Posted by Tancred
on November 3, 2009, 12:22 pm, in reply to "Catholic publication, Anti-catholic message!"
Thanks for posting this. It's truly hideous that this should appear in a "Jesuit" magazine...
--Previous Message--
: Below is an article from the supposed Catholic
: Jesuit publication, "Eureka
: Street" The writer does not see
: anything wrong with immodesty or drunkeness
: and she blames men for the way women dress.
:
: Purity does not exist in her case.
: Drunkeness is not a mortal sin the way she
: writes about it.
:
: How can a Catholic publication print this
: mixed -up young woman who is sending the
: wrong message?
:
:
:
:
: Boobs, booze and Muslim feminists
:
: by Ellena Savage
:
: We all know this image: A young,
: orange-tinted woman, dressed in a pale satin
: ribbon, teeters drunkenly in soaring heels.
: She is eating chips, smearing the sauce on
: her knuckles, and is occasionally yelling
: obscenities at her boyfriend. We laugh at
: her, but forgive her, because, well, it's
: been a long day of drinking at the races.
: Her boyfriend is just as drunk, and is
: urinating at a tram stop. But for some
: reason we don't really notice him.
:
: Although her behaviour indicates she'd
: rather be wearing thongs and jeans, she
: feels compelled to dress like a sexual
: Christmas tree for the Spring Carnival. This
: compulsion probably has a number of roots,
: one being an earnest desire to be desired.
: Another more cynical reason is that her
: desire to be desired on the terms of the
: depth of her cleavage is nominated by the
: designs of the men in her society, and
: upheld by the women.
:
: Weeks ago, some friends were coming to pick
: me up to take me to the Muslim festival of
: Eid in Broadmeadows. One called to remind me
: to wear something loose and modest. I rifled
: through my wardrobe, and realised how
: difficult it is for me to dress modestly,
: actually modestly, without looking like a
: loaf of bread. I settled on a long floral
: dress from the late '60s, which once
: belonged to my Aunty, and waited in my
: living room.
:
: To its credit, the Spring Carnival is an
: excuse for everyone to dress and behave like
: a celebrity (regardless of what
: indiscretions this might entail). Everyone
: gets dressed up, then they get drunk and
: fall over. This in itself isn't wrong. There
: are always a few amazing outfits, and a good
: many awful ones. And some that inspire
: disgust.
:
: For me, the disgust is not that of a woman's
: body dressed in a tasteless outfit. What's
: disgusting is that even in this day, a
: woman's success, and in many cases her only
: public interest, is determined by the
: vulgarity of her outfit, and the social
: position of her male partner.
:
: Even other women who are not dressed quite
: so tastelessly are essentially present to
: facilitate their men; to consolidate their
: success not only in business and wealth, but
: also in acquiring attractive female
: possessions.
:
: In this context, women are not celebrated,
: but objectified. Australian sporting events
: are celebrations of boobs and booze. They
: overlook the important aspects of sport like
: family, community, and honest achievements.
:
: Being publicly visible is very important for
: Western women. The liberty for women to bare
: all has developed alongside a firm set of
: principles of equity, political and social
: freedoms.
:
: But if you take the public visibility out of
: its context, and simply line up scantily
: clad women and (literally) quantify their
: worth out of 10 (those ranking a 10/10 are
: inevitably long, angular and golden), then
: the women possess very little real worth.
: Or, their worth is limited to a world where
: masculine men drink, brag and play footy,
: and feminine women do nothing much except
: hold their men's hands and forgive their
: indiscretions.
:
: While fashionable women strut in the arms of
: wealthy men at sporting events, Muslim
: Australian women and their families
: celebrate their festivals in a very
: different manner. Even the women who are
: otherwise secular Muslims dress
: appropriately for the celebrations: long
: gowns and layered scarves of hues dependent
: on their cultural origin (rich and floral
: from West Africa, dark and sombre from
: Saudi). Those who resist covering their
: heads nonetheless observe an austere fashion
: for a religious festival.
:
: To some other Australian women, the fashion
: might seem outdated. There is a compelling
: argument that the hijab, or headscarf, is a
: symbol of female oppression. Arguments
: levelled against covered women are that,
: whether or not they are aware of it, they
: are submitting to the unreasonable demands
: of male family members and stronger
: patriarchal social structures. It is also
: argued that covering the body is denying its
: existence, that it privatises women's
: experiences, or that it is for keeping the
: body virtuous for her sexist husband.
:
: Sadly, this might be true for many women.
: However, these arguments can only be
: levelled from a Western liberal feminism
: that embraced the body and that must now
: face a grim reality of a cult of
: self-loathing and deception built around the
: body as commerce.
:
: Feminist or not, enforced or chosen,
: traditional and modest fashion gives a sense
: of coherence to the Muslim-Australian
: community. The loose and elegant traditional
: and modern outfits worn by Muslim women
: assert that their worth not be determined by
: the depth of their cleavage, but by other
: measures.
:
: These two opposing modes of dressing, one
: exhibitionist, one prohibitionist, both
: inevitably result from men's expectations of
: women. On one side of the world, it seems,
: men want to undress their women, and on the
: other, they want to cover them up.
:
: In the Western undressing of women, there is
: an element of sexual design. The most
: desirable kind of woman in the Western
: popular media is sexual and available. The
: alternative, to hide the body altogether, is
: based upon avoiding design, or leaving it in
: the hands of the community.
:
: At the Muslim festival, modestly dressed
: young women and men eat and chat, dance and
: spend money, as they would at any other
: festival. Young smokers hide from their
: relatives who could be anywhere, and
: flirting is kept subtle. While it might be a
: religious festival, it's obvious that it's
: more about community and the Arab tradition
: of hospitality and celebration than dogma or
: compulsion.
:
: There's no booze, and no visible boobs, but
: everywhere, there is pastry. Modestly
: dressed, loudmouthed women eating pastry.
:
: Are they feminists? Many are not. But that
: does not preclude the hijab, or alternative
: fashions from subverting patriarchy in some
: contexts.
:
: It might do us well to consider what
: celebrations are really about. There's
: nothing wrong with booze or boobs, but are
: they meaningful enough to warrant
: celebration?
:
:
: Ellena Savage is a Melbourne writer. She is
: studying Arts at the University of
: Melbourne.
:
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