVICE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA by your logic.

Anyway cool blog, except this post.

Skippy Two Shoes said...

Thanks for your comment.
Do I think he should have a criminal record? He committed a criminal act so it might be appropriate but actually I'm satisfied with the current result. He reached out and offered a sincere apology. Clearly he suffered some repercussions - and that's what I'm looking for. I was aiming my displeasure at the nature of the vast majority of comments that were aimed at her.
I'm angered at the sense of entitlement so many people possess. He felt he had a right to do that. He didn't and I believe he deserved to suffer some form of repercussion. The huge majority of those commenting on the story believed he did not and further that the young woman somehow was to blame for/deserved/should ignore it.
I stand by my view so we'll have to agree to disagree.
But again, thanks for your reasoned response.
CL