In the most recent firestorm, Amanda of Pandagon posted a picture of the Clinton blogger lunch where Jessica was covered in a burqa, many people of color (POC) protested the use of a muslim cultural symbol being used in a dust up between two white middle class women. Both Amanda and the image creater Auguste apologized and explained that Ann Althouse has condemned the use of the burqa for muslim women, while telling Jessica to stop bringing attention to her breasts, which considering Jessica is in a normal pose for a photograph one can assume Ann wants her to cover herself up.
My question is, what if Pandagon had posted contrasting pictures of both American sexism and Afghan sexism? What if instead of demonizing muslims for wanting women to be covered they also had a photo of the male American plasticized ideal, Pamela Anderson, wandering an Afghan market in a bikini or nude? And the caption reads: This is what Ann Althouse wants!
I think that by turning the spotlight on both types of sexism it would have mitigated the appearance of muslim bashing to some extent, and would have better drawn attention to the actual object of the joke, Ann Althouse and her hypocrisy.
I'll admit I haven't completely thought this through, so I would really like more input on what others think. Is using muslim cultural symbols completely off limits for Americans? It has been noted, Americans are involved in the colonial occupation of Afghanistan. Women's rights in Afghanistan has been used as an excuse for this occupation and therefore further devastation of women and their families there. So the argument could be made that we should stay away from it at all times. On the other hand, by contrasting it with sexism in the west, it wouldn't be pointing the finger at "the other" while ignoring ourselves, it would be pointing out that sexism is universal...while also having the added bonus of displaying Alhouse's confused thinking on the subject.
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