is, contrary to her mother Herodias, not a wanton, and she is not at all experienced in the ways of the world. She tries to escape Herod’s ‘male gazing’ because she feels threatened by it, and in a speech she admires the moon for being chaste. It is only when she sees Jokanaan that passions she had never known before come into existence. Jokanaan insults her by treating her as a harlot, though she is none. He despises her love. Now if that isn’t perverse and cruel. ...
