Life's 'kissing sailor' photo: sexual harassment or unadulterated joy?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Glenn McDuffie, the man believed to be the “kissing sailor” of Times Square captured in Life magazine’s pages in 1945, died this month. But not before the feminist establishment successfully transformed the hapless McDuffie from an exuberant symbol of America’s joy and relief at Japan’s surrender and the ending of World War II into a malevolent symbol of that current feminist bugaboo: “rape culture.”
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That was then. Now, we have this from the “pursuit of gender equality” website Crates and Ribbons:

“It seems pretty clear, then, that what George had committed would be considered sexual assault by modern standards…. The fact that this much-loved photo is a depiction of sexual assault, rather than passion, is an uncomfortable truth, and to call it out as such might make one seem to be a priggish wet blanket. After all, this sailor has risked his life for his country. Surely his relief and excitement at the end of the war is justified? Surely these are unique circumstances? The answer to the first question is yes. He is perfectly entitled to be ecstatic. He is perfectly entitled to celebrate. However, this entitlement does not extend to his impinging on someone else’s bodily autonomy.

“The unwillingness to recognize a problem here is not surprising, considering the rape culture in which we live.”

Fortunately, the statute of limitations for a sexual-assault prosecution had run out by the time Glenn McDuffie died.
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We really do live in a different age from the one in which young men, even teenage boys, eagerly and bravely helped bring their country to victory and in which young women were proud to be kissed by them — and people all over America, young and old, viewed an image of such a kiss as an expression of unadulterated joy.'

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