I have been thinking a lot about Muslim woman since Alex showed the ninja video on Thursday. We spoke of the misconceptions towards Muslim woman, but I'm still unsure they are misconceptions. Although we could say this about any culture or society that we haven't actually encountered first hand. All we have to go off of is what we are shown.
We spoke about how the woman in the ninja video most likely come from a wealthy family but what about the woman who don't... is that where the misconception comes from? Alex was also talking about seeing the woman in their homes in
Juicy Couture... once again we are speaking of families that are wealthy.There is a lot to consider when you think about things like this... they are just regular woman like anyone here. There is no reason to believe they are different. Maybe its just the cultural difference that we see negatively but if that is the case who are we to decide what is best for another culture? What do other people think about the image of Muslim woman?
It depends on what you mean by misconceptions. Certainly, many Middle Eastern nations are quite sexist, and much of the discrimination that the American media loves to portray does occur. However, I do not think it is nearly as widespread, or in many cases as severe, as the media implies. This is largely because the media implies universality, a concept which rarely exists in regards to humans. Humans are quite variable; even within one nation, or one state, or even one county or town people's outlooks on life and various social, religious, and ethical views vary. In one single, Massachusetts town you might find people who are radical, vegan, LGBT-friendly, atheistic liberals, and other people who are strict, patriarchal, homo-and-trans-phobic, highly religious conservatives. There is no reason to think that Middle Eastern countries cannot contain similar variability, although perhaps not quite to the extent found in America (due to the heterogeneous nature of American society).
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also posted this on my blog if you'd rather read it there.