Assault

okay so I have to be completely honest in saying that i’m not quite sure that i understand everything Pope is trying to say but i’m going to try my hardest to conjure up some semblance of a theory and present it to you hooligans. i vaguely remember reading this poem in high school but that means absolutely nothing considering i still don’t understand it today. anyway, in the very first cantos, Pope mentions that a good and respectful lord couldn’t possibly have the intent of harassing or assaulting a belle. first of all, no. i understand this is satirical and that he supposedly means the exact opposite but i honestly feel like this is one of those situations where he does think the things he is writing are actually true but he’s playing off as satirical writing so that he won’t be ostracized for his opinions. but anyway, the only thing i can think of while reading the first cantos is literally a major problem in today’s society which is that of rape. he says “o say what stranger cause, yet unexplor’d, could make a gentle belle reject a lord?” this is honestly bonkers because we hear so much of this same attitude today. “you were wearing that outfit which must mean you wanted me to make a move” or “the way you were looking at me or talking to me or blah blah blah” everyone just makes excuses for their own actions and Pope is essentially saying that women have no cause to turn down a lord, simply for the fact that he has male genitalia? because that is all i’m getting from this. so to conclude, women have every right to turn down a man if she wants to, men have every right not to be a perverted skippy, and Pope was probably one of the biggest creeps of his time period. thanks for coming to me Telfair talk.