The Pervert Paradox
An analytic essay by Ryuzaki Lao
Man, in his attempts to create, uphold, and enforce the law, has always battled with the nature of judgment. Criminals must be judged, a truth universally acknowledged. Even the means and extent of punishment after some debate can be agreed upon, generally speaking. Justice is meted out as best as humanly possible, with the quality of mercy being the defining trait of truly "just" justice.
But one of the weakest links in the justice system is the connection between accusation and crime. Really, the Spanish Inquisition is infamous for no other reason than that accusation directly resulted in guilt, without proof or trial. (I say this because the atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition's torture chambers are historically commonplace, making the emotional heart of its infamy somewhat arbitrary.) Take the recent moving of Kira—one only needs to be publically broadcast as a criminal for this judge, jury, and executioner to pronounce his verdict. But I digress. I suppose many readers are still awaiting the point of this essay.
There is psychology to every crime, because in his natural state, man will not commit crimes. Society teaches the boundaries, and most normal persons abide by these rules. But, as said by one of the founders of criminology, "every crime is committed for the same reason—because someone wanted something." Cause and effect are the governing principles of the universe.
Except, perhaps, in the case of the Pervert Paradox.
Take this case study for example: In a room, there is an attractive young woman and a young man. The woman misinterprets some look or gesture, and accuses the young man of being a pervert.
The young man, up until that point had been totally innocent. But in a matter of 6.8 nanoseconds, the following thought process occurs: Pervert? Someone who pictures women inappropriately. [The human male brain is visual. Now that he has associated the word with a definition, his mind relies on pictures for the following information.] Lingerie. Swimsuits. Etc. leave nothing to the imagination—except this...
And so on. Because of the visual nature of the male brain, in the following half second until a response can formulate in his mind—90% of the time an automatic denial, because he had been innocent—a montage of pictures, video clips, and fabrications of a wide variety of "inappropriate" material presents itself. Whether the man's defense of himself is relevant of not can be argued elsewhere, as with the differing nature of male (visual) thought processes and female (dialogue) thought processes.
You see, the male was innocent. He was completely and totally blameless, until the moment an unjust verdict was put upon him, at which time he became entirely guilty of being a pervert. The male did not have to put effort into perversion—simply walking past certain stores in a shopping center, random advertisements on internet sidebars, mainstream entertainment, and plenty of non-pornographic material present all the mental real estate that is necessary for a pictorial definition of the word "pervert."
The female is less well-equipped to understand this issue. First, the female's brain is not as visual. Her thought processes are much more likely to associate words, written or auditory, to her thoughts. She sees an action, or perhaps a look—it is not explained, not written or spoken, so she is left to interpret for herself. These mistaken interpretations are not conscious or malicious, but merely mistakes.
The real fault of the Pervert Paradox is a combination of two factors—the male's visual mind, and the commonness of those males who take no control of their own thought processes, do put effort into building a repertoire of visuals associated to the word "pervert," and do leer at women. If not for such persons around, it would make those guilt-inducing accusations much rarer.
Though perhaps certain women—those most common of accusing others of being perverts and setting the Pervert Paradox into motion—would find themselves in fewer situations where they are being leered at if they didn't dress in such low cut, short, and tight outfits consisting primarily of lace and other typically "lingerie" fabrics. Considering the visual nature of men, such women bring the leering on themselves.
"So?" L asked, accepting the rough draft back from Watawari with one limp hand as he scrolled through files with the other.
"It's certainly very wordy," the older man answered. "I've marked the mistaken punctuation, and the areas where citations are needed-notably the criminology quote and the physiological statements. Also, you might consider serious revision—possibly entirely removing the final paragraph." "I'll think about it," L said, an unspoken dismissal following the last word.
"I'll think about it," L said, an unspoken dismissal following the last word.
…But it's entirely true.