Oh the Internet

Alright, I wasn’t going to have a real post today, but then a dude on the internet gave me permission to disagree with him, and I’m an irrational woman so here it is.

A friend of mine (patriot and hero, @Patriot_Media) trolls conservatives on Twitter. It is terrible and amazing all at the same time. Anyway one dude in particular is Roger Simon (novelist, @rogerlsimon) dislikes Islam and decided to use women as a means to justify his lack of understanding/hate of the Muslim world. Specifically, he was posting things about the sexual violence in Egypt. Don’t get me wrong this is a huge issue, and I am reading everything I can get on the subject. However, sexual violence as a tactic to silence women and prevent them from public life is hardly new. We see it in war zones, refugee camps, everywhere really. The threat of sexual violence is used to limit women’s access to and movement in space.  Morsi of course, has been using this as an excuse to crack down on the protestors, “save the women.” Also, both sides of protestors, pro- and anti- Morsi claim the other side is to blame for the sexual assaults. The reports aren’t clear yet, but I’ll leave it to those who study such things professionally.

I’d like to instead focus on a few areas: 1. Giving women permission to speak and the parallels to providing or limiting women’s space, 2. The West’s interest in “protecting” women in countries where we have a vested interest or the “saving brown women from brown men” phenomena, and 3. The Oppression Olympics.

Full disclosure, I did lose my temper a bit when this man called me naïve, which as far as I’m concerned is a way to make someone feel unknowledgeable and an attempt to silence them. Of course, this dude didn’t have my Feminist Theory and Gender and Violence professor…I almost feel bad for him. I would say I never got angry, but I was definitely frustrated with the spreading of misinformation (as many of you know). And to our discussion…

First, allowing women to speak is condescending (even more so than calling me naïve for my lack of Islamaphobia), and a common tactic employed by men who don’t think women should have a voice or place to speak. It has been my anecdotal experience that you can tell how a conversation is going to go immediately if this happens (not well). This also is seen in other areas such as race and class. Those with power/privilege will allow those without it to speak, on those in power’s  terms, retaining their power and “showing/presenting” as open and accommodating. Which of course it isn’t, those without power can only speak as long as those with it allow them to. Sometimes this results in the bell hooks argument that you can’t dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools from those in the oppressed position. The argument being that as long as the oppressor gives and takes the right to speak away they can always control the voice of the oppressed. Of course, a clear and recent example of a woman calling out men in power about permission to speak can be found below. Yes, that is Texas Sen. Leticia Van de Putte calling out her male colleagues about ignoring her motion to serve their own purpose. You may speak, until we tell you, you can’t anymore. The Davis filibuster is an excellent example of this.The GOP silenced Sen. Wendy Davis every chance they got, only to have the other Dems in the Senate stand with her and keep talking (many of whom were men).

Secondly, a common criticism of Western feminism was that women of color and of non-Western origin didn’t have a place at the table or their place was “given” to them by feminists in the West. See the discussion above on “giving people permission to speak” same concept. This was a huge criticism of second wave feminism, and it continues today. However, there is a far larger discussion to be had when we look back at how the West, particularly the US, interferes and behaves in international conflicts. For example, after weapons of mass destruction weren’t found in Iraq, President G.W. Bush claimed it was a moral imperative to liberate the Iraqi women. Did I personally find the restrictions on women in Iraq oppressive? Yes, but to liberate Iraqi women without input from them is offensive and paternalistic. Those being liberated must always be included in the conversation, or is it liberation at all? The argument that Muslim men are oppressive and violent toward Muslim women (women et al) is offensive and paternalistic as well. What happens here is the perpetuation that men of color (other than white) are violent, oppressive, and can’t be trusted with women. All assertions are of course unfounded. Additionally, the notion that Islam is more oppressive than other religions is false as well just look at the conservative right in the US, and their attempts to restrict and regulate women’s bodies.

Bringing us to number three, the Oppression Olympics.  I first heard this phrase when my Feminist Thought professor said it and silenced everyone. I can’t remember what the class was discussing, but we were young and probably saying something ignorant…actually I think it was about the Michigan Women’s Music Festival and their restricting access to women born women. Does one group or person’s oppression make everyone else’s invalid because it could conceivably be worse? Is there some kind of point scale to determine where the bar is set? Or do we acknowledge and address the oppression everyone feels? For example, a white gay man gains a point for his whiteness, but loses one for being gay. Does that mean he doesn’t understand bigotry? Does that mean he has never benefited from privilege? Of course not to both. Acknowledge the oppression of others even if it isn’t uniform or constant because most people also benefit from privilege at some point. The assertion that women in Egypt have it worse than women stateside is preposterous because the situations are different. Don’t get me wrong it all sucks. Women universally are conditioned to fear sexual assault, and sexual assaults are used to control women. This is how we coalition build, we find a shared experience, and we don’t play top this. Someone truly concerned with sexual violence against women would be aware that it exists everywhere, and they work to combat it wherever they can, not just place blame. After all, anyone who has worked with survivors would tell you blame doesn’t bring closure and acceptance.

So this was kind of a brief discussion on these topics, which deserve much more time, but the open road is calling my name.