It really has been too long since I posted. I wanted to kind of get away from my complaining about dental work - though it is the one thing I dread equally to snakes! - and talk about something else. But I don't know much about baseball, football, or other sports teams or any of their prospects so I am going to have to go back to my old boring standby of women's issues/politics. Who ya gonna vote for?
Anyway, today at work my boss asked me to read a section of a book about being Muslim. There was a chapter on women and a sub chapter called Genital Mutilation. So I read the section, even though it always gives me chills to read about that topic no matter how important it is to know, and he asked for my view. I told him it's one of those necessary evils; people, even teens need to know about world/women's issues and it wasn't extremely graphic or anything. But what he was really getting at was this: Would that section be offensive to Muslims, since SOME (not all, in fact, I don't think most Islamic sects believe in it cause it's not in the Qu'ran) practice it, especially in Africa? So I re-read the section and they totally stressed the part that it wasn't a mainstream practice and I assured him that I thought it wouldn't be offensive. He's getting a second opinion. So I thought maybe you all could weigh in. I know that you haven't read the actual section, but just offhand, with my assurances that it wasn't extremely graphic or anything, do you think that kids should 1) Know about this stuff (I'm not talking kindergartners or anything, but more mature young adults) and 2) What if something MIGHT offend a certain religion - should that be taken off the shelf or not put out in the first place merely because it MIGHT offend someone of that faith or should you wait to see if there's complaints and if there ARE, should you yank it?
I'm sure I'll cover censorship and ethics and community, etc. in some of my classes next semester, but what do you think?
5 comments:
well, while extremely frowned upon, it has been known to happen in the US, even. So people should know about it. There is some black model whose name I cant remember who speaks out about it often, as it was done to her. You could use her as an example, provided you could find out who she is. :-)
And I'm not sure it should be considered a Muslim practice, as from what I've always understood, it was a regional African practice. Of course, I havent studied it extensively.
In general, no a book should not be taken off the shelf just in case it is offensive. I find lots of books offensive (mostly because of how horribly written they are), but I just don't read them.
However I have always seen genital mutilation more as a cultural thing practiced by people who just happen to be Muslim, rather than a Muslim thing (not to mention a horrific custom), though some will probably find even touching on the subject in a book about being Muslim offensive even if the book mentions that is isn't a widespread belief. Doesn't mean the book should be banned though.
Oh, and I have another question. I remember a discussion about this in one of my classes once, and the professor asked whether we should actively try to ban the practice of genital mutilation because it is a normal practice in those particular cultures, even though we may disagree with it. What do you think?
I have a book written by a woman; it's called Desert Child (or possibly Desert Flower) and though I can't remember the author's name, it's possible that she's the model that it happened to. And I agree with you Ramee that books shouldn't be banned because it is offensive to some people in whatever way. As for the whole, should we ban it, I think we should. Having respect for people's cultures is important; but I've been thinking a lot lately that we get into a lot of trouble when we start tolerating horrible things merely because it's part of someone's culture/tradition/religion. And I don't think we could ban it in other countries, just our own (I think it is actually!) but educate people about how horrible it is and the attitudes that are behind it and other ways to initiate girls into adulthood, etc. A lot of things that were normal practices are now banned - polygamy, with-burning/hanging, slavery. All of them had in common the fact that they treated other people as though they were less than fully human (women or black people or what have you) and really, THAT'S the attitude/culture that we want to get rid of...the behavioral practices will change or be destroyed when equality for everyone is the goal and is achieved. (Don't I sound like a presidential candidate now!?)
Of course the argument could be made (and this is part of what my professor said), that what we think is immoral or horrible other cultures might not.
However I am more inclined to think that there are some things which should universally be seen as unconscionable acts, and this is one of them. And yes, it isn't like we can actually ban them and there is nothing wrong with trying to educate people who condone these things and speak out against them. But I don't think to eradicate this would irreparably damage the culture.
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