Posted on 09/02/2016 6:46:19 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
An American sailor named George Mendonsa spontaneously takes hold of a complete stranger, 21-year-old Austrian-Jewish refugee Greta Zimmer, bends her backward, plants a kiss on her mouth and continues on his way. Unbeknown to either, famed photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt has captured the encounter. The resulting image, published soon after in Life magazine, came to symbolize the exuberance of that moment, in a country overflowing with vigor and youth, at a time when anything seemed possible.....In 2012, a London-based blogger who uses the pseudonym Leopard wrote a provocative post on Crates and Ribbons titled The Kissing Sailor, or The Selective Blindness of Rape Culture, arguing that Mendonsas actions should not be idealized as romantic. To the writer, the kiss represented nothing short of a sexual assault.
The post highlights a series of comments from Greta Friedmans 2005 Veterans History Project interview, which addresses the issue of what we would now call consent. It wasnt my choice to be kissed, Friedman said at the time. The guy just came over and grabbed! adding, That man was very strong. I wasnt kissing him. He was kissing me. Leopard also cited a CBS News interview in which Friedman said of Mendonsa, I did not see him approaching, and before I knew it, I was in this vice grip (sic).
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Sailor Sam was lucky that he didn’t get HR’d in the noggin by his victim’s relatives.
What he did was physical battery. And arguably sexual battery as well.
Next up - transgender sailors kissing.This is not the same US Navy that won the War In The Pacific.
I wonder. Her left shoulder is also relaxed and her body posture is open, not in defense or fighting mode.
The kiss was a spontaneous action in a different era. And her body language definitely makes it seem that what she said years later about the incident doesn’t match what was happening at the time. Jmo
It was a Moment.
Context is everything. In that era, women didn’t fear and loathe men. It had a certain innocence about it. Young men in those days were expected to be serving their country, they were appreciated.
I doubt that this was a PTSD inducing moment. Today, it certainly would be. Being grabbed by a strange man would terrify me today. But, being kissed by a young sailor would not have terrorized my mother.
Judging history in the rear view mirror is folly.
True, but look at her left arm. It's hanging down by her side. She wasn't pushing him away.
Good grief. It was a kiss. A celebratory kiss.
I think it would be fun!
I’d venture to say you couldn’t have found a soul in 1945 who gave a sh!t.
I appreciate your tagline. Puts things in context.
Battery is concerned with the right to have one’s body left alone by others.
Battery is both a tort and a crime. Its essential element, harmful or offensive contact, is the same in both areas of the law. The main distinction between the two categories lies in the penalty imposed. A defendant sued for a tort is civilly liable to the plaintiff for damages. The punishment for criminal battery is a fine, imprisonment, or both. Usually battery is prosecuted as a crime only in cases involving serious harm to the victim.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Battery
Oh my.
At least he didn’t bite down on her lip. That technique was still four decades into the future.
Well, did the nurse press charges? Not that I ever heard.
America in 1945 was a different, and infinitely better, nation than what it is today. And one way it was different was that people naturally exercised common sense and kept things in perspective. A terrible war had just come to an end, largely thanks to us. A sailor grabbing and kissing a nurse was considered natural enough that a picture of it became famous. If it became known that the nurse filed a complaint against the sailor she would not have been thought well of.
Do you think the America of 2016 could or even would fight World War II, let alone win it?
That is a truly sick pic. I’m glad I live in a bubble.
Oh heck...just let your body go limp and enjoy it.
As sinister as any 21st century hack reporter can make it.
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