There is nothing wrong with a man being a feminist, or identifying himself as pro-feminist; but there is everything in the world wrong with ‘Brominism,’ or opportunistic virtue-signalling about gender.
Feminist bros or ‘brofems’ often defend the niqab, because it’s a ‘choice.’ I have 30 questions to ask these gender privileged (and often racially and class privileged) brofems about enforced patriarchal clothing, such as the burqa or burkini.
So, if you think that rape culture includes catcalling and workplace harassment, but doesn’t include the burqa or niqab, this quiz is for you!
1. Do you believe that the niqab/burqa/burkini are free choices, rather than ones that are often forced?
2. Do you believe that even when they are not forced, women are free to a relatively high degree of explicit or implicit indoctrination and emotional manipulation and abuse?
3. Do you believe that they are a choice that benefits the patriarchal privilege of men, or not?
4. Do you believe that the correct answer to patriarchal sleaze or raunch culture is an alternative form of patriarchy?
5. If ‘the niqab or burqa cannot be tied down to a single interpretation,’ then why should Chinese footbinding, FGM, marital rape, pimping, or paedophile marriage be tied down to a single interpretation?
6. If ‘banning something won’t change people’s minds,’ why not also Chinese footbinding, FGM, marital rape, pimping, or paedophile marriage?
7. If it is ‘just a piece of clothing,’ why aren’t chastity belts (worn voluntarily) just a piece of clothing?
8. If ‘choice’ is an argument in itself, do you also apply unqualified choice to abortion, marriage, having a job, freedom of speech, and other issues affecting women?
9. If not, can you provide a rationale for why some issues are relatable to ‘bourgeois choice,’ and others are not?
10. Do you believe that the decision to wear patriarchal clothing affects only the individual Muslim woman in question, and no other Muslim women?
11. Do you believe the decision to wear patriarchal clothing affects only Muslim women, and not non-Muslim women also?
12. Do you think the decision to wear patriarchal clothing degrades wearers in the eyes of men?
13. If so, does this corrupt the character of men?
14. If not, then why not?
15. Do you think the decision to wear patriarchal clothing degrades non-wearers in the eyes of men?
16. If so, does this corrupt the character of men?
17. If not, then why not?
18. Do you think the decision to not wear patriarchal clothing degrades non-wearers in the eyes of men?
19. If so, does this corrupt the character of men?
20. If not, then why not?
21. Do you think the decision to not wear patriarchal clothing degrades wearers in the eyes of men?
22. If so, does this corrupt the character of men?
23. If not, why not?
24. If the mini-skirt is morally equivalent (or at least substantially analogous) to patriarchal clothing, then why do governments never beat or whip women for wearing a burqa?
25. If the mini-skirt is morally equivalent (or at least substantially analogous) to patriarchal clothing, then how can the regalia of enforced ‘chastity’ be on a level with those supposedly worn by ‘sluts’ and impure ‘atheists’ or ‘disbelievers?’
26. If sexist advertizing and sleaze and raunch culture are sexist too, then why does one form of sexism legitimize another?
27. If Orthodox Judaism or Christianity or Dharmic faiths, have certain standards on clothing that are deemed to be sexist, then why would that have any relevance to whether the niqab is sexist or not?
28. Why is it that countries with relatively good human rights records are relatively unfavorable towards patriarchal clothing, while many of the countries with utterly abysmal human rights records favour it?
29. Is the right to wear patriarchal clothing prior to the right to not wear it, or vice versa?
30. If the latter is a false dilemma, then are you prepared to endure the consequences of your assumption for yourself and for all the women you know and love, as well as innumerable other ones you haven’t met?
Oh, and just one more for luck:
Who the hell are you to make that kind of decision on behalf of others?
***
Four Maxims of the Future Secular Restoration
The truly privileged are often those who are most inclined to opportunistically ‘call out’ the privilege of others.
Flattening out all moral distinctions can only result in abject nihilism; and not in ‘tolerance,’ ‘nuance’ and ‘diversity of identities and experiences.’
To tolerate the intolerant, and to tolerate the intolerable; these both are as far from true ‘toleration’ as can possibly be imagined.
Those who entrust themselves to the wild hyena of extreme relativism will not, for all that, be spared the ravages of his sneer, and of his bite!