51³Ô¹Ï

My, that was a smug little piece by Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto (¡°Dens of inequity¡±, Opinion, 21 March). Apparently in his youth there was ¡°no shame and no attested harm in a priest pinching a choirboy¡¯s bottom, or in a boss squeezing a secretary¡¯s knee¡±. What he actually means, of course, is no shame or harm to the perpetrator. Women and children were made to feel shame all the time: ¡°What did you do? How were you dressed?¡± Some were incarcerated in prisons and mental hospitals for promiscuity if they dared to object.

Farah Mendlesohn
Anglia Ruskin University