During a political talk show on Oct. 19, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee member and Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) used the words “ass-shake diplomacy” to criticize Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) as “a woman’s liaison with China” and her trip to Beijing as “ass-shaking.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青), who was also a guest on the talk show, protested against these inappropriate comments, but Hsieh did not stop his verbal attacks and said even nastier things on the nationally broadcast program.
The Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women’s Rights (TAPWR) believes that verbal abuse referring to differences in physiology and gender highlights a misconception about gender that has long existed in Taiwan. This is based on the mistaken belief that verbal abuse does not constitute violence, as well as confusion between formal and substantive equality.
Violence is loathsome and terrifying not only because of the direct effects physical violence has on life and health, but also because it represents the power to control and endanger the freedom of its victims, their safety, existence and further development. Verbal abuse in essence represents the exact same deprivation of rights and psychological oppression that physical violence does.
Comments like “ass-shake diplomacy” emphasize the bodily characteristics of a certain individual or group to dismiss their positive qualities and the unique skills they employ in their social roles, as well as the public character that such roles should possess. Language that discriminates against gender by way of insults and denigration is an undeniable form of violence.
Hsieh’s comments were a clear attempt to use Chen’s physical characteristics as a woman to avoid commenting on her professional abilities as a politician or getting into a debate on public policy. This was not only an encroachment on Chen’s rights, but also dealt a blow to public deliberation on social policy issues.
In 2007, Taiwan ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a code for the protection of the rights of women. In its preamble, the CEDAW states: “Despite these various instruments, extensive discrimination against women continues to exist, recalling that discrimination against women violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity, is an obstacle to the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries, hampers the growth of the prosperity of society and the family and makes more difficult the full development of the potentialities of women in the service of their countries and of humanity.”
The TAPWR therefore calls for recognition of the fact that verbal abuse is an outward expression of gender discrimination and violence in the home. If we want to enjoy the right to liberty, security and freedom from fear, then we should demand that political parties and the legislature abide by CEDAW to stop discriminatory remarks based on a woman’s physicality or their private affairs and that a system be set up to deal with these issues. Moreover, this system should take precedence over party concerns and should not be compromised in return for superficial verbal apologies or tolerance for such behavior.
Cheng Kai-jung is deputy secretary-general of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women’s Rights. Lin Hsin-yeh is a consultant at the association.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
Would China attack Taiwan during the American lame duck period? For months, there have been worries that Beijing would seek to take advantage of an American president slowed by age and a potentially chaotic transition to make a move on Taiwan. In the wake of an American election that ended without drama, that far-fetched scenario will likely prove purely hypothetical. But there is a crisis brewing elsewhere in Asia — one with which US president-elect Donald Trump may have to deal during his first days in office. Tensions between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea have been at
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hypersonic missile carried a simple message to the West over Ukraine: Back off, and if you do not, Russia reserves the right to hit US and British military facilities. Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik,” or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Thursday in what Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with US and British missiles. In a special statement from the Kremlin just after 8pm in Moscow that day, the Russian president said the war was escalating toward a global conflict, although he avoided any nuclear
A nation has several pillars of national defense, among them are military strength, energy and food security, and national unity. Military strength is very much on the forefront of the debate, while several recent editorials have dealt with energy security. National unity and a sense of shared purpose — especially while a powerful, hostile state is becoming increasingly menacing — are problematic, and would continue to be until the nation’s schizophrenia is properly managed. The controversy over the past few days over former navy lieutenant commander Lu Li-shih’s (呂禮詩) usage of the term “our China” during an interview about his attendance
Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), the son of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo member and former Chongqing Municipal Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來), used his British passport to make a low-key entry into Taiwan on a flight originating in Canada. He is set to marry the granddaughter of former political heavyweight Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政), the founder of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東). Bo Xilai is a former high-ranking CCP official who was once a challenger to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the chairmanship of the CCP. That makes Bo Guagua a bona fide “third-generation red”
RSS