That is the only way to describe the current media feeding frenzy of the Shipton sex tapes. While its all very titillating, and confirms what we all thought of Shipton, there's no suggestion here of any sort of criminal behaviour. Amateur pornography, group sex, bondage, roleplaying, even the use of a baton as a sex toy are not crimes, and nor should they be. They may be exploitative, kinky, not your cup of tea - but provided everyone involved is a consenting adult and its done in the privacy of their own homes, then it is none of anyone else's business, and certainly none of the State's. Publishing people's names in the paper and having them suspended from their jobs for their private consensual sexual behaviour smacks of a panty-sniffing puritanism which simply has no place in a modern, liberal society.
The only public interest in this is that serving police officers may have participated in these activities while on duty. But that is an employment matter, not a crime.
Yeah, I agree. I totally fail to see how this is "news". People have consensual sex all the time, it's their private business. If the police were on duty then it is a matter in regards to their employment, but I fail to see how it is in the public interest to know the details of that as long as the sexual activity was consensual.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the journalists would be less than happy if the spotlight were to be turned on their private behavior. Everyone, police included, have a right to a private life.
Especially nasty when there's still a serious and legitimate public interest in whether Sharon Shipton took the stand last month and not only committed perjury, but attempted to pervert the course of justice by asking her cousin to give false evidence.
ReplyDeleteNow, if the Scumday O'Herald could get out of the sewer for a minute - 'gutter journalism' being far too generous a description, IMO - that's a story that deserves to be probed in an open court.
But what's the Sunday News going to publish if panty-sniffing puritanism is out?
ReplyDeletePM: Would actual news be too much to expect?
ReplyDeleteno comment on this being information relevant to the cases shipton escaped conviction on?
ReplyDeletesurely those women were roasted about their sexual histories. the old 'nuts or sluts' defence used against rape victims.
so, surely this expose on shipton contributes to the argument that accused rapists sexual history should be thoroughly aired too.
(tho not perhaps after the case)
Notice Benson-Pope little sexapades did not get the same media treatment.
ReplyDelete> Surely those women were roasted about their sexual histories.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it since as I understand that that is not allowed since 93. The defendant on the other hand was protected by the effective double jeopardy of revealing previous convictions.
(I'm sure with a little thought you can see the potential down sides as well as up sides of that).
ReplyDeleteThe only public interest in this is that serving police officers may have participated in these activities while on duty.
I agree in terms of criminality, but I disagree that the only public interest here is if police are involved while on duty. The issue of what consent is, and further than that that sex can be exploitative and damaging even when consent is given, is something that NZ really needs to be thinking hard about.
The thing that interests me most about this woman's story is that she's starting to consider that what she was involved in may have been abusive even though she technically gave consent, and that perhaps she wasn't aware of this at the time.
If rape has been happening within a general context of abusive sex then saying things like 'consentual sex is a private business' is not valid. There are connections between the attitudes and values of the people involved in the so called consentual sex and the women who were raped. It ALL needs to be looked at.
If we want to understand rape, then we have to understand the contexts it happens in.
Having said that, I think some of the media's involvement is just as much needing to be challenged. Gutter journalism? yes.
I concur entirely with weka. The real issue that this stuff brings to light is the issue of just what and how and when consent is granted. The "Rapist Charter", as I understand, it is based solely on this misconception of what is and what is not consent.
ReplyDeleteThe abused women of the Bay of Plenty are only now begining to find their voice. All nice for the Sunday papers - I just hope that they have air their concerns directly to Dame Margaret in the first instance. One the other hand - the public of NZ need to know just what was going on, in their name, in the interests of personal safety.
Macro_nz
The real issue that this stuff brings to light is the issue of just what and how and when consent is granted.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
Another thing to consider for those who think that video is about consensual sex. What would have happened to Gerbich if she had said no? Or did the nature of her relationship with those men/police give her some kind of special priviledge not afforded to the women who were raped?
Er, that last post was mine, not sure why my name didn't appear.
ReplyDeleteweka.
"The issue of what consent is, and further than that that sex can be exploitative and damaging even when consent is given, is something that NZ really needs to be thinking hard about."
ReplyDeletePublishing the details of individual's private affairs, often against their will, is not the appropriate way of doing so. There has been a great many scientific studies into human sexuality published in the last 40 years, it's not at all difficult to speak about sex in a definitive manner without resorting to digging up the dirt on the latest public figure to do something outside the norms of the majority.
> sex can be exploitative and damaging even when consent is given
ReplyDeleteI guess the problem is that you could have a situation where a person is exploited but the other party has no way of knowing they are exploiting.
(I'm not talking about a particular circumstance - just saying it is possible).
Anon at 6.39pm, I agree, which is why I think we should try, if possible, to change our culture around consent to one where we actively seek consent from each other, rather than assuming it unless told otherwise:
ReplyDeletehttp://spanblather.blogspot.com/2005/11/saying-yes.html
(Note I said "change our CULTURE", I'm still thinking about whether it would be possible to realistically change our law in such a way)
I agree with you that this isn't a moral issue, consenting adults shouldn’t be exposed to this type of unsavory media attention – but the claim that it was all done while cops were on duty is outrageous if true. Airing the tape though does serve another purpose – Shipton got off two rape cases where details of his sexual preferences with batons, handcuffs and sadomasochist overtures were suppressed, so that when the allegations were made in Court, the Jury could hear no information that there was a past history to this type of behaviour. This video tape proves beyond a doubt that this type of sex fuelled by control and power was his bag – with the suppression of that information, it came back to the ‘she’s lying’ crap.
ReplyDelete