Views from a Moral Low Ground
By Chip Tsao | published Jul 15, 2010
Local women’s rights groups have complained to shopping malls about the long escalators that provide golden opportunities for voyeurism. Among the black spots are those at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong and Mong Kok’s Langham Place mall, where women wearing mini-skirts standing or scurrying on the long and high-hung escalators risk being peeped at or photographed with iPhones by professional voyeurs below.
Alarms have been raised, but what will happen next? Should owners of these shopping malls demolish the escalators and make customers use staircases instead? Should police be called in to identify Peeping Tom suspects holding iPhones and loitering around with a vague grin on their haggard faces? If this is too much of a burden for the police, should women’s rights campaigners perform round-the-clock surveillance by guarding a sealed-off area within a 20-foot diameter under all escalators? If this is feasible, should Watson’s, Park N Shop and Starbucks protest and demand a rent reduction for the fuss?
The news of these “black spots” has been hailed as a great discovery on internet forums. Elation is said to have spread among men (and lesbians perhaps), who are set to go on a pilgrimage to the widely-publicized black spots like school children heading to a Lantau Island camping trip to await the spectacle of the sunrise. If women’s rights groups are ready to declare war in shopping malls, they’ll certainly have a long battle ahead.
Or perhaps we should pass a law to make all women wear trousers while visiting shopping malls. This should be enough for all potential voyeurs in Hong Kong to understand that a trip to Festival Walk or Langham Place is as worthless as flying to Tehran for a strip-tease show.
And women’s rights campaigners could perhaps focus on some more meaningful targets. For example, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, had been sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery by an Iranian court. After interference by international human rights institutions and western governments, the execution was announced last week to be halted “for the moment.” Had Hong Kong’s women staged a public demonstration to protest against this atrocity and contributed to the suspension of execution, Lady Donald Tsang could have received a thank-you letter from Mrs. Mahammadi-Ashiani’s lawyer in Tehran, and we Hongkongers would have enjoyed the honor of being a (self-proclaimed) international city.
Perhaps Iran is too far away and too sensitive because it’s an oil-dealing friend of our motherland. Perhaps barking at a few escalators is all these women’s rights watchdogs have been taught to do by their former colonial master. Perhaps they’ve got too much time to spare after their mahjong games. I walked past and glanced up at one of these escalators, and noticed a few chubby Chinese tourists with their Prada bags, some bouncing kids and a few old unattractive nannies in trousers. It wasn’t quite my day.
Local women’s rights groups have complained to shopping malls about the long escalators that provide golden opportunities for voyeurism. Among the black spots are those at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong and Mong Kok’s Langham Place mall, where women wearing mini-skirts standing or scurrying on the long and high-hung escalators risk being peeped at or photographed with iPhones by professional voyeurs below.
Alarms have been raised, but what will happen next? Should owners of these shopping malls demolish the escalators and make customers use staircases instead? Should police be called in to identify Peeping Tom suspects holding iPhones and loitering around with a vague grin on their haggard faces? If this is too much of a burden for the police, should women’s rights campaigners perform round-the-clock surveillance by guarding a sealed-off area within a 20-foot diameter under all escalators? If this is feasible, should Watson’s, Park N Shop and Starbucks protest and demand a rent reduction for the fuss?
The news of these “black spots” has been hailed as a great discovery on internet forums. Elation is said to have spread among men (and lesbians perhaps), who are set to go on a pilgrimage to the widely-publicized black spots like school children heading to a Lantau Island camping trip to await the spectacle of the sunrise. If women’s rights groups are ready to declare war in shopping malls, they’ll certainly have a long battle ahead.
Or perhaps we should pass a law to make all women wear trousers while visiting shopping malls. This should be enough for all potential voyeurs in Hong Kong to understand that a trip to Festival Walk or Langham Place is as worthless as flying to Tehran for a strip-tease show.
And women’s rights campaigners could perhaps focus on some more meaningful targets. For example, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, had been sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery by an Iranian court. After interference by international human rights institutions and western governments, the execution was announced last week to be halted “for the moment.” Had Hong Kong’s women staged a public demonstration to protest against this atrocity and contributed to the suspension of execution, Lady Donald Tsang could have received a thank-you letter from Mrs. Mahammadi-Ashiani’s lawyer in Tehran, and we Hongkongers would have enjoyed the honor of being a (self-proclaimed) international city.
Perhaps Iran is too far away and too sensitive because it’s an oil-dealing friend of our motherland. Perhaps barking at a few escalators is all these women’s rights watchdogs have been taught to do by their former colonial master. Perhaps they’ve got too much time to spare after their mahjong games. I walked past and glanced up at one of these escalators, and noticed a few chubby Chinese tourists with their Prada bags, some bouncing kids and a few old unattractive nannies in trousers. It wasn’t quite my day.
Labels: Politically Incorrect, 陶傑
posted by Gemini Saga at 12:00 AM
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