opinions // 16

 

 
  

, Angela Espinoza
News Editor

Mi news
@theotherpress.ca

n film, television, and even

music, many in the spotlight
are hired based partially on
their physical appearance. If
the person you're watching on
screen is considered fat, skinny,
short, or tall, their presence is

But with much of the media-
based industry still heavily
focussed on conventionally
attractive men and women,

: have we in turn been trained to
: objectify them?

Several weeks have passed

: since the celebrity nude

: photo leak involving Jennifer
: Lawrence, amongst many

: others. The leak caused a

: mass discussion over privacy :
: concerns, as well as how we view :
: the people (mostly women) who
: were in those photos. Thenon
: September 14, Bollywood actress :
: Deepika Padukone experienced
likely placed there intentionally. : similar sexism when a photo

: of her cleavage was posted on

: Twitter by the Times of India,

: one of India’s oldest newspapers
: still in circulation. The image

: was shared with the caption:

: “OMG: Deepika Padukone’s
: cleavage show.” When Padukone : their best, and hours at a time
: responded negatively to the
: tweet, she was told to, as

: BBC puts it, “consider it a

: compliment.”

The event resulted ina

: quick social media run of

#1StandWithDeepikaPadukone.

But much like the nude photo
: leak, what does the obsession

with celebrity bodies say about

: people?

Again, many particularly

good-looking people you see in
: media are hired and, to some

: extent, designed to adhere to

: conventional beauty standards.
: They're often dressed in fitted

: clothes made for them to look

: are spent on adjusting their

: physical appearance. That’s not

: to say we don’t all do a little of

: that ourselves sometimes, but

: we're not exactly Sofia Vergara

: being placed ona pedestal; no

: one is actually making us up to

: go out and look a certain way to

: impress people.

: Although these recent

: photo controversies mainly

: involve women, that’s not to say

: men aren't objectified either.
Anytime you see a curvy

: woman or fit man moving

: sensually in slow motion, even

: if it’s played for laughs, that’s

theotherpress.ca

ate

: objectification. Anytime an

: advertising campaign focusses

: on specific body parts of men

: or women, even if they’re

: selling underwear, that’s

: objectification. Anytime a

: person is hired to stand around
: and look pretty, even if they’re

: there of their own accord, that’s
: still objectification.

There’s nothing wrong

with appreciating a person’s

: physical appearance; everyone
: has a beautiful feature. But

: there is something to say about
: society when a person follows

: their Google search of “[insert

: celebrity] with “[insert body

: part]” or “nude pics.”

 

Getting away with murder

» Invariably the verdict is unpredictable

Margaret Matthews
Senior Columnist

aving worked in a law

firm previously, I have
been intrigued by criminal
law; in particular, the evidence
put before the courts by way
of the witnesses who were
present at the crime scene,
and the police investigation.
The fate of the accused lies
in the verdict handed down
by the judge—which at times
can be unpredictable—after

circumstances of the case.

In the Oscar Pistorius
trial, Judge Masipa based
her decision on her findings
that “the state has not proved
beyond reasonable doubt
that the accused is guilty
of premeditated murder”
and ruled that Pistorius will
be convicted of culpable
homicide—the equivalent of
manslaughter. The leniency of

: Judge Masipa has caused unease
: within the legal profession.

Which brings us to the

question of, how does a judge

: decide on whether a suspect is

: guilty or not guilty? It varies in

: each case, depending on the

: judge who presides at the trial,

: and if there is a jury as well.

: South Africa does not have jury
: trials and neither do they have

: the death penalty.

I have personally attended

the preliminary hearings of

: Robert Pickton, the notorious

considering all the evidence and ; Serial killer who took the lives
: of 26 women. While all the

: evidence and body parts of the

: women he killed were retrieved

: from his pig farm, Pickton

: denied killing any of them. How

: does the legal system evaluate

: such untruths when there is all

: the evidence that the accused

: is guilty? In Pickton’s case, the

: judge ruled that he was guilty

: of several murders and was

: sentenced to life imprisonment

: ina federal penitentiary, with
: no possibility of parole for 25
: years.

On the other side of

: the coin, ina few instances,

: innocent people were

: wrongfully accused and sent to
: their death, while years later,

: much to the chagrin of the

: courts, it was discovered that

: another person was the actual
: murderer. Murderer, guilty or

: not, isa life-changing label to

; put on someone.

Capital punishment was

abolished by the late Prime

: Minister Trudeau, a change

: which is still upheld throughout
: Canada. Some States in the

: US still have the death penalty

: though, where a lethal injection
: is administered to the convicted
: murderer.

Someone who takes

another’s life is a murderer, and
: capital punishment or not, the
: person will still be a murderer.

: There is no escaping that fact.