The double standards of the Left never cease to amaze and disgust. The Left’s latest “target” is the iconic V-J Day photo of a kiss captured on Aug. 14, 1945, by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.
The Department Of Veterans Affairs was reportedly discussing the banning of the Victory Over Japan Day kiss photo from all department facilities in a memo on Feb. 29, and removing it from the premises “in alignment with the Department Of Veterans Affairs’ commitment to maintaining a safe, respectful, and trauma-informed environment,” according to the memo.
The memo goes on to say that “this action is promoted by the recognition that the photograph, which depicts a non-consensual act, is inconsistent with the VA’s no-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and assault.”
As word got out on X, VA Secretary Denis McDonough went into PR damage-control mode and tweeted the image of the photograph and said, “Let me be clear: This image is not banned from VA facilities—and we will keep it in VA facilities.”
That’s great news, of course. But the would-be banning of this photo is the bigger concern here. Leave it to the woke Left to continue to seek to torch any part of history that it deems unworthy to be remembered.
It reeks of the #MeToo era during now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. He faced an onslaught of unproven sexual assault allegations, starting with those of 51-year-old research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford.
Critics of the iconic V-J Day kiss photo—The Washington Post, chief among them—say that sailor George Mendonsa’s kiss, celebrating the announcement of the end of World War II with Victory over Japan (hence, the “V-J”), with unsuspecting passerby Greta Friedman, has no rightful place in history because it was nonconsensual and could be viewed as sexual harassment.
Friedman, by the way, did not see Mendonsa’s kiss as sexual assault, according to The New York Times: “Ms. Friedman did not shy away from the photo or her role in it, her son said. Mr. Friedman said he believed she understood the argument that it was an assault, but did not necessarily view it that way.”
Once again, it’s time for a reality check.
Those same people, who feel it necessary to ban a beautiful photo of two attractive—and fully clothed—people celebrating the end of World War II, also feel it absolutely necessary, on the other hand, to permit previously allowed drag shows on military bases.
The Pentagon under President Joe Biden has also come under fire for providing pornographic material to children explaining how to masturbate, as well as pushing gender ideology on kids. For example, one of the books uncovered by a Fox News Digital investigation, “This Book is Gay,” talked about the casual hookup site Grindr and provided graphic information on how to have anal and “girl on girl” sex.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the zeitgeist—“the spirit of the time”—might not be surprised. The self-described radical leftist Toppled Monuments Archive lists 94 monuments deemed “colonialist, imperialist, racist and sexist monuments” as having been removed. Meanwhile, the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center’s Whose Heritage? Project said that 168 Confederate symbols—such as statues, institution names, and plaques—were removed or renamed in 2020.
So, the government gives pornography to kids and encourages them to learn how to masturbate on one another, but debates whether it should allow a photo of a veteran and a nurse, fully clothed, celebrating the end of one of the worst wars the world has seen, to remain on display?
It gives the impression that we’d rather pretend to have some warped moral high ground while banning icons of history and at the same time grooming our children into sexual deviancy.
It has never been a more appropriate time for a wake-up call. Society can’t have it both ways. We can’t say that it’s too offensive to have one of the most well-recognized and celebrated photos of all time on display while at the same time corrupting the minds and hearts of children in our schools and even our military institutions and call that OK.
Just for the sake of argument, maybe the iconic V-J Day kiss shouldn’t have happened because it wasn’t consensual, although I don’t think it’s ever right to cede any ground to the #MeToo spin zone. That’s not to say men shouldn’t be gentlemen and never take advantage of a lady—full stop.
The other side of the coin, though, is that most kisses come with an element of surprise. But the Left thinks it’s better to claim moral superiority by banning a stunning photo of two adults kissing, while at the same time providing pornography to children. That’s why we really need a reality check.
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