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[nineveh_uk]

Hard as it is to beat the headline seen on a newsboard in Bridlington "Horse Fetish Flashed in Court"* for headline of the week, the Iceland Review managed it with Seven-Year-Old Wins Iceland Ram Groping Contest. Even better, this story really is about a seven year-old who won the amateur section of a ram groping contest - prizes include (ram) sperm from the Insemination Center of West Iceland. Despite said prizes, I assume that groping is a mistranslation of a word/phrase about judging the quality of rams. Anyone can read Icelandic and would be good enough to tell me what was actually meant by groping and how the error, er, arose, the source is here.

The competition involves laypersons attempting to rank rams that have been ranked by professional ram-rankers, and explaining why. Says the organiser:

“One year a contestant was able to rank the rams correctly and described them all in a poem. That was very interesting.” Evidently there isn't much to do in Iceland in summer.

*Which turned out to be a mis-print for "Horse Fetish Flaster in Court", and is unfortunately a rather more sad and less funny story than one might have hoped for.

Comments

[azdak]

While I feel sorry for the horse fetish flasher, I wish I had confidence in the judge's evident belief that a three year community order will suffice to sort out his "sexual offending problems", espceially given that he tried to grab the woman, so apparently had rather more in mind than a quick flash.

Also, apropos the current discussions of how to deal with unwanted sexual attention, I note that the poor woman felt that she had somehow brought it on herself by being so sluttish as to say "Hello" to him. Twice. After all, it's mixed signals like this that make it so hard to distinguish legitimate rape from the other sort.

[nineveh_uk]

I thought the sentence sounded a bit feeble, given that the man doesn't exactly sound mentally capble of "confronting" his problems on his own. But having looked it up, the critical point not explained by the paper is that being unfit to plead affects the sentencing options, e.g. he doesn't have the option of a fine. The community order includes a requirement for compulsary mental health treatment, but conducted in the community, rather than compulsary detention in hospital, so more than a slap on the wrist - and given the chronic under-funding of mental hospitals, I wouldn't be surprised if it weren't more effective.

Re. current discussions, as someone says on the LJ crosspost the paper's use of "admitted" is not a good choice - with that replaced with something more neutral like "stated", I think the woman's account becomes more simply discriptive and less-self-blaming ("I said hello, like you do" rather than "I said hello, I shouldn't have").

I would say that it is gratifying to have been proved right over recent years that George Galloway is an egomaniacal scumbag, but alas it isn't gratifying enough.

[azdak]

being unfit to plead affects the sentencing options

Okay, this is interesting stuff to know and makes me feel a lot better about the sentence! You're right about "admitted" as well - I shall now mosey over to the LJ crosspost and read all the sensible things peope have said there.

"I said hello, like you do"

I am now imagining Emma Wodehouse as the victim, making mincemeat in court of the judge and the flasher ("Well, of course I said hello, but it is hardly my fault if the gentleman mistakes common civility for an invitation to sexual congress")

[nineveh_uk]

Emma Wodehouse vs the flasher - Emma Wodehouse vs. anyone - would be brilliant. Do you think the Readercon Pest would have got the message had his victims responded with "You are mistaken, sir, if you think thus to recommend yourself to me. Kindly remove yourself from my presence, and refrain from such imposition henceforth." Probably not.

[azdak]

I believe accompanied by Emma's steely eye and absolute conviction of her own superiority, it would have worked. The wonderful thing about Emma is that even when trapped in a carriage with a man attempting to demonstrate how ardently he admires and loves her, it never occurs to her to feel anything but indignation. The Readercon Pest wouldn't have stood a chance.