This conversation in which western feminists are debating the significance of the Muslim veil for women brings up many issues. It points to the historical meaning of women’s bodies and the battle over who ultimately controls them. It’s easy to romanticize the veil or to condemn it off hand without consideration of the degree of veiling and the wider context. A head scarf is a very different thing than a burqa. Degree and context in this case is everything.
Unfortunately many feminist have not been able to reconcile motherhood and its demands and a full functioning human being. This is evident in the recent essay by Katie Rophie, a diehard feminist, regarding her shockingly loving relationship with her new baby. Some feminist are besides themselves of how to explain this lapse. It’s worth remembering that many, if not most feminist, are perfectly content being mothers and the implication of that relationship. They will also say that they do not want to be reduced to this as the defining relationship of their lives. The discomfort has been fed by liberal feminist’s love affair with the marketplace and the subsequent society’s denegration of value formally associated with women, cooperation, self-sacrifice and benevolence. Liberal feminism is married to the marketplace and its value. Interesting these are the values some radical feminist reject and associate with masculinist values of competition, individualism, and ruthless capitalism. Roiphe is discovering how women managed to survive in their subordinated position for centuries, the power of life giving love.
Why can’t we to get beyond is this dicodomy between motherhood and work? Women, like men, have been created for two God given purposes, relationships and creative work. They are NOT mutually exclusive. It is historical fact that women of excellent talent and potential have been systematically denied the opportunity by family, church, and state to give the world their best whether it’s in science, education, theology, art, music, you name it. That is why people can still ask, why are there no great women composers? It’s not natural, its prescribed.
Nevertheless, women have flourished in areas allowed to them including mothering, nursing, religious work, and some teaching. Let’s have more of everything and cut out this motherhood vs work vs feminism debate.
Read this extensive report from the New York Times on the global state of women. No woman any where can be assured of her life and liberty while millions suffer simply because they are women.
One of the most exciting things happening right now for women globally is in Iran. See this story in the Washington Post on the role of women who are demanding change.The Muslim world is known for its repressive laws against women’s freedom from denial of education to stoning for accusations of adultery. The women of Iran are demonstrating that for many education, plus a communications revolution, is fueling the spread of liberalizing ideas. The question remains on how this will affect the Muslim religion itself. Will there be, as some have proposed, a Muslim reformation? The alternative is a long and violent struggle within the Muslim world.
and Palin is armed. Well, what can I say. I find it very difficult right now to find interesting things on the web to comment on. America is in full throttle political mode. I try to stay out of this but, I can’t help myself. Here is another eye-opening piece from Camille Paglia, my favorite pagan.
Cultural critic Camille Paglia offers an insightful and challenging appraisal of the current state of affairs within feminism. Read her lecture here published in Arion. She asks some important questions:
“What precisely is feminism? Is it a theory, an ideology, or a praxis (that is, a program for action)? Is feminism perhaps so Western in its premises that it cannot be exported to other cultures without distorting them? When we find feminism in medieval or Renaissance writers, are we exporting modern ideas backwards? Who is or is not a feminist, and who defines it? Who confers legitimacy or authenticity? Must a feminist be a member of a group or conform to a dominant ideology or its subsets? Who declares, and on what authority, what is or is not permissible to think or say about gender issues? And is feminism intrinsically a movement of the left, or can there be a feminism based on conservative or religious principles?”
On the right, we have those who see feminism as the boogey woman, the enemy of marriage, the family and the reason for the demise of manhood. On the left, we have those who want one narrow definition of what a feminist is and what a feminist must affirm. As Paglia points out in her lecture, the explosion in media has allowed different voices within feminism to be heard. What we our doing with our voice is yet unclear.
While the political and economic power western women have gained is a positive move, it doesn’t automatically bring about the good. It all depends on what we choose to do with our unprecedented position in global history. The story is not over and only time will tell if we will be even half as effective as some of the great women of the nineteenth century, a time when women had less formal power but more moral outrage. Our effective use of power will be measured in my book by whether we advocate for those who have less.
Getting married? Wondering what to give your bridesmaids who have spent good money on a dress they will never wear again? How about a Botox party? See this story in the New York Times. Oh, the perils of affluency!
Read this story in The New York Times by medical missionary Sue Makin. This is one story, among many, that highlights the sad fact that childbirth is still a dangerous process for many women in the world.
See this video at Salon.com about sex difference research. The question yet to be answered is how does learned behavior change our brain?
I haven’t been blogging lately because frankly the media noise has been so loud that it’s hard to figure out what’s important and what’s just noise. Well, I think this is important. After years in office this is the strongest statement by US Secretary of State Rice regarding violence against women worldwide. Here is another article about how rape is used as a weapon of war. Maybe with only few months left Rice feels like she can afford to speak up in a significant way.
