[kj] Jaz Straw

[fluw]

very well put perspective...top notch post culturevirus. thanks for that

culturevirus wrote:
> coming out of lurkdom again... being a US based person, the politics 
> of Britain are mostly unknown to me, but we have roughly the same set 
> of circumstances in the US. I have yet to hear/read of any of our 
> politicians speaking on the subject in such a level-headed manner as 
> Mr. Straw. Our politicians tend to speak in small words and short 
> sentences so as to discourage deep thought on issues and therefore 
> maintain knee-jerk voting based on political hatred for "the other party".
>
> Ade's comment (echoed by a few others) reflects the way a lot of us 
> Westerners view the hijab: as a way to keep women down or force women 
> to shoulder the burden of policing the male sexual drive. I know part 
> of me feels that way as well. But as Straw pointed out early in his 
> column, many women do choose to wear head coverings of some type. If 
> you ask these women many of them will respond that like school 
> uniforms it keeps them equal with their peers and reduces the 
> distraction of clothing differences and focuses peoples attentions on 
> the wearer and not the clothes. Such clothing can make women feel 
> empowered as they no longer face distracted men who are (even 
> subconciously) checking out their physical features and are forced to 
> deal with the woman as a social equal.
>
> I recently read a book on the history of The Habit (Catholic nun garb) 
> and many nuns feel the same way. Within the communities of these women 
> there is disagreement over whether such attire has an overall positive 
> or negative affect on their place in society. Nearly all agree 
> however, that it sets them apart from other women and puts them in a 
> frame of reference that is unique among their sex.
>
> In a perfect world women will choose to wear such attire for what they 
> feel it does for them as a person and not what their sub-culture 
> expects of them.
>
> I am culturevirus
>
> */ade <ade at the-lab.zetnet.co.uk>/* wrote:
>
>     I dunno. I just think it's odd to defend a way of keeping women
>     down. Nevertheless, I'll defend the right
>     to wear the things!
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/gathering/attachments/20061011/b96b9988/attachment.htm