Just when you think professional anti-feminist Danielle Crittenden couldn’t be more of an asshole… December 5, 2007 Jill She goes and out-does herself. Extended rant to come later. Unfortunately, studying calls.
Gosh, gee, I can’t believe feminists aren’t talking about this! *blinks* *turns* *bashes head into wall*
Love it when anti-feminists, who don’t pay attention to what feminists are saying, complain that feminists don’t care about X. Meanwhile X is a hot topic of discussion about feminists. Keep spreading those lies, pigs! And cloaking your racism in the language of feminism!
My husband was not paying attention. “That filmy, translucent fabric, the little sequined top … If I could impose dress on women, that’s what I’d impose.” He paused. “Maybe not all women …” Charming.
Why didn’t she talk to some Muslim women about how they felt about veiling or not veiling? Surely that would have made a lot more sense?
i was surprised to see this column posted at huffington post. what the? doesn’t AH have higher standards than that?
Why didn’t she talk to some Muslim women about how they felt about veiling or not veiling? Surely that would have made a lot more sense? Because then she wouldn’t have been able to use that brilliant title, “Islamic like me.” BTW, are people even properly called Islamic?
Why didn’t she talk to some Muslim women about how they felt about veiling or not veiling? Surely that would have made a lot more sense? Because, Kirsten, everyone knows that Muslim women are so oppressed by their veils that they don’t talk. BTW, are people even properly called Islamic? No, I don’t think so. But things certainly are. And I’m pretty sure that for Danielle, “Islamic women” are indeed things to be used to further her own political ends.
This piece is imo badly written and in poor taste, BUT it is not at all unusual for journalists to experiment with an “experience” in order to write about it. Unfortunately it’s going to come out all wrong instead of her learning an important lesson. Everyone is going to treat her like a freak because she’s acting ridiculous, suddenly changing her dress for a “story”. And thus Islam looks bad again, and we feminists have more reason to hate those silly A-rabs. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Yes, nonskanse, like Tyra putting on a fat suit for a day. :rolls eyes: And what the hell is this article doing in Huffington Post?
Wow. Um, wow. Because of all the Muslim dress she could have chosen to wear, the full burqa is just so representative of the entirety of Muslim women. I realize I shouldn’t expect actual unbiased reporting from the media, but good grief…
Just wanted to add that the court case of the girl who wanted to wear the full gear at her school? The school was one with uniforms and already had uniforms for both Muslim girls and boys in the appropriate dress. The European Court of Human Rights was absolutely right to overturn the original decision. If the girl wanted to go to school in utmost modesty, she should have chosen to either go to a private Muslim school or been homeschooled.
Why didn’t she talk to some Muslim women about how they felt about veiling or not veiling? Surely that would have made a lot more sense? But how could she do that? Why, they don’t understand the extent of their suffering and who understands these things better than an upper middle class white woman? They see all, didn’t you know?
Oh god, I tried to read it but couldn’t get past the utter racism of the opening few sentences. Islamic dress = I Dream Of Jeanie in what universe?!? If Muslim women aren’t being portrayed covered in burqas (because all types of veiling are just like burqas!!) they’re portrayed as mindless sex slaves.
Wow, this woman brings back memories of post 9-11. I’m originally from Falls Church, VA (the place she goes to complete her outfit). There is a large Muslim community in Northern Virginia, and ever since 9-11 both the government and local civilians have been on a hateful rampage. I remember police having to protect and escort people on their way to the Mosque near my house because there was so much violence, and stories of people being beaten, raped, and illegally searched and detained by the FBI simply for wearing their head scarf. Muslim women in the area have enough to worry about without privileged middle class white women mocking them while trying to tell them what’s good for them.
Didn’t this Crittenden make her mark writing about women should return to modesty, or some such thing? I don’t get how she can turn around and make a big deal about head-to-toe coverage. What is it with her anyway?
I can’t even bring myself to click on the link. I wrote a paper on one of her articles a year or two back. she makes me want to throw things.
Gotta love it… You guys are awesome. Thanks for doing this blog, by the way. I’m going on a blog tour soon — if you want to have a guest post or interview or anything with a wild kids fantasy writer who is constantly told “you’re not what I pictured when I heard an author was coming,” let me know! I guess being young and female makes me unlikely to be able to string words together… Give me a buzz! Kaza Kingsley kazakingsley@fuse.net http://www.erecrex.com
Oh good Lord, someone get this woman a copy of Mohanty’s “Under Western Eyes,” immediately. Her closing line was the most striking of the whole piece for me, although, probably not for the reasons she intended. When she first dons her niqab, she remarks that, in doing so, she had become “entirely invisible.” I don’t think Crittenden’s true colors could shine through any more clearly than they do in that sentence: when she looks at veiled women, she sees fabric and symbols of otherness, but she doesn’t see human beings at all.
I remember once I was wearing a wool scarf and people assumed it was some sort of Muslim religious headcovering. “Invisible” was the exact opposite of the experience I had. People on the subway stared at me and one person came up and asked “what are you?” (She then got mad when I replied “A student.”)
Is this a statement that is tolerable in a free and equal society? Huh. What definition of “free” is she using?
The premise is sort of intriguing, but not really relevant to what she’s talking about. I could see the experiment being used to reveal the prejudices in American culture.
It looked like a package someone had shipped 400 years ago but had gone astray in the post: a bundle of coarse white cloth, hand-sewn shut. A rubber band secured its girth. My name and address was scrawled on it in black ink below a postal sticker from the State of Kuwait. A bedspread I ordered from India arrived in the same packaging (Minus the rubber band). It struck me as kind of old fashioned or otherwise foreign, but what do you expect when ordering something from another country? I wondered what people in India would think of a package made of brown paper and tape. They’d probably think it was shoddy and cheap wrapping.
She is not that creative either a woman already did this for the BBC news. So she is absurd and boring and once again spreading that stupid notion that feminists do not care about Afgani women when they were ahead of 9-11 on that one. OT but can somebody please name me a feminist who was unable to speak out about FGM because of the oppresive weight of multiculturalism? I keep hearing that one from conservatives too without a single quote by an academic or a feminst leader that proves it to be true.
It’s really interesting that she thinks American feminists don’t care about the burqa. When I was in 8th grade (1999) I gave a presentation on the Taliban regime and the compulsory wearing of the burqa. My primary source was NOW, and links obtained from their website. If your husband thinks that compelling ANY group of people to EVER wear ANY specific type of dress, your first priority upon hearing him say something of that kind should not be to start saying “yeah, but what they’re being forced to wear is just so awful!” It should be to have a long talk with your husband involving the words “lawyer” and “divorce papers”
Could she be any more condescending and rude? Is Mrs. Frum ever *not* condescending and rude? For super bonus eye-rolling, realize that she hasn’t taken her husband’s name, yet thinks all other women who do as she does are “not really married”.
I detest Danielle Crittenden and her “I coined the term Axis of Evil” husband David Frum. I think the article was superficial and condescending. HOWEVER, I cannot help but being horrified at a dress code that obliges women to cover their entire bodies. The Taliban even require that the eyes be hidden. I cannot convince a woman that this dress code is misogynistic to the extreme, but all I can say is that a Tunisian woman friend of mine bristles even at the mention of the word hijab. I feel the same. Maybe I’m not politically correct enough.
ACR, It’s not about being “politically correct.” If you don’t agree, that is fine. Just don’t make her (the one who wears the hijab) feel bad for her choosing to wear it. It’s that simple.
And for the final touch of realism, will she be riddled with bullets when she removes the outfit at the end of the week?
And for the final touch of realism, will she be riddled with bullets when she removes the outfit at the end of the week? Do you people ever leave your houses and interact with the real world, or are you too busy wetting your pants and watching Fox News?
i was surprised to see this column posted at huffington post. what the? doesn’t AH have higher standards than that? What on earth gave you that idea? Seriously.