Last week we were audience to two different lectures that informed us on the different struggles minorities live through in our society. They were concentrated on indigenous women and Muslim women in Quebec.
The first lecture “Climate Change, Pipelines, and Violence Against Women” concentrated on the indigenous culture. Apart from all the economical issues that were presented to me, the thing that struck me the most were all the statistics provided to show us how indigenous women are the ones most endangered by physical violence, and especially male violence in Quebec. I was surprised to learn that all the cultural oppression and violence that these women have suffered for generations can be categorized as a legitimate genocide, and the speakers proved it by providing us with definitions of “genocide” and lots and lots of examples about indigenous society in Quebec. Although this is a subject on which I have not been informed well enough to give an opinion, I can see a clear link between the every day violence indigenous women live though, and the many readings on white male masculinity that I have read in this class, that will be provided in the next paragraph.
The reading “Masculinity” by Michael S. Kimmel, provides a very interesting definition of the general definition of masculinity established in America: unlike a woman. Now, we all know the stereotypical description of the perfect man around here is someone who provides for the family, is good looking, plays sports, etc, as is also provided in the text by Kimmel. What is interesting to me is that the word “Protestant” came up in this well established definition of a man in America. I never really thought about his religion but I see now that it plays a very important part in the issue we are discussing. In the lecture mentioned in the previous paragraph, the speakers provided us with a very quick history lesson on how assimilation of the indigenous people happened around here not that long ago, when Europeans started colonizing the lands. The clergy [the church] was teaching indigenous men how to beat their women, because this is how a woman was treated, at least according to Christianity. The lecturers also showed us a very interesting religious text “Maleus Maleficarum” from 1487, that throughly explains that women are evil creatures, witches that shouldn’t be trusted nor respected, and are created to serve only evil. Now, it is clear that the Protestant ideology of a man in America wasn’t established yesterday and has been around for centuries, I can now clearly see a link between the violence against indigenous women, and generations of religious teachings to men about the ways to treat women. To conclude with an unsettling phrase that however helps get my point across easily: old habits die hard. Thus, the violence against indigenous women hasn’t died yet in our country, through no fault of men on their own, but through generations of horrible religious ideologies forcing men to be “unlike a woman”.
The second speech “Living in the Shadow of the Law 21” focused on Muslim women and their struggles to live with a law that forces them to remove religious symbols of clothing at their jobs (for jobs like teachers, public service officers that carry a weapon, and other authority figures). Although it was never publicly stated, this law clearly targets the Muslim community, seen as they are the ones that display the most visible religious symbols in their clothing, unlike a Christian that could easily hide their tiny little cross under their clothes. This is exactly the point that stuck with me the most from the whole lecture: the inability to hide who you are for certain people. One of the lecturers was a visible Muslim: meaning she wore a hijab (head scarf covering her hair and neck) but she was white, while the other Muslim woman showed her hair but she was black. The latter talked about how it is sometimes very easy for her to hide her religion in situations she evaluates to be dangerous for her career or even her personal well being, solely due to the fact she has no religious symbols in her clothing. But it is however very hard for her to hide her race simply because her skin is black. Now, we need to understand that wearing a scarf is a choice, so of course a white Muslim woman can easily take off her scarf and blend in, but this is a violation of her religious beliefs, therefore it feels very much like the assimilation we discussed in the previous paragraph. Aside the obvious racist factor in this whole story, there is another thing about my readings on masculinity that I would like to talk about.
The two women talked about the feeling of being invisible and not belonging, and not having any culture to relate with if they chose to hide the parts of themselves they physically could. And I, funnily, see a clear connection between this, and the reading “Masculinity as Homophobia” by Kimmel. He talks at long and large about homophobia specifically and how it is, in essence, a fear to be perceived as a woman, a fear of the the unknown, a fear from other men and what they might think of you, an established set of rules to follow in order to be accepted. And I think we can easily relate this concept, if we exclude homosexuality from the picture, to the law 21. It was, simply put, established by men who are afraid of the unknown, afraid to be perceived as too acceptant of other cultures, afraid to be anything else than what the stereotypical man is. Much like a homosexual man feels invisible or not belonging or not being themselves when they are forced to hide their homosexuality from other man, the many religious minorities in Quebec experience the same feelings of cultural assimilation due to this law. If we can understand why a gay man would be afraid to show his true self, we can understand by the same logic why a Muslim woman would too. And we can understand how horrible it must feel.
In conclusion, I would like to say that this a a very small fragment of a very big problem but it is the only one I feel comfortable enough discussing. Although, I think that the readings by Kimmel make a very good connection with the problems that minorities are experiencing in our society and make it easier to understand both these issues, and masculinity as we study it in class.
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 