"Iranian Women Just Going From One Yoke to Another"

Scan down a bit in the comments to this post to read a debate between Alessandra and LauraW.

[Alessandra:] We can't wait until the Iranian women are all in Penthouse, and have become slutty dressed silicone and botox bimbos, who according to the locker-room libertarians is what freedom is all about for women. Or they will have turned into macho lesbiunns, who need to cross-dress to show how "powerful" and not full of hang-ups they are. Homo-obsessed libertarians believe that's freedom too, can we blame them for being so smart? And where's all the female alcoholism? you mean women are not allowed to become alcoholics in Iran? The thought of it... and where's the date rape? Oh, the oppression of not being able to drink and get raped...

Here's to the liberation of Iran to a new level of moronic ideals of freedom! Let's drink a beer to seeing women going from one yoke to another.

I hate to embarass a poster (well, except for Cedarford), but I just don't get this whole doofus feminist/Islamacist-apologist schtick.

Look, if wearing short skirts and appearing sexy is a "yoke" at all, it's either a self-chosen yoke, or a yoke indirectly "forced" on women by prevailing social attitudes.

Which is a little better than a "yoke" directly forced upon you by roaming thugs who will beat you in the street with fists and sticks if you don't comply with their ideals of hidden and ghostlike femininty.

LauraW bravely attempts to repudiate this insanity. She trots out statistics and logic and all that jazz, but I think she really gets to the heart of the matter by offering this carefully considered rejoinder.

Women want to be pretty. For the love of God, that is not "society" forcing "paternalistic" values on women.

Women just want to be pretty. It's that simple.

And, for that matter, men want to be handsome-- Iranian men are also trimming their beards so that, you know, people can actually see their faces rather than a mass of scraggly hair. Their choice, you know-- not sure what "patriarchy" might be forcing them to groom themselves a little cleaner.

posted by Ace at 03:00 PM

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