There’s an old joke…
Q. Why will the second-coming never happen in Stockport*?
A. Because you’d never be able to find three wise men and a virgin.
Now I don’t know about virgins in the Kingdom of Shoddy Absurdia but there would appear to be a significant wise men deficit…
A report this week by Kamal Subhi, a former professor at King Fahd University, warned that allowing women to drive would provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce. Within 10 years of the ban being lifted, it warned, there would be “no more virgins” in the kingdom.
Women are also banned from riding bicycles.
As I type this my wife is currently in the motor getting provisions from Sainsburys. This is naturally causing me to think things like, “Actually, I quite like musical theatre”.
Saudi society endeavours to keep men and women separate, but sexual harassment — leers, jeers and even being followed — is depressingly common. Raising a ruckus or simply loudly asking the harasser anta Muslim? (”are you Muslim?”) will usually suffice to scare them off.
…
Large, well maintained air-conditioned malls and grocery stores (i.e. Safeway, Geant, Carrefour) are scattered throughout the kingdom. Note that all shops, even those selling women’s clothing and lingerie, are staffed exclusively by men and have no dressing rooms. You may be offered use of a back storeroom for trying on clothes, but it is best to not accept the offer — a number of women have been raped this way.
From wikitravel.
Now whilst all of this does happen in the decadent West it is not “depressingly common”. Now call me a cultural snob but is this not because we don’t regard every potential encounter with the other sex as a divinely sanctioned (or divinely dis-sanctioned) opportunity for sexual intercourse? The thing is as this story shows it’s all very relative anyway. Now I don’t know to what extent the Victorians really found a glimpse of ankle shockingly arousing (I get the distinct impression that tales of Victorian prudery are somewhat distorted - as possibly shown by the birth-rate) but the whole veiled woman thing has history as being specifically arousing. Certainly to in “orientalist” tales of harems and Fry’s Turkish Delight and such. Whether that works for the Middle East - I don’t know but a brief glimpse at the lingerie industry shows that less is not always more. In any case eye contact is core to flirting and such activities. Psychologists certainly have studied it to death.
Of course this is all politics because the (glacially) reformist King Abdullah is getting on a bit and his heir apparent Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz is “Old Skool”. Saudi Arabia is certainly a country to watch. Things could get very interesting there.
*Insert (oh, er, missus…) wherever you want.
There’s another old joke about when Prime Minister Gladstone used to go about Saving Fallen Women…
People used to shout after him…
Save one for me too Gladdy my old son!
And you all may think that a Gladstone Bag is a capacious holdall, but…
How bleedin insane are these Medieval fuckwits??
Women driving cars will lead to homosexuality. Well that makes perfect sense doesn’t it?
Oh fuck Look! a woman driving a car. Shit I was hoping to have four wives, now they’ll all want one. I can’t afford that!
Oi Ali, get your kaks off my son, it’s down to home grown entertainment for the boys, by the boys tonight innit?
“Victorians” is a broad word - covering millions of very different people from 1837 to 1901 (the country also changed very radically over that period).
Some people certainly were prudes - John Ruskin for example (he seems to have fitted the sterotype almost exactly).
Of course Ruskin also believed in total income equality (although he does not seem to have got round to practicing this) and that spirits talked to him - telling him to carry out his various activities (not spirits of the mind, or spirits in a bottle, but real external things).
I have read some of Ruskin’s journal (it is in his house in the Lake District) - I found it a rather odd work (at bit like reading a cross between Lenin and H.P. Lovecroft - accept that Lovecroft was kidding).
I wonder how many people who attend classes at Ruskin College Oxford (the Trade Union and allies Socialist founded place) actually believe this stuff? It would be interesting if they did - for as well as plotting world collectivism they could also be involved in various rituals to obtain the aid of the dark powers and ……
Still a more representative Victorian might be Queen Victoria herself.
A lover of slightly naughty songs (and other such).
When N III (Emperor of France) experienced the first visit of Queen Victoria he took her to see the great museum of France.
And he had varios things (the private parts of men and women - shown in some paintings and statues) covered up.
Queen Victoria turned to him and politely asked……
“Your Imperial Majesty - are you aware how many children I have?”
The coverings were removed.
I’ve read that Victorian London had more prostitutes (per capita) than any other place in history. Hiding ankles didn’t seem to stop people slipping out to the nearest brothel when it took their fancy.
The more prudish someone is the more of a secret pervert I suspect they are.
“but sexual harassment — leers, jeers and even being followed — is depressingly common.”
Lived in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years, I can tell you they are equal opportunity sex pests.
Kendall,
There is much truth in what you say. I mean it’s not as if a “family values” Tory MP ever got caught with a rent-boy or lady of negotiable virtue is it? As to the “trousers” on tables and pianos and such the Victorians did this but not out of deranged prudery but to protect expensive pieces of furniture from damage. These were the years BI (Before Ikea) where furniture was expexted to last generations…
Paul,
In that Ruskin is the precursor to the modern celebs who prattle on about socialist causes from their Learjets. As to Victoria herself… Letters exist between her and Albert and they’re pretty hot stuff. Anyway, you are very right about how radically the country changed over Victoria’s reign. That sort of puts the kibosh on the popular notion of a staid and essentially fixed in aspic (like something made by Mrs Beeton) society.
Well I think both of us would stand fully behind the idea of income equality if all could have houses like Mr Ruskin
It was only in late Victorian England that bathing suits were invented.
The telescopes on Victorian piers and sea fronts were not put there for identifying ships at sea.
The bathing beaches were segregated, though a lady could walk along the promenade with a view of the gentlemen’s beach.
So not quite so prudish as the image.
And of course, being strict on morality doesn’t mean separation.
My wife and I are firmly loyal to each other but the result is that if she wants to go (after a late session at work) to a bar with male workmates and see the Champions League, do I worry? No, because I trust her totally.
The Saudis are strict as a means of control, others are strict as a personal devotion.
My impression is that the Victorian era was “officially” prudish in the same way that our era is officially sniffy about smoking, drinking, cheap food, “carbon” emissions, and elfinsafety. In other words, people didn’t really give a shit, but the Guardians of Public Morals (mostly, it would appear to me, the “progressives” of their day, by the way - nothing changes) thought they jolly well should.
Now, maybe - and this is only an idea, you understand - maybe Saudi Arabia’s morals might get a bigger boost from letting women sell each other their own smalls and giving them proper changing rooms instead of having leering porn-starved blokes creeping around the back shop. Just, y’know, saying…
Nelsontouch,
It isn’t about individual trust. The Saudis are of the view that any woman on her own and not wearing a tent is “asking for it” and consider this opinion moral. I think personal loyalty is a different kettle of fish.
Sam,
Well, exactly. It’s like the way pre-prohibition USA was a beer-drinking nation and bang! Prohibition and it’s spirits. I mean you ban all mixing of the sexes and inevitably you create a nation of perverts. Oddly enough in Istanbul (mainly Muslim - for some value of Muslim) but without the utter silliness of the Saudis my wife experienced zero sexual harrassment of any form or level.