Turban? Or Not Turban?
One of my forum regulars (Sheena) posted this link: KellyNestruck on my "blog" thread at Sooey's saying the entry reminded her of me.
In case you're already feeling a sense of deja vu - it's because I blogged about "the veil" recently.
But I'm back at it because it occurs to me that our newspapers - as surmised by Mr. Nestruck - are so politically incorrect - as in "old fashioned" - edited as they are by young middle-aged men in cardigans and slippers, sucking on unlit pipes - that we may as well be back in the old millenium airing our "concerns" about turbanned RCMP officers as in the new millenium airing our "concerns" about the veil - as in, the primary symbol of Islamic oppression against women.
(Good grief. As if turbans look any less ridiculous than those crazy Dudley Doright dork hats the RCMP seem to value so highly as the only head covering befitting the calling. Yeah. Sure. Now that the calling requires covering for internal screw-ups more than anything else.)
Am I reading this thing wrong? Or is it all about our reaction to the veil and nothing to do with the veil itself that has us punditing on it 24/7? Is it possible that we're merely trying to excuse the usual and unrelenting bigotry of the west towards anybody daring to look different in our free and progressive society - who comes from a place that is actually QUITE DIFFERENT? So what if we don't like the veil? Since when is it okay to be openly bigoted about it? 9/11? Is it possible that the real terrorist accomplishment that day was to expose us to the world as mere bigots incapable of accepting different modes of dress in our free and democratic society - if said modes of dress are actually QUITE DIFFERENT?
What is it about us as a society that we can pretend to be so pluralistic when we can't even seem to deal with turbans and veils? Outward symbols of culture. Ethnic costumes, essentially. I mean - why are we threatened by people from other cultures choosing to dress differently than the white western norm? We aren't seriously afraid that we'll be made to dress like that, too. I don't believe that for a second. We just don't like people making a point of not adapting to our norms of dress.
Now, I don't buy into the Islam/modesty claim as being anymore valid than the Goth/rebel claim - I see it as an expression of will. No more than that, really. I also understand that coming to Canada from most other places in the world is a difficult transition for anybody to make. I, personally, make a lot of room for what women from other countries choose to wear because I imagine it IS a pretty shocking difference for them - fashion here vs fashion there - WHEREVER there is. But I don't in any way feel like I should apologize for what I - or my daughters - choose to wear. Far from it. I feel like I'm just representative of traditional Canadian clothing. Take it or leave it. Feel free to dress like me - feel free not to. On the other hand, I confess (bigotry alert! bigotry alert!) - whenever I see a Native Canadian in costume, I run into the closet and shout, "Get real, Chief!"
But that's because I'm only ever seeing such a display on CBC or TVO or somesuch venue where cultural affectation is the order of the day and the ACTUAL culture is something else altogether. Cripes, try currently being moved from a frozen wasteland where the water is polluted with E-Coli - to Timmins, Ontario - home of the reigning Queen of Country music down Nashville way, Shania Twain.
I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to our dress vs even European dress because I knew Italians who went over to the old country to try and do business and came back home with wall banging marks on their foreheads. I also knew wives and daughters who, when they went with their men over to Italy to make sure they ate properly and didn't run off with any good looking Italian man grabbers, went from jeans and mini-skirts to below the knee black because Great Grandpappy Giuseppe who died over in Italy a hundred years ago was STILL DEAD!! and why aren't your STILL MOURNING THE OLD MAN?!
Nope. I think our upset with the veil, like our upset with the turban, has nothing to do with multiculturalism and tolerance and everything to do with plain old fashioned bigotry against anything non-North American and non-European. Or we'd be slapping some colour on our Italian Grandmas living here and banning the wearing of ceremonial feathers on Canadian tv.
At the very least, we'd be writing columns about the Italian death cult instead of style columns in praise of lavish and ridiculous Italian weddings. Because yes - the divorce rate in Sault Ste. Marie really is 50%, Virginia.
...Hey... Wait a minute... Is that it? Is that what offends us so about the veil? The clear and present danger that our most recent group of immigrants - ISN'T SPENDING GOBS OF MONEY ON CANADIAN FASHION?!
That's it, isn't it.
Okay.
Nevemind.
