The catalogue photo to the left was released in Sweden; the one to the right was released in Saudi. To the right, the woman has conspicuously vanished from the photo. While I don’t deny that this is indicative of Saudi’s approach to sexual equality--and a degree of very poignant and disturbed reactions followed after I …
Category: culture
The Western Muslim Woman, Part III
The last installment. This little series has felt quite tentative, possibly because I’d attempted to discuss an expansive subject in three parts. An appreciative ‘thank you’ to anyone who tolerated the disorganized writing and disheveled thoughts between essays and finals. I hope that somewhere in the midst of it all I managed to make some …
The Western Muslim Woman, Part II: Visual Presentation and Interpretation
Having thrown out the idea of identifying with a race in part I, I feel I should make something clear: as much as I see the social construct of race to be problematic, I am not interested in ripping race away from other people. I know that others identify with race for reactionary reasons, or …
Continue reading The Western Muslim Woman, Part II: Visual Presentation and Interpretation
To Keep in Mind Tomorrow
I really love this campaign against the stereotyping and appropriation of non-White cultures for Halloween costumes. And then this one! Okay, the first time I saw that I cringed. My instinct was that the intention of the message was to disparage, in a "cute" way (oh look! her culture is magic!), especially since it appears …
a discomfort
A quick post, because I have an intense day ahead of me. A couple of weeks ago in class I found myself shifting uncomfortably in my seat, unfortunately not due to any intriguing challenge to my perspective. My English professor, who is extremely intelligent, concluded an anecdote regarding the derogation of her field by people …
Politically Correct
The thing is, it’s called “political correctness” because it is, in fact, correct. The most popular example, the one about “Merry Christmas” being changed to “Happy Holidays”–we say “Happy Holidays” because it’s correct. People are celebrating like six different holidays by the end of December. Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, Saturnalia, Kwanza, New Years, etc. Of course …
religion versus culture (hopefully the last entry I’ll ever write on this tired subject)
My last post kind of brings me to the insufferable religion versus culture debate, which I've been meaning to record, and which I am hoping has been (at least temporarily) put to rest in the comments section of a post by almostclever. In the post she writes, Then take what you learned and apply it …
the fatal feminist 