It's MY lollipop

My husband told me I had to come and take a look at something he read on the Glenn Beck web site.  I was relaxing, so I waited until the commercial break and came up to look.  Beck had a bit about this ad campaign that some Islamics are using in Australia. They want all women to be in burkahs all the time (apparently women should be neither seen nor heard). The ad shows a covered lollipop and then one unwrapped and covered with flies. Beck’s guest could read the Arabic text and was able to confirm that the meaning of the ad was, to put it crudely, ‘if we see you, we will rape you.’  I wasn't relaxed anymore.

I understood the ad without the translation. Offended? Yes. My mind started constructing an argument. I imagined an electronics store with a DVD player sitting in a display window. If an Islamic man smashes the window and steals the player, he is a criminal and a coward. The same thing is true with women, whether the model is on display or in a box in the back of the store, violently stealing from her is still criminal and cowardly.

Scrolling down the web page, Beck offers his own response: a picture of a fly swatter. Good thinking.  No matter what your politics, I’m glad that some people in the media are clear that we won’t accept that crap.

But was I surprised? No. There is little ambiguity in Islamic law about who they think is at fault in a rape.  Apparently, women are so incredibly powerful that we can induce men to act like psycho lunatics with the smallest flash of skin.  Personally, I think we ought to work on these special abilities so that we can get some sort of a useful result.  But I doubt my phrasing would find agreement with the average follower of Islam.

Intellectually, I saw the flawed thinking. I recognized the blunt attempt to control and cow women.  But my emotions were stirred up.  It was a direct threat of violence and violation.  So I stewed for a while.  In one way this is far away and abstract. No one is trying to change the laws around me and no one is directly threatening me. But, misogyny is real, and while it is deeply embedded in Islam, they don’t have an exclusive on it.  

I’m sometimes fascinated by the casualness of how some men can suggest rape as a control.  They seem unbothered by this gross exploitation of women’s sexual vulnerability. Could you imagine a similar campaign against men? ‘Cover yourself from head to toe, only your eyes can be seen (and that’s only because we’re tired of having you bump into things). If you don’t, we’ll cut it off.’

I think men’s physical vulnerability should give them a bit more mindfulness towards women. But in some men, it causes fear. And fear seems to breed violence.