October 2, 2014

On That Justin Trudeau Wedding Photo

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:29 pm by sacetalks

Written by Cynthia

So Justin Trudeau kissed a newlywed on the cheek in a photo, and Ezra Levant is outraged — so outraged that Sun Media ended up having to apologize for him. Obviously the slut-shaming language Levant used when he brought up Trudeau’s parents is completely inappropriate, but there’s another problematic aspect of his commentary I’d like to highlight.

Levant said, “Who kisses a bride on her wedding day other than her father and her husband? Who thinks that’s his right to do?” and later adds, “Now, if that’s your moral compass, huh, well, kissing another man’s bride on her wedding day is pretty cool.”

It’s clear in the segment that Levant wants us to see him as defending women from a predatory Trudeau, claiming that “When it comes to women too, [Trudeau thinks] they are for his use.” This would be far more convincing if Levant hadn’t also defined this woman as a possession of her husband and asserted that only her husband and father have the “right” to kiss her. By emphasizing the feelings of her male relatives, rather than focusing on whether the bride herself consented to the kiss, Levant implies that women are, indeed, for men’s use, just not the men with whose politics he disagrees.

Even the reporting on the bride’s defence of Trudeau falls into this trap. We’re told that Trudeau asked her husband if he minded the kiss, but never whether he asked her if she was comfortable with it.

I really look forward to a point when the only person whose consent is required to touch a woman is that woman herself, when she’s not reduced to “another man’s bride”. Sadly, we’re not there yet.