K (Gently) Bitch-Slaps ‘Dog…Details at 10

Right off the bat, my Red Burqa take gets the business from Bitch | Lab: here, I will respond and rebut in kind (that is, with the same love and respect):

bitchlab Says:

April 3rd, 2006 at 5:23 pm
@ Anthony

Oh. Well. There are a lot of issues going on, but real quick:

Do you think that women in blue states should run around steroetyping everyone who lives in poverty in the deep south as the epitomy of what it means to be oppressed?

In other words, would someone in NYC be “cool” if she had an advertisement of a woman symbolically portrayed as southern white trash, laying splayed on the floor beaten, a man over her slinging a beer can in one hand and a clenched fist coming down on her again. Text reads:

Women of the Blue States unite, this is what your fate will be like if you don’t unite against sexism in the Blue states. This is what your government is turning into: the guy in the wife beater tee-shirt and you will be the black and blew trailer trollop getting slugged.

—-

Acknowledged and so noted, Miz Bitch…but still, I don’t really think that that was the goal of TennGW to smear Arab women or Muslims..it was to raise interest to the basic notion of women’s rights under attack here in the US of A. I do cede that the use of the burqa is well over the line and pretty uncool..but that does not erase the stated goal of those who support anti-abortion and other anti-sex laws in the US, which is to reduce women in the US to third class citizens.

Of course, the sensibilities of Arab Muslim women who do resist the more misogynic and brutal laws and customs of their governments while retaining their right to express their religious beliefs should always be respected..and I am totally in favor of Islamic feminists who attempt to emphasize the more progressive elements in Islam (as I would any attempt from within to transform an institution into something more humane and equal.

My point here, however, is that it’s one thing to criticize the misplaced sensibilities of TennGW’s ad from a perspective of winning over other groups of women..it’s something else to excessively bash them as racist, elitist, and White supremacists for their apparent lack of sensibility to Islamic women. For them, the context is to defend women’s rights here in the US, not to reach out to Islamic women as part of the greater world feminist movement. That’s hardly what I’d call “Western imperialism” in any way.

Besides…how many of those professed “Islamic feminists” would be willing to openly support the goals and objectives of groups like TennGW in supporting reproductive rights for women…or would that be too “Western” and “imperialistic” and “elitist” for their conservative sensibilities?? As to use your analogy, not all red-state women are or should be cracked on as “White trash” (and that would definitely be a serious example of class and race bigotry)…but the fact remains that many red-state women do indeed reject openly and defiantly the progressive agenda assumed in “blue-state” feminism. Do thier sensibilities have to come before the principles of defending the freedom of women who are under assault from the broader Right..the same Right to which those same red-state women continue to support with their votes??

Similarly, just because there may be a few Islamic feminist women who use the burqa as a means of challenging Islam from within does not erase the basic fact that the majority of those women who defend the burqa tend to be staunch traditionalists (if not fundamentalists) who would reject even the most basic of feminist theory as “gender feminists” and who would ally with the most reactionary forces to maintain their privileges. Should attempts to win these people over trump basic defense of the most fundamental rights of equality here???

[/Bitchlab]
Completely silent are the voices of women in red states. Women in red states are positioned as having no feminist consciousness, as having no agency whatsoever, as being — effectively — incapable of speaking.

Now, thrown in there a scenario where it’s racial stereotyping of southern poor black women and men.

That’s what people are on about.

It comes — at least I assume — from deconstructive readings of imperialist feminism made by the likes of Gayatri Spivak, Mohanty, and others.

No one says you must ask permission.

They DO say: can’t y’all be a little less fucked up about they way you choose to represent those “brown Others”?

It’s a complicated issue, and arguing against the misappropriation of symbols from other cultures — demonizing as much if not more than the US govt has already — is wrong is not the same thing as saying, “Oh yeah, your religion is like so totally cool.” [/BL]

That is more than fair, especially in the current situation…that’s the very reason why my critique of them is based on principles of radical anti-imperialism and internationalism rather than mere cracking down on their religion. Just because Islam may be the only institution in th Middle East that is opposing US interventionism in the Middle East does not take away or cancel out legitimate criticism of their base conservative social mores…any more than it would with Judaism or Christianity or any other organized religion which uses the power of the state to enforce their rules.

To make it all hit home, what happens when feminists in blue states tell women in red states that their lives totally suck? A lot of those women say, “You know what, fuck you, you elitist snobs. Im’ sick of you assholes stereotyping us. I’m sick of you mocking our language. I m sick of you making fun of our culture, our food, our mores as somehow low class.”

And the possiblities of actually building a women’s movement that sees our liberation as bound up with their’s, as pithy as that is, kind of falls by the way side as some variants of feminism literally encourage women to side with the very things we on about, defending it and their identies against assaults from people who send off the vibe that they really do think they are incredibly superior to your ass.

Bad juju.

Again, Miz Bitch, so noted and acknowledged. But..I would say that the better way of engaging those who may not agree with our principles is NOT to suck up to their conservative values to the point of undermining progressive values; we’ve had enough of that with the DLC and the antiporn feminist movement (and what good that has done, too). A much better way is to use the ideas of full equality and respect for difference and diversity, combined with a focus on the institutions and foundational theories that generate and enforce inequality and injustice, to win over those suspectable to right-wing populist ideas to a more humane agenda. And I’m not just talking about just a women’s movement, either; I’m talking about a radical movement against all inequal institutions.

Before we can tackle the world, though, let’s first address the struggle here in the US, where much of the battles will have to be fought, since here where is the bulkwark of world imperialism and White supremacy and reactionary social policy resides.

Not to say that TennGW wasn’t overstepping it a bit..but the reaction just made it that much worse.

That’s only my view…to each his or her own.

K (Gently) Bitch-Slaps ‘Dog…Details at 10

Right off the bat, my Red Burqa take gets the business from Bitch | Lab: here, I will respond and rebut in kind (that is, with the same love and respect):

bitchlab Says:

April 3rd, 2006 at 5:23 pm
@ Anthony

Oh. Well. There are a lot of issues going on, but real quick:

Do you think that women in blue states should run around steroetyping everyone who lives in poverty in the deep south as the epitomy of what it means to be oppressed?

In other words, would someone in NYC be “cool” if she had an advertisement of a woman symbolically portrayed as southern white trash, laying splayed on the floor beaten, a man over her slinging a beer can in one hand and a clenched fist coming down on her again. Text reads:

Women of the Blue States unite, this is what your fate will be like if you don’t unite against sexism in the Blue states. This is what your government is turning into: the guy in the wife beater tee-shirt and you will be the black and blew trailer trollop getting slugged.

—-

Acknowledged and so noted, Miz Bitch…but still, I don’t really think that that was the goal of TennGW to smear Arab women or Muslims..it was to raise interest to the basic notion of women’s rights under attack here in the US of A. I do cede that the use of the burqa is well over the line and pretty uncool..but that does not erase the stated goal of those who support anti-abortion and other anti-sex laws in the US, which is to reduce women in the US to third class citizens.

Of course, the sensibilities of Arab Muslim women who do resist the more misogynic and brutal laws and customs of their governments while retaining their right to express their religious beliefs should always be respected..and I am totally in favor of Islamic feminists who attempt to emphasize the more progressive elements in Islam (as I would any attempt from within to transform an institution into something more humane and equal.

My point here, however, is that it’s one thing to criticize the misplaced sensibilities of TennGW’s ad from a perspective of winning over other groups of women..it’s something else to excessively bash them as racist, elitist, and White supremacists for their apparent lack of sensibility to Islamic women. For them, the context is to defend women’s rights here in the US, not to reach out to Islamic women as part of the greater world feminist movement. That’s hardly what I’d call “Western imperialism” in any way.

Besides…how many of those professed “Islamic feminists” would be willing to openly support the goals and objectives of groups like TennGW in supporting reproductive rights for women…or would that be too “Western” and “imperialistic” and “elitist” for their conservative sensibilities?? As to use your analogy, not all red-state women are or should be cracked on as “White trash” (and that would definitely be a serious example of class and race bigotry)…but the fact remains that many red-state women do indeed reject openly and defiantly the progressive agenda assumed in “blue-state” feminism. Do thier sensibilities have to come before the principles of defending the freedom of women who are under assault from the broader Right..the same Right to which those same red-state women continue to support with their votes??

Similarly, just because there may be a few Islamic feminist women who use the burqa as a means of challenging Islam from within does not erase the basic fact that the majority of those women who defend the burqa tend to be staunch traditionalists (if not fundamentalists) who would reject even the most basic of feminist theory as “gender feminists” and who would ally with the most reactionary forces to maintain their privileges. Should attempts to win these people over trump basic defense of the most fundamental rights of equality here???

[/Bitchlab]
Completely silent are the voices of women in red states. Women in red states are positioned as having no feminist consciousness, as having no agency whatsoever, as being — effectively — incapable of speaking.

Now, thrown in there a scenario where it’s racial stereotyping of southern poor black women and men.

That’s what people are on about.

It comes — at least I assume — from deconstructive readings of imperialist feminism made by the likes of Gayatri Spivak, Mohanty, and others.

No one says you must ask permission.

They DO say: can’t y’all be a little less fucked up about they way you choose to represent those “brown Others”?

It’s a complicated issue, and arguing against the misappropriation of symbols from other cultures — demonizing as much if not more than the US govt has already — is wrong is not the same thing as saying, “Oh yeah, your religion is like so totally cool.” [/BL]

That is more than fair, especially in the current situation…that’s the very reason why my critique of them is based on principles of radical anti-imperialism and internationalism rather than mere cracking down on their religion. Just because Islam may be the only institution in th Middle East that is opposing US interventionism in the Middle East does not take away or cancel out legitimate criticism of their base conservative social mores…any more than it would with Judaism or Christianity or any other organized religion which uses the power of the state to enforce their rules.

To make it all hit home, what happens when feminists in blue states tell women in red states that their lives totally suck? A lot of those women say, “You know what, fuck you, you elitist snobs. Im’ sick of you assholes stereotyping us. I’m sick of you mocking our language. I m sick of you making fun of our culture, our food, our mores as somehow low class.”

And the possiblities of actually building a women’s movement that sees our liberation as bound up with their’s, as pithy as that is, kind of falls by the way side as some variants of feminism literally encourage women to side with the very things we on about, defending it and their identies against assaults from people who send off the vibe that they really do think they are incredibly superior to your ass.

Bad juju.

Again, Miz Bitch, so noted and acknowledged. But..I would say that the better way of engaging those who may not agree with our principles is NOT to suck up to their conservative values to the point of undermining progressive values; we’ve had enough of that with the DLC and the antiporn feminist movement (and what good that has done, too). A much better way is to use the ideas of full equality and respect for difference and diversity, combined with a focus on the institutions and foundational theories that generate and enforce inequality and injustice, to win over those suspectable to right-wing populist ideas to a more humane agenda. And I’m not just talking about just a women’s movement, either; I’m talking about a radical movement against all inequal institutions.

Before we can tackle the world, though, let’s first address the struggle here in the US, where much of the battles will have to be fought, since here where is the bulkwark of world imperialism and White supremacy and reactionary social policy resides.

Not to say that TennGW wasn’t overstepping it a bit..but the reaction just made it that much worse.

That’s only my view…to each his or her own.

The TennGW “Red Burqa” Brohaha: Whose Cultural Imperialism???

Well, what an interesting weekend this has been in the blogosphere…

First, there is the smackdown going on between Browninfempower (BiF) of WOC Blog and DarkDaughta of One Tenacious Baby Mama over the ongoing Women of Color Carnivals and how more sexually radical women are (or aren’t) being represented within the larger movement…and a few others have gotten into the fracus…

..and now, we have this nice poopstorm brewing over an ad posted by a women’s group called the Tennessee Guerilla Women using the Muslim burqa as a symbolic campaign against repressive anti-abortion and anti-sex laws against women in the US.

I’ll save my comments on the former for another time..but the latter issue has me tied in knots due to my real misgivings over the fundamental issues raised.

Depending upon whomever you read amongst the feminist community, the TennGW “Red Burqa” campaign is either a brilliant stroke of “shock and awe” against the continuing attempt to roll back basic freedoms for women…or a gratituous and racist (as in “White Western elitist”) putdown of Islam and Islamic women who choose to defend that particular choice of covering as part of their stated beliefs…not to mention totaly wrong headed at a time when “the West” is assaulting Islamic nations as part of the “War on Terror”.

Now, I can respect — and even to a point concur with — the arguments of those like BiF and Liza at culturekitchen hat say that using the burqa as a symbol of all that oppresses women does indeed ignore the context of the current anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has undercut general Middle East politics and cultural debate throughout. And I can see just as clearly how it ignores the issue of how some Arab and Islamic women do defend (if not embrace) the hijab and the burqa as a symbol of their religious beliefs..even in resistance to the more fundamentalist, misogynistic forms of Islam practiced in many countries.

However…there are a few issues that force me to seperate myself a bit from that view.

To begin…let’s explain the context of TennGW’s campaign one more time, shall we?? It is NOT directed towards women in Iraq or Afghanistan or even Arab or Muslim women; it is directed towards women IN AMERICA who are indeed being threatened with the loss of basic American freedoms by the dominant ruling fundamentalist Right….who indeed openly state their preferred vision of covering up women that is quite similar to the fundamentalist Islamic concept of “burqas”. Here’s my first question: How in the holy hell is that in any way “cultural imperialism” or in any way a slam against Islamic women???

Please riddle me this: How does resisting laws proposed in Tennessee (and passed in South Dakota) outlawing a woman’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy (even one conceived against her will) represent “bigoted, racist, imperialist feminism” ??? I guess that “Islamic feminism” is considered more superior, more radical, more “feminist”, then, than more traditional liberal/progressive, “Western” ideas of female sexual autonomy and individual choice, then?? That’s the only conclusion I can come to after seeing this snippet of opposition to the TennGW ad from Liza at culturekitchen:

With this Red Burka campaign, you can see why they feel so estranged from American feminism.

In truth, I’d feel more comfortable describing this CafePress moment as one of utter stupidity wrapped in the ignorance and lack of cultural awareness that is typical of the privileged. I’ve always said that gringos of all kinds have the privilege of not having to learn about other people’s culture because American Empire needs its citizens to remain culturally clueless so it can spread like a virus far and wide.

Ahhh…pardon me, Liza…but since when did American women have to get approval from “Islamic feminists” to justify their basic rights as citizens to control their own bodies??? That some Islamic women may justify the burqa as their own symbol of feminist resistance from within Islam is their right and perogative, and all progressives should respect their position and give them the respect they deserve…but how does that relate to opposing restrictive laws here in the United States?? The fact remains that whether or not some women do accept the burqa, it remains a symbol of exactly the type of restrictive and punitive sexual code that is being imposed on many Arab women against their stated will in many areas. To label these women who do resist such a restrictive code as “imperialist Western elitists” is no less overgeneralizing and scapegoating than labeling all Islamic people (or all Arabs) as “terrorists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”…and, coming from people whom I assume would oppose restrictions on women’s freedoms, simply smacks of the same elitism that they throw like so much cowchips at the TennGW group.

Second point: It is so amazing to see how much some feminists and Leftists still can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to conflating critiques of Islam as a social belief system with “racism” or “cultural imperialism”…as if conservative Islam has replaced Communism and/or antiglobalization as the new progressive social movement against “Western imperialism”. It’s one thing to oppose the brutal and genocidal occupation of Iraq and the US/Israeli occupation of Palestine on general internationalist, antiimperialist and human decency grounds; it’s quite another thing altogether to embrace an “enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend” approach and blindly
ignore the more reactionary context of what Islam as a conservative institutionalized religion stands for. And before you drop the “anti-Muslim” card on me, my critique of Islam is based upon their status as an organized religion, in the same form that I would criticize equally Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism (sp?) or any other organized religion that uses the power of the State to impose restrictive and reactionary social views on other people.

In fact, I feel that those who are so quick to embrace “progressive Islam” as the next great Left movement (just like those who embraced liberation theology or other fad religious “progressive movements”) tend to ignore the structural bases of social repression in which MOST or ALL such movements tend to stand on…most of which are based fundamentally upon the second-class status of women and the full regulation if not total abolition of sexuality outside of the bounds of procreative marriage. There really is not that much difference between the Religious (Christian) Right’s advocacy of restrictions on women’s sexuality and the Islamic one..in fact, in many cases, Christian and Islamic fundamentalists will set aside their differences and unite together against the common shared threat of sexual liberation and sexual freedom that they say “feminism” (and homosexuality as well) represents.

It’s almost as if those who are so quick to drop the “Western imperialist” card on others who don’t embrace “progressive Islam” or “progressive Christianity” or other attempts to reconcile conservative social/sexual views with economic radicalism really are willing to impose their own conservative sexual biases on other, less “enlightened” women. Talk about a pot-to-kettle moment.

Now, this isn’t to say that Islamic people aren’t under attack from a brutal and aggressive form of White supremacy…far from it. The bombs are still dropping freely in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Occupied Territories (and are about to spread to Iran as well) and the underpinnings of simple White racism against any non-White person who gets in the way of the Imperial Guard is clear as day. But that’s the exact point….it is crass anti-Arab racism, not anti-Islamic thought, that ultimately lays the foundation for the violence and war there..Islam is only a symptom for the real disease of capitalism, inequality, and racism.

As tempting it may be to embrace Islam tourt court as the basis of resistance; as genuine Leftist sex radicals and secularist progresssives, we have to remain consistent in our insistence that while we respect the rights of individuals to express their personal faiths in whatever nonviolent way they wish, that does not give them the carte blanche to demonize those who choose to explore themselves otherwise.

The best that we as American progressives can do to help the Iraqis and Arabs (including those Muslim feminists who could use some real support) is to do our part to change the policies of our own government to end this imperialistic occupation and get our asses OUT of there ASAP….and then allow local forces to take over from there. After all our government has done to fuck things up, we have no moral standing to lecture anyone — let alone Muslims — on their actions.

In the meantime, we here in the United States of America have more than enough battles in our own plate to fight, and retaining basic rights of individual autonomy for women is one of the most important battles we face. The TennGW folks may have been a bit over the top with their Red Burka campaign….but they are a far, far cry from being anywhere near racist, imperialist, or elitist for their intentions. Rather than drown them with our own myopias and biases, why not support them with your time and money, and actually help them roll back the crusades of the Right here at home?? With all due respect to feminists within Islam, we have our own rights to take care of, too.

Of course, Kelley at Bitch | Lab is all over this topic, too..in fact, she’s made it a central pillar of her “F*ck Feminists” week…

The TennGW “Red Burqa” Brohaha: Whose Cultural Imperialism???

Well, what an interesting weekend this has been in the blogosphere…

First, there is the smackdown going on between Browninfempower (BiF) of WOC Blog and DarkDaughta of One Tenacious Baby Mama over the ongoing Women of Color Carnivals and how more sexually radical women are (or aren’t) being represented within the larger movement…and a few others have gotten into the fracus…

..and now, we have this nice poopstorm brewing over an ad posted by a women’s group called the Tennessee Guerilla Women using the Muslim burqa as a symbolic campaign against repressive anti-abortion and anti-sex laws against women in the US.

I’ll save my comments on the former for another time..but the latter issue has me tied in knots due to my real misgivings over the fundamental issues raised.

Depending upon whomever you read amongst the feminist community, the TennGW “Red Burqa” campaign is either a brilliant stroke of “shock and awe” against the continuing attempt to roll back basic freedoms for women…or a gratituous and racist (as in “White Western elitist”) putdown of Islam and Islamic women who choose to defend that particular choice of covering as part of their stated beliefs…not to mention totaly wrong headed at a time when “the West” is assaulting Islamic nations as part of the “War on Terror”.

Now, I can respect — and even to a point concur with — the arguments of those like BiF and Liza at culturekitchen hat say that using the burqa as a symbol of all that oppresses women does indeed ignore the context of the current anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has undercut general Middle East politics and cultural debate throughout. And I can see just as clearly how it ignores the issue of how some Arab and Islamic women do defend (if not embrace) the hijab and the burqa as a symbol of their religious beliefs..even in resistance to the more fundamentalist, misogynistic forms of Islam practiced in many countries.

However…there are a few issues that force me to seperate myself a bit from that view.

To begin…let’s explain the context of TennGW’s campaign one more time, shall we?? It is NOT directed towards women in Iraq or Afghanistan or even Arab or Muslim women; it is directed towards women IN AMERICA who are indeed being threatened with the loss of basic American freedoms by the dominant ruling fundamentalist Right….who indeed openly state their preferred vision of covering up women that is quite similar to the fundamentalist Islamic concept of “burqas”. Here’s my first question: How in the holy hell is that in any way “cultural imperialism” or in any way a slam against Islamic women???

Please riddle me this: How does resisting laws proposed in Tennessee (and passed in South Dakota) outlawing a woman’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy (even one conceived against her will) represent “bigoted, racist, imperialist feminism” ??? I guess that “Islamic feminism” is considered more superior, more radical, more “feminist”, then, than more traditional liberal/progressive, “Western” ideas of female sexual autonomy and individual choice, then?? That’s the only conclusion I can come to after seeing this snippet of opposition to the TennGW ad from Liza at culturekitchen:

With this Red Burka campaign, you can see why they feel so estranged from American feminism.

In truth, I’d feel more comfortable describing this CafePress moment as one of utter stupidity wrapped in the ignorance and lack of cultural awareness that is typical of the privileged. I’ve always said that gringos of all kinds have the privilege of not having to learn about other people’s culture because American Empire needs its citizens to remain culturally clueless so it can spread like a virus far and wide.

Ahhh…pardon me, Liza…but since when did American women have to get approval from “Islamic feminists” to justify their basic rights as citizens to control their own bodies??? That some Islamic women may justify the burqa as their own symbol of feminist resistance from within Islam is their right and perogative, and all progressives should respect their position and give them the respect they deserve…but how does that relate to opposing restrictive laws here in the United States?? The fact remains that whether or not some women do accept the burqa, it remains a symbol of exactly the type of restrictive and punitive sexual code that is being imposed on many Arab women against their stated will in many areas. To label these women who do resist such a restrictive code as “imperialist Western elitists” is no less overgeneralizing and scapegoating than labeling all Islamic people (or all Arabs) as “terrorists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”…and, coming from people whom I assume would oppose restrictions on women’s freedoms, simply smacks of the same elitism that they throw like so much cowchips at the TennGW group.

Second point: It is so amazing to see how much some feminists and Leftists still can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to conflating critiques of Islam as a social belief system with “racism” or “cultural imperialism”…as if conservative Islam has replaced Communism and/or antiglobalization as the new progressive social movement against “Western imperialism”. It’s one thing to oppose the brutal and genocidal occupation of Iraq and the US/Israeli occupation of Palestine on general internationalist, antiimperialist and human decency grounds; it’s quite another thing altogether to embrace an “enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend” approach and blindly
ignore the more reactionary context of what Islam as a conservative institutionalized religion stands for. And before you drop the “anti-Muslim” card on me, my critique of Islam is based upon their status as an organized religion, in the same form that I would criticize equally Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism (sp?) or any other organized religion that uses the power of the State to impose restrictive and reactionary social views on other people.

In fact, I feel that those who are so quick to embrace “progressive Islam” as the next great Left movement (just like those who embraced liberation theology or other fad religious “progressive movements”) tend to ignore the structural bases of social repression in which MOST or ALL such movements tend to stand on…most of which are based fundamentally upon the second-class status of women and the full regulation if not total abolition of sexuality outside of the bounds of procreative marriage. There really is not that much difference between the Religious (Christian) Right’s advocacy of restrictions on women’s sexuality and the Islamic one..in fact, in many cases, Christian and Islamic fundamentalists will set aside their differences and unite together against the common shared threat of sexual liberation and sexual freedom that they say “feminism” (and homosexuality as well) represents.

It’s almost as if those who are so quick to drop the “Western imperialist” card on others who don’t embrace “progressive Islam” or “progressive Christianity” or other attempts to reconcile conservative social/sexual views with economic radicalism really are willing to impose their own conservative sexual biases on other, less “enlightened” women. Talk about a pot-to-kettle moment.

Now, this isn’t to say that Islamic people aren’t under attack from a brutal and aggressive form of White supremacy…far from it. The bombs are still dropping freely in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Occupied Territories (and are about to spread to Iran as well) and the underpinnings of simple White racism against any non-White person who gets in the way of the Imperial Guard is clear as day. But that’s the exact point….it is crass anti-Arab racism, not anti-Islamic thought, that ultimately lays the foundation for the violence and war there..Islam is only a symptom for the real disease of capitalism, inequality, and racism.

As tempting it may be to embrace Islam tourt court as the basis of resistance; as genuine Leftist sex radicals and secularist progresssives, we have to remain consistent in our insistence that while we respect the rights of individuals to express their personal faiths in whatever nonviolent way they wish, that does not give them the carte blanche to demonize those who choose to explore themselves otherwise.

The best that we as American progressives can do to help the Iraqis and Arabs (including those Muslim feminists who could use some real support) is to do our part to change the policies of our own government to end this imperialistic occupation and get our asses OUT of there ASAP….and then allow local forces to take over from there. After all our government has done to fuck things up, we have no moral standing to lecture anyone — let alone Muslims — on their actions.

In the meantime, we here in the United States of America have more than enough battles in our own plate to fight, and retaining basic rights of individual autonomy for women is one of the most important battles we face. The TennGW folks may have been a bit over the top with their Red Burka campaign….but they are a far, far cry from being anywhere near racist, imperialist, or elitist for their intentions. Rather than drown them with our own myopias and biases, why not support them with your time and money, and actually help them roll back the crusades of the Right here at home?? With all due respect to feminists within Islam, we have our own rights to take care of, too.

Of course, Kelley at Bitch | Lab is all over this topic, too..in fact, she’s made it a central pillar of her “F*ck Feminists” week…

The TennGW "Red Burqa" Brohaha: Whose Cultural Imperialism???

Well, what an interesting weekend this has been in the blogosphere…

First, there is the smackdown going on between Browninfempower (BiF) of WOC Blog and DarkDaughta of One Tenacious Baby Mama over the ongoing Women of Color Carnivals and how more sexually radical women are (or aren’t) being represented within the larger movement…and a few others have gotten into the fracus…

..and now, we have this nice poopstorm brewing over an ad posted by a women’s group called the Tennessee Guerilla Women using the Muslim burqa as a symbolic campaign against repressive anti-abortion and anti-sex laws against women in the US.

I’ll save my comments on the former for another time..but the latter issue has me tied in knots due to my real misgivings over the fundamental issues raised.

Depending upon whomever you read amongst the feminist community, the TennGW “Red Burqa” campaign is either a brilliant stroke of “shock and awe” against the continuing attempt to roll back basic freedoms for women…or a gratituous and racist (as in “White Western elitist”) putdown of Islam and Islamic women who choose to defend that particular choice of covering as part of their stated beliefs…not to mention totaly wrong headed at a time when “the West” is assaulting Islamic nations as part of the “War on Terror”.

Now, I can respect — and even to a point concur with — the arguments of those like BiF and Liza at culturekitchen hat say that using the burqa as a symbol of all that oppresses women does indeed ignore the context of the current anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has undercut general Middle East politics and cultural debate throughout. And I can see just as clearly how it ignores the issue of how some Arab and Islamic women do defend (if not embrace) the hijab and the burqa as a symbol of their religious beliefs..even in resistance to the more fundamentalist, misogynistic forms of Islam practiced in many countries.

However…there are a few issues that force me to seperate myself a bit from that view.

To begin…let’s explain the context of TennGW’s campaign one more time, shall we?? It is NOT directed towards women in Iraq or Afghanistan or even Arab or Muslim women; it is directed towards women IN AMERICA who are indeed being threatened with the loss of basic American freedoms by the dominant ruling fundamentalist Right….who indeed openly state their preferred vision of covering up women that is quite similar to the fundamentalist Islamic concept of “burqas”. Here’s my first question: How in the holy hell is that in any way “cultural imperialism” or in any way a slam against Islamic women???

Please riddle me this: How does resisting laws proposed in Tennessee (and passed in South Dakota) outlawing a woman’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy (even one conceived against her will) represent “bigoted, racist, imperialist feminism” ??? I guess that “Islamic feminism” is considered more superior, more radical, more “feminist”, then, than more traditional liberal/progressive, “Western” ideas of female sexual autonomy and individual choice, then?? That’s the only conclusion I can come to after seeing this snippet of opposition to the TennGW ad from Liza at culturekitchen:

With this Red Burka campaign, you can see why they feel so estranged from American feminism.

In truth, I’d feel more comfortable describing this CafePress moment as one of utter stupidity wrapped in the ignorance and lack of cultural awareness that is typical of the privileged. I’ve always said that gringos of all kinds have the privilege of not having to learn about other people’s culture because American Empire needs its citizens to remain culturally clueless so it can spread like a virus far and wide.

Ahhh…pardon me, Liza…but since when did American women have to get approval from “Islamic feminists” to justify their basic rights as citizens to control their own bodies??? That some Islamic women may justify the burqa as their own symbol of feminist resistance from within Islam is their right and perogative, and all progressives should respect their position and give them the respect they deserve…but how does that relate to opposing restrictive laws here in the United States?? The fact remains that whether or not some women do accept the burqa, it remains a symbol of exactly the type of restrictive and punitive sexual code that is being imposed on many Arab women against their stated will in many areas. To label these women who do resist such a restrictive code as “imperialist Western elitists” is no less overgeneralizing and scapegoating than labeling all Islamic people (or all Arabs) as “terrorists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”…and, coming from people whom I assume would oppose restrictions on women’s freedoms, simply smacks of the same elitism that they throw like so much cowchips at the TennGW group.

Second point: It is so amazing to see how much some feminists and Leftists still can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to conflating critiques of Islam as a social belief system with “racism” or “cultural imperialism”…as if conservative Islam has replaced Communism and/or antiglobalization as the new progressive social movement against “Western imperialism”. It’s one thing to oppose the brutal and genocidal occupation of Iraq and the US/Israeli occupation of Palestine on general internationalist, antiimperialist and human decency grounds; it’s quite another thing altogether to embrace an “enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend” approach and blindly
ignore the more reactionary context of what Islam as a conservative institutionalized religion stands for. And before you drop the “anti-Muslim” card on me, my critique of Islam is based upon their status as an organized religion, in the same form that I would criticize equally Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism (sp?) or any other organized religion that uses the power of the State to impose restrictive and reactionary social views on other people.

In fact, I feel that those who are so quick to embrace “progressive Islam” as the next great Left movement (just like those who embraced liberation theology or other fad religious “progressive movements”) tend to ignore the structural bases of social repression in which MOST or ALL such movements tend to stand on…most of which are based fundamentally upon the second-class status of women and the full regulation if not total abolition of sexuality outside of the bounds of procreative marriage. There really is not that much difference between the Religious (Christian) Right’s advocacy of restrictions on women’s sexuality and the Islamic one..in fact, in many cases, Christian and Islamic fundamentalists will set aside their differences and unite together against the common shared threat of sexual liberation and sexual freedom that they say “feminism” (and homosexuality as well) represents.

It’s almost as if those who are so quick to drop the “Western imperialist” card on others who don’t embrace “progressive Islam” or “progressive Christianity” or other attempts to reconcile conservative social/sexual views with economic radicalism really are willing to impose their own conservative sexual biases on other, less “enlightened” women. Talk about a pot-to-kettle moment.

Now, this isn’t to say that Islamic people aren’t under attack from a brutal and aggressive form of White supremacy…far from it. The bombs are still dropping freely in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Occupied Territories (and are about to spread to Iran as well) and the underpinnings of simple White racism against any non-White person who gets in the way of the Imperial Guard is clear as day. But that’s the exact point….it is crass anti-Arab racism, not anti-Islamic thought, that ultimately lays the foundation for the violence and war there..Islam is only a symptom for the real disease of capitalism, inequality, and racism.

As tempting it may be to embrace Islam tourt court as the basis of resistance; as genuine Leftist sex radicals and secularist progresssives, we have to remain consistent in our insistence that while we respect the rights of individuals to express their personal faiths in whatever nonviolent way they wish, that does not give them the carte blanche to demonize those who choose to explore themselves otherwise.

The best that we as American progressives can do to help the Iraqis and Arabs (including those Muslim feminists who could use some real support) is to do our part to change the policies of our own government to end this imperialistic occupation and get our asses OUT of there ASAP….and then allow local forces to take over from there. After all our government has done to fuck things up, we have no moral standing to lecture anyone — let alone Muslims — on their actions.

In the meantime, we here in the United States of America have more than enough battles in our own plate to fight, and retaining basic rights of individual autonomy for women is one of the most important battles we face. The TennGW folks may have been a bit over the top with their Red Burka campaign….but they are a far, far cry from being anywhere near racist, imperialist, or elitist for their intentions. Rather than drown them with our own myopias and biases, why not support them with your time and money, and actually help them roll back the crusades of the Right here at home?? With all due respect to feminists within Islam, we have our own rights to take care of, too.

Of course, Kelley at Bitch | Lab is all over this topic, too..in fact, she’s made it a central pillar of her “F*ck Feminists” week…