Yes, I have. I have a particular view on this specific matter - the silence of modern feminists on the matter of radical Islam. I think that, beyond the usual lot of looneytoons left attitudes - misguided belief that the Muslims in question are among the oppressed of the world, radical hostility to America and Christianity, belief that my enemy's enemy is my friend (rationalized, as I swear I read it on the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto, in the following terms: "the Islamic movement is a revolutionary factor in the current world order") - there is also something which is specific to modern feminism. Modern feminism is essentially a careerist, entryist, upper-class movement, whose chief concern is with the legendary "glass ceiling". Its chief concern is with promoting women to top positions. The delusion that this has anything to do with improving the lot of the female sex, even in the West, as a whole, is a thin one, but enough to keep them going. In point of fact, no modern feminist has great concern with the way that the MacDonaldization and WalMartization of work - cheapened, casualized, de-skilled - hits at women in particular, treating them as Karl Marx' "industrial replacement army" - those who are always willing to work for less, undercutting the price of work and depressing the status of workers. That this touches many more women than any wbo are concerned with "glass ceilings"; that it really does depress the status of womanhood as a whole; that it places intolerable strain on families and single mothers; this does not register on the modern feminist mind at all. The most savage and justified comment on modern feminism I have ever heard is the following (uttered, of course, by a woman): "Behind a great women there is another woman, cleaning her floors".
That being the case, how should Muslims, let alone Muslim women, seriously register on the feminist screen? In Western countries, Muslims are few and rarely well off. They are, in effect, of the servant class. And the classic feminist college professor or lawyer is not really concerned about whether her daily woman is being beaten at home or has been mutilated as a child. In fact, the more there are, the better: the servant market will be larger and less pricey.
A less coldly exploitative point is that the feminists really do think that in forcing more and more women in positions of power, they are really changing the foundations of society - from above; they imagine that upper class relationships will sooner or later spread downwards (an idea curiously similar to the equally valueless Thatcherite belief in the trickle down of wealth). And that applies to other cultures. Feminists, like other liberals, really believe that the liberal optimum is the ultimate goal of all cultures, and that all of them will sooner or later come to imitate them. Therefore they do not concern themselves with what is going on among Muslims now; the laws of history dictate that Muslim societies must evolve in a pro-liberal direction. What is going on now is just the last kick of a dying patriarchy. This is why so many of them manage to convince themselves, against all evidence, that Christians and Muslims are natural allies and that they will sooner or later come together in one grand anti-female, anti-gay, anti-everything coalition. That this is a delusion, and an elitist delusion at that, I do not have to tell you.
If this seems surprisingly left-wing to you, I may point out that where economic relationships are concerned, I am not very sympathetic to unearned wealth: http://fpb.livejournal.com/13532.html. It is in matters of social and sexual ethics that I am deeply conservative - including the matter of patriotism: http://fpb.livejournal.com/22050.html.
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Re: Speaking of Politics
Date: 2007-03-22 09:18 pm (UTC)That being the case, how should Muslims, let alone Muslim women, seriously register on the feminist screen? In Western countries, Muslims are few and rarely well off. They are, in effect, of the servant class. And the classic feminist college professor or lawyer is not really concerned about whether her daily woman is being beaten at home or has been mutilated as a child. In fact, the more there are, the better: the servant market will be larger and less pricey.
A less coldly exploitative point is that the feminists really do think that in forcing more and more women in positions of power, they are really changing the foundations of society - from above; they imagine that upper class relationships will sooner or later spread downwards (an idea curiously similar to the equally valueless Thatcherite belief in the trickle down of wealth). And that applies to other cultures. Feminists, like other liberals, really believe that the liberal optimum is the ultimate goal of all cultures, and that all of them will sooner or later come to imitate them. Therefore they do not concern themselves with what is going on among Muslims now; the laws of history dictate that Muslim societies must evolve in a pro-liberal direction. What is going on now is just the last kick of a dying patriarchy. This is why so many of them manage to convince themselves, against all evidence, that Christians and Muslims are natural allies and that they will sooner or later come together in one grand anti-female, anti-gay, anti-everything coalition. That this is a delusion, and an elitist delusion at that, I do not have to tell you.
If this seems surprisingly left-wing to you, I may point out that where economic relationships are concerned, I am not very sympathetic to unearned wealth: http://fpb.livejournal.com/13532.html. It is in matters of social and sexual ethics that I am deeply conservative - including the matter of patriotism: http://fpb.livejournal.com/22050.html.