Aequore quot pisces, fronde tegunter aves, quot caelum stellas, tot habet tua
Roma puellas.
(Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.58-59)

As many fish in the sea, as many birds covered by branches (of the tree), as
many stars as the sky holds, so many girls does your Rome hold.

(pron = ai-KWOH-ray kwot PIS-kays FROHN-day teh-GOON-toor kwot KAI-loom
STEHL-lahs toht HAH-bet TOO-ah ROH-mah PWEL-las)

Comment: When you see the ocean, you think fish. When you see trees, you see
birds. When you see the sky, you think stars. And when you see Rome, you
think "what a hot time tonight!".

Ovid, the "love" poet, places girls in Rome as the appropriate decor for the
capital of the world at his time. Girls adorn the city, as birds do trees, or
stars the sky, or fish the sea. One take on Ovid, one that I don't often
consider, is that he is a real exploiter of women, and that his writings either
give evidence of that or serve as a guide for how to do that--or that he is
warning of men who do that. This quotation certainly portrays a patronizing
view of women. They are decorations for the city.

Do we place certain people, or certain kinds of people in catagories from which,
at least in our minds, they are never allowed to escape? It is a form of
exploitation that might never surface in a lawsuit, thought the products of
such thinking often do.

At this writing there is a major case at a major university where members of an
athletic team are accused of raping a woman. It remains to be seen whether
they are guilty or not. In the meantime, in news reports, that the woman was
attacked has been substantiated. Thought the victim of an attack, she
continues to be referred to as an exotic dancer, a stripper, etc. What has not
surfaced is that she is also a university student. Who is promoting the labels
being used for her? What effect do they have, and on whom?

In Ovid's day, Rome was full of girls--many of whom were slaves. He could have
his way with any of those girls because they were slaves, and no one would
care. And he could use a slave, as he reports in his Ars, to help him get her
mistress. The slave girl, if found out by her mistress, could be beaten for
her disloyalty. The slave girl could also be beaten by the mistress' boyfriend
who used her to get the mistress in the first place. What did it matter? Rome
was full of girls.

Exploitation is a very old "art".