Eccentric Flower:200909/Other World 2

In the previous entry I posted a couple of links which seemed to me pertinent to the matter of friction along the interface between Americans and the Muslim world. You should go back and read them if you have not and your time permits.

Today I see that a minor tempest has been ensuing over the weekend at yon BoingBoing. Not that this is news. Regular readers may have noticed that I link BB far less these days than I did in the past. This is mostly because my BB irritation threshold finally exceeded usable bounds. BB has many intelligent and articulate posters (even the ones I am disposed to dislike), and therefore one would like to assume that they also attract intelligent and articulate readers. In short, I expect its comment threads to be a cut above the general level of the internet cesspool, and I got tired of being gravely disappointed when, over and over, they prove themselves to be no better than par and sometimes even considerably worse.

But it strikes me that there's an interesting phenomenon on display here and here (maybe not so interesting that it's worth plowing through those huge threads, but if you skim them you will get the idea).

Start with two premises, both of which I think are true:

- Many Americans have serious Islamophobia.

- There are reasons to fear and loathe certain minority segments of Islam.

Now, given that there are many legitimate reasons to froth at the mouth about Islam, reasons of theocracy and oppression and fomenting hatred and terrorism and goodies like that, why is it that the touchstone, the lens through which all this hate and rage gets focused, is the burqa?

N.B. "Burqa" (also burkha, burka, etc because we have no standard of Arabic transliteration in this country) is a collective term for the entire package - a covering outer robe (jilbab), a head covering (hijab), and a veil (niqab). Using "hijab" as an interchangeable term for the entire lot is not only incorrect but can also be confusing, because in some contexts "hijab" is used to mean the general Muslim rules on modesty and dress.

The word "hijab" in its most literal use is generally glossed as "curtain" and its metaphorical uses all stem from the idea of curtaining off something from something else, hence its contexts in both privacy and modesty. Not all flavors of Islam agree on what constitutes acceptable hijab as it refers to dress, and there are bitter divisions on this even within the Islamic world.

My personal theory is that the burqa unfortunately falls at the intersection of three discussions:

- Islam and Islamophobia
- Sexism and gender relations
- Theocracies and totalitarianism in general

And thus, what should probably be the least important, least controversial side effect of Islam has often become the representative battle - the whole controversy in miniature, as it were.

If BoingBoing had the quality of comment that Making Light consistently does, I would be reading it more often. Here is what I think is the key summation from their thread on this:

This goes for me too, especially that last paragraph.

The reason I linked the two items previously is because a lot of my countrymen seem to think this is a war - us vs. Islam. If it is a war - which I don't think it is - then what I was trying to point out is that there's a good chance they will win. I'm not sure what "win" would mean in this context, exactly, but I will say this (and if it's not already self-evident to you then memorize it):

When tracking trends in cultural change/seepage, always put your money on the people who are having the most babies.

I don't happen to think it's a war, but I do think what we think of as cultural equilibrium has a lot more shifting to do. There will be a lot more halal. There will be a mosque in your neighborhood. The average American will one day have to be at least as minimally aware of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr as they are of Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur. And you're going to see a lot more people wearing some clothing that does not in any way match your ideas of what is proper.

Get ready now and be an adult about it, is what I'm saying.

One more thing.

Last night while in-game with Mel I commented on how it seems like most men, even men who should be better-adjusted, freak out totally at any discussion of menstruation or any aspects thereunto. I don't get this, and I never have (I think it's because I grew up in a house with two women). Sure, menstruation is unpleasant, but our bodies do a lot of other things, some of which are far more unpleasant. (Where does menstruation fall on a spectrum that also contains bad breath, earwax, diarrhea, and vomit?) In other words, no, it's not a dinner table topic, but it shouldn't make people run screaming from the room either.

I try not to holler "Sexism!" unless I really mean it, but it strikes me that many of the men who will react violently at any discussion of menstrual matters are the same men who will talk your ears off about their erectile issues without reservation. In other words, it's not a matter of a topic being unacceptable as much as it's a matter of control.

The pertinence of the two paragraphs above to the rest of this entry: I have a low capacity for any discussion of the burqa which is driven by men right now. Or, as noted in the Making Light thread:

Finally, I would like to take note of a particularly Swiftian comment at BoingBoing (which means it was probably lost on most of its readers):