"What is that smell?Oh, they are her panties.That is what the agents of the Metropolitan Police were captured by saying in CCTV after cutting the clothes to a woman as part of a naked record in May 2013.
That woman, Dr. Koshka Duff, spoke to me in Wednesday of Women's Hour in her first interview transmitted since Met apologized and paid compensation for "sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language" used during his arrest.Dr. Duff, now an assistant professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, shared what happened that day, which happened since he faced the police with the help of those who financed their legal struggle and the impact it still has onshe.nine years later.
She was arrested on suspicion of obstructing and assaulting the police after trying to provide legal advice to a 15 -year -old man involved in a stop and registration in Hackney.She later was acquitted of these accusations in court.
But the battle was not over.Far from there.And it has been enraged for most of a decade, and only publicly concluded this week.He told me that he felt as if he had been in trial during the last eight years and still has memories.
While there is much to analyze and say above all this case (people, as always, will make their own decisions), there is also much to discuss the behavior of the officers, both men and women, and the culture of the police.
But for the purposes of this column, I wantThe casual comment of a group of men and women was after cutting the panties to a woman with scissors.
Because it is worth repeating those words:
"I'm sorry, what is that smell?" Asks a male officer.
Another male officer replies: "Oh, are his panties."And another officer asks: "Do you have a range?"
There are more words to stop, to which I will return.But there are very few women who would not read that exchange and shuddered with equal fury and recognition.
Because using the way in which a woman's vagina smells or does not smell against her is something totally common.It is still an insult to poor health, a shameful and shameful curse that will not disappear.
It seems from the recess court to the police station;From children who know little, to certain adults who control our behavior, this very bad mockery remains stubbornly, having firmly stayed in the minds of men and women, often from an early age.
I read exactly those words aloud in Woman’s Hour on Tuesday, suspecting that our listeners could have something to say.And, my God, they wrote in mass.
There were stories of small daughters of people who called "fish" or "fish" in the recess courtyard, and they had no idea what they meant.
Others talked about the punctures they had received at the school of girls and boys for their apparent genital smell.And some women remembered their horror against adult men who told them the same in all kinds of scenarios.
It is almost too gloomy to stop.Almost.But since the erroneous characterization remains stubbornly, and many people do not have any signs when using vaginas against women, we must insist on it.
The full statement of the police did not refer to what had really been said.(Nor did he mention what Sergeant Kurtis Howard had ordered, who was in charge when he ordered the search for Dr. Duff. He told the officers to show him that "the resistance is useless" and to register it "by any necessary means», He added:" Tract it as a terrorist. I don't care. ")
Many of the newsletters issued did not mention the "smelly panties."That is why it is so important to say and write the real words, which so many recognize, and let them remain as the bad smell they are.Many listeners contacted during and after the program expressing their gratitude because I actually repeated their direct words and did not paraphrase or disinfected in any way.
The bodies of women, especially their vaginas, are still used against them.Our genitals have become monsters that stink, bleed and should be ridiculed.The genitals of men, on the other hand, are glorified or, better yet, ignored and left alone.
How strange is it that the magnificent gateway to a lifetime on earth has been vilified to such an extent that women even joke about it?If that is not self -esteem and cultural indoctrination, I don't know what it is.Women take note: they are not in the joke.You are the joke if you think that jokes that your vagina is a stinky fish well is fine.it is not
He also thinks about how they say that about you, or worse, that they throw it in your face.Someone telling you that your vagina stinks is as low as possible.It is an insult with power of permanence and very few people accept it.They probably don't want to shout: "No, my vagina doesn't smell bad, thank you very much."I even horrify me of thinking about the counterattack and living to assume difficult situations.
Think of Dr. Duff, do whatever you do or know about your case, because the fact is that the phrase "stinky panties" and their name will be linked forever on the Internet.
In addition, so will the word "hairy," so one of the women police officers said.So let's go back to those other words in recently published CCTV images.
After their naked record, the agents entered the reception room before a policeman said: "Didn't they find anything bad in it, ladies?"
One of the women replied: "A lot of hair."Charming.
In addition, after the comment on smelly underwear, an official woman involved in her search said: “UF, I feel disgust;I will need a shower.
A male officer replied: "You need to defumigate."
Surely something smells bad.Something needs fumigation.But I give you a clue: they are not the vaginas of women.It is the chat of too many people.And what they think happens as a valid insult.
Dr. Duff said that the images of police officers offered a "peephole in a culture of misogyny" and, like any form of directed harassment, the reason why telling women who smell like it is so effective is because we are ashamed.
In fact, it is the perfect insult because many women now think that their smell is bad and something that should be solved.Hence the world vaginal showers, scented and similar daily protectors: our fear is sown and (of course) is monetized.The perfect storm is completed with the fact that this mockery is about women's genitals, which is already a taboo area, so you cannot easily laugh or talk about it.
Misoginia is a form of sexism expressly designed to keep women in a lower social status.There is nothing lower than using the smell of a woman's panties on her, in a culture that then shames the woman for talking about her genitals.
And God does not want it, defend them.That is what really stinks.
Emma Barnett presents ‘Woman’s Hour’ by BBC Radio 4 and ‘Newsnight’ from BBC Two
