Living with the Jungle

A couple of weeks ago I went with some friends to see Piranha 3D. It was pretty dumb, but fun enough and so there was discussion about the funny things that happened etc. The discussion then moved on to other things, and one of them was the danger of girls hiking or doing things alone at night. I brought up the fact that movies like the one we just saw don't really help this sort of problem (as, of course, the movie was full of cultural stereotypes about girls being vulnerable and needing protection). She took my statement to mean that movies create "bad guys," and that psychos don't need movies to get ideas about assault on women.

This is true, but the point is not that movies create predators, but that cultural ideas seep into every aspect of our lives, movies being one of the windows into which we can look to for analysis of cultural beliefs. The idea that a woman is "in danger" when she is alone is not something that you encounter only in movies. It is something that we are told over and over again in many many ways. The important thing to note for me, however, is that this really has nothing to do with physical strength of a person, but only with the gender that they have decided to perform. If it were about vulnerability in the absolute sense, then you would see far greater numbers of strong men assaulting weaker men as well (although this happens as well. I don't know the numbers, but I bet it has to do with looking "gay," which is construed as being more feminine in our culture, which would actually support the idea that being "feminine" in some way is what attracts assault).

The reason I bring this up now is because yesterday there was an article in the NY Times.

Afghan Boys Are Prized, So Girls Live the Part


It talks about young girls in Afghanistan who are sometimes dressed as boys in their prepubescent years. The whole article is fascinating and worth a read, but the big point for me, and my argument here, was the fact that suddenly because of their outward gender performance, they were no longer assaulted. Miraculously. Their physical strength and physique have not changed one bit, but yet they all of a sudden are in no danger walking by themselves.

Also they mention this historical fact:

"The practice [of women dressing as men] may stretch back centuries. Nancy Dupree, an 83-year-old American who has spent most of her life as a historian working in Afghanistan, said she had not heard of the phenomenon, but recalled a photograph from the early 1900s belonging to the private collection of a member of the Afghan royal family.

It featured women dressed in men’s clothing standing guard at King Habibullah’s harem. The reason: the harem’s women could not be protected by men, who might pose a threat to the women, but they could not be watched over by women either." 

It's so interesting that men are unacceptable to protect women in a harem, and women would also not be acceptable, but women dressed as men are perfectly alright. Thus, their performance as men is enough to qualify them as protectors and not vulnerable themselves to assault from men. 

Of course, these women have a lot of problems when they are forced to act like women again. It is pretty cruel for their parents to choose give their daughters freedom for their formative years, and not prepare them for the time it will end. 

In other news, Dad came home last Sunday. He is acclimating to being back home, but overall things are going well. My mother has been a trooper, and we are doing our best to help one another. I suspect that Dad will be back to normal within the next month or so. He needs to build up his muscle strength again, and all should be better.