A Tale of Two Perversities

It is hard to think of a recent story that has provoked more anger and discussion than the Dalhousie dentistry scandal. I myself wrote a few weeks ago about the pain it made me feel. As I’ve watched the staying power of this story though, I’ve started to realize that there is another aspect to this scandal that I find somewhat troubling.

Why is it that we are so mad about this one particular instance of offensive behaviour, when there are far greater, more horrifying things happening to the women in this city that don’t generate nearly half as much commentary? We hear stories about prostitutes being beaten, robbed and raped, and where is the outrage and the protests? We have laws that hinder sex workers from being able to operate at least a little safely— laws that target these women for doing something that they have to do to survive, and I don’t see a fraction of the same level of complaint from the outraged masses who claim to be fighting for the rights of women every time they craft a clever Twitter dig against the Dentistry ‘gentlemen’.

What those men posted in their Facebook group was disgusting, and I stand by what I wrote a few weeks ago when I called for the expulsion of anyone actively involved in the posting of content that glorifies sexual assault or the degradation of women and sexual minorities. Let’s be honest with ourselves though: their actions cannot remotely compare to the crimes of such notorious local human trafficking rings as ‘North Preston’s Finest’, which receive far less media and water-cooler attention.

Some suggest that it is the identity of the culprits that causes us to devote so much attention.

We hold professionals like dentists to a higher standard, and so it is shocking when they betray our trust.

I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that excuse. Do you recognize the name Duane Alan Rhyno?

Probably not. Mr. Rhyno is a local lawyer who graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1997, and now runs his own law firm just outside of the city. Back in October, following a three-month RCMP investigation, Mr. Rhyno was charged with human trafficking, aiding and abetting prostitution, living off the avails of prostitution, and sexual assault.

You don’t know who he is, because aside from a small batch of roll-your-eyes “lawyer in trouble” pieces released when he was charged, nobody seemed to care. There is barely enough original content to fill the first page of Google results. Compare this with the national outrage and endless page results generated by a search of the dentistry scandal.

Think about it for a moment. This is a lawyer who is not charged with posting gross Facebook comments, but with human trafficking and ACTUAL sexual assault. The case against this man does not rest on a set of screen caps that may nor may not tell the full story, but a three-month investigation by the RCMP. Somehow though, we feel that Rhyno’s alleged crimes deserve only the smallest fraction of attention that we devoted to the dentistry ‘gentlemen’.

Did I mention that while many online commenters have raged over the fact that the dentistry students were simply suspended pending an investigation and not immediately expelled, Mr. Rhyno spent a grand total of ten days suspended before being allowed to resume his practice while his case works its way through the system. This man is continuing to practice as a legal professional, unsupervised at his solo firm, and yet there is no catchy hashtag like #NSBAhateswomen taking over Twitter, or mass movement demanding that the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Association overturn its decision.

Something is obviously wrong here. This clearly isn’t about us holding professionals to higher standards.

This isn’t really about the men at all. It is about the women. Sex workers in this city are suffering absolutely outrageous degradation on a regular basis— why aren’t we fighting for those who desperately need someone to stick up for them?

I can’t help but feel that our society has somehow decided that these female dentistry students, who in comparison to most sex workers are quite privileged, have been deemed “good”, “valuable” citizens who are worthy of our passionate defence. Sex workers, on the other hand, are “bad”, so when bad things happen to them, we can feel free to look the other way.

I wrote about this at Halloween when I addressed the Madonna-Whore complex in horror movies—we feel that certain characters deserve to live or die based on their level of morality, which for the female characters is generally tied to their level of promiscuity and other ‘unseemly’ behaviour. While this may be frustrating when it manifests in a theatre, it takes cases like these for us to see the real world impact that such instinctive reasoning can have.

We need to do better. We need to fight for those whose voices have been muffled under the weight of judgement from the law and society. This insidious, unspoken judgement from society that sex workers are not worth fighting for is disgusting, and it needs to be changed.

It’s great that so many people are talking about misogyny, but I truly feel we need to direct some of that energy towards areas that may be less comfortable for many to talk about: sex workers, the laws that work against them, and the johns that are exploiting them. The abuse of sex workers needs to end now, and maybe, if we can muster the same passion we’ve had for denouncing the inappropriate comments directed against “good” women, we might be able to make a real difference.