reede, mai 28, 2004
One Unfair Generalization and One Very Good Point
Not that I particularly care what Gene Simmons thinks about much of anything, this story caught my attention.
Now, there are two elements to Simmons' criticism. First, that Muslim culture is vile and that they won't stop killing us until they take over the world. This is certainly an unfair generalization. Even if he meant to refer only to extremists, that's not clear and he should probably at the very least apologize for the misunderstanding.
Second, though, is this:
"You can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff — none of the women have that advantage," the 54-year-old said.
Frankly, this is true. Muslim societies in the Middle East are unbelievably sexist. If you don't like someone pointing that out, join a religion that doesn't make laws against women driving cars. Simmons was right to say it and it should be said more often. I can't speak to Muslim cultures' acceptance of obedience schools for dogs, but their attitude toward educating women is shameful. What gets lost in all our with us or against us bullshit is that none of these Arab countries are really the good guys. They help us and we look away while they treat their women like crap. We shouldn't stand for it and we shouldn't sugar-coat it. These people need to change and we have the leverage to change them. And if it takes a washed up former rock star's ill-considered comments to get us talking about it, so be it.
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Not that I particularly care what Gene Simmons thinks about much of anything, this story caught my attention.
Now, there are two elements to Simmons' criticism. First, that Muslim culture is vile and that they won't stop killing us until they take over the world. This is certainly an unfair generalization. Even if he meant to refer only to extremists, that's not clear and he should probably at the very least apologize for the misunderstanding.
Second, though, is this:
"You can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff — none of the women have that advantage," the 54-year-old said.
Frankly, this is true. Muslim societies in the Middle East are unbelievably sexist. If you don't like someone pointing that out, join a religion that doesn't make laws against women driving cars. Simmons was right to say it and it should be said more often. I can't speak to Muslim cultures' acceptance of obedience schools for dogs, but their attitude toward educating women is shameful. What gets lost in all our with us or against us bullshit is that none of these Arab countries are really the good guys. They help us and we look away while they treat their women like crap. We shouldn't stand for it and we shouldn't sugar-coat it. These people need to change and we have the leverage to change them. And if it takes a washed up former rock star's ill-considered comments to get us talking about it, so be it.
