Jiří Petrbok: Semen Masks (1999)
Following a number of cases involving men secretly ejaculating on to women's belongings, politicians in South Korea are seeking to make what has become known - ludicrously - as semen terrorism into a punishable sex crime, rather than merely a form of property damage.
Now, on the one hand, I'm sympathetic to the women who have had semen smeared on their clothes, for example, as this not only incurs dry cleaning expenses, but can, I imagine, cause distress as well as outrage and disgust.
Ultimately, no one wants a stranger jizzing on them (or in their cup of coffee) without their knowledge and prior consent. I think we can pretty much all agree on that. However, on the other hand, I'm not sure this should be considered a sexual assault, even if it has sexualised overtones due to the nature of the substance used to despoil the property (or beverage).
And in order to prove that these acts constituted a form of sexual violence, it would be important to show intent and that's tricky, because whilst the victim may feel they have been sexually humiliated, even violated, the perpetrator may have had no wrongdoing or malice in mind.
Indeed, one might imagine rather lonely men who may regard the act of semen marking as generous and affectionate; an attempt to share something of themselves and to reach out to others.
Or, perhaps, they are men of a more religious mindset, who regard semen as possessing magical or divine properties; this could be a method of putting the object of their affection under a spell, or secretly anointing them with what Jesus called living water.
In other words, we might see this is a sacramental rather than a terroristic use of semen; an illicit act of love, rather than a hate crime ... (Although it's probably just another sign of the pornification of culture in general and the sexual objectification of women in particular.)
