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However much the lower self makes a show of virtue and attempts to conceal vice, the latter will be hidden only from the shortsighted and the naïve, never from those with insight. It is like a hideous old hag who bedecks herself in fancy, dazzling clothes.
--Kashami, “Essential Sufism,” Fadiman, Frager, 68
| | An interesting case recently developed in New Mexico that cuts to the heart of this book. A 14-year-old boy administered an unwanted slap to a 13-year-old girl's buttocks at school. The principal called the police. As the story broke news, the boy was being psychologically evaluated to determine if there was sexual intent on his part. | | It seemed to many adults at the scene, and to me from afar, that there very likely was sexual motivation behind the boy's actions. Certainly, there was a violation felt on the part of his victim. In any case, having to go to juvenile court was a good lesson for the young man. He had to learn to control his impulses and not give out uninvited slaps on the rear to young women--whatever his motivation may have been. | | As Bob Fathman pointed out when he passed along this story, however, isn't there a double standard here? Since New Mexico is a paddling state, albeit not a very gung-ho one, the principal himself might have given that same young lady a slap on the rear--except that he could validate it as "corporal punishment." | | This would presumably involve far more than a single, casual slap, too. Besides being allowed--expected, in fact--to strike the girl very hard, the principal would have discretion to make her bend over, grab her ankles, and hold that unseemly pose while he lectures, opens the door of his office to summon witnesses, or makes phone calls. He could even covertly, yet legally, videotape the scene as he repeatedly whacks her upturned buttocks with his (big hard) paddle. All in the name of "discipline." | | Few would openly question the principal's motives, although many of us, most likely including the young girl, would at some level sense the violation that was taking place. And yet, we have no trouble recognizing sexual enjoyment as the most likely incentive for a boy to swat a girl's backside. We even treat the act as something along the lines of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct (which the laws of my home state of Michigan define as touching the breasts or buttocks or other sexual area through clothing for sexual arousal). |
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