Gender Roles

I recently had a class that basically talks about the tortures that were going on in the Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq.

Before this, I didn't know much about it. I mean I heard about it but didn't know anything in detail.

It happened in 2004. And I was trying to think where was I at that point in my life and it made me realize how ignorant I was about current events at that point in my life. Forgive me world.

Anyways, thanks to my Gender & Politics class, I have been introduced thoroughly to the subject matter. Trying to 'unpack' what the photos represent in gender terms is rather fascinating.

First and foremost, gender is something that separates female and male. But it doesn't just separate us. What my class is trying to make me understand is that it is socially constructed. That society created what our gender is supposed to be like. That we are pretty much tied down to what we are supposed to be within our genders because society has constructed it to be so.

Be it in the West or in Asia, your gender affects almost every situation you go through.

I mean, in the Abu Ghraib case, there is a picture of Lynndie England (one of the soldiers involved in the controversy) holding a leash. On the leash was a naked male prisoner. With her short hair and that cigarette in her mouth and that leash, what does this say about the women of today?

Image taken from Wikipedia

Women for centuries have been fighting for equality. From voting rights, to land rights, to employment rights; you name it they've talked about it.

In general, women are regarded as the weaker sex while men are often portrayed as the ones who are violent, aggressive, warmongering etc.

But what does this photo of Lynndie England prove now?

That women too can torture in inhuman ways?

Could these photos mean that men and women are finally equal?

That women are finally liberated to become just like men?

In this day in age, gender roles have reversed in several places. And in a lot of ways I like that concept. Reversing gender roles perhaps will help men understand women better and women understand men better instead of generalizing the stereotypical roles that have been embedded in us for thousands of years.

However, there's too much complications when dwelling into this idea of trying to understand male and female and their gender roles as a whole. We need to consider religion, culture and location to really understand all this too.

I mean come on, it ain't fair to say that "we are liberating the women of Afghanistan from wearing their covers [burqa]" is it? This was one of the many STUPID things said by George Bush as one of the reasoning of going to war in Afghanistan.

Bush's idea of freeing the women in Afghanistan is downright silly. I mean we all know he's a douchebag but what this really shows us is that there is a lack of understanding and tolerance of other religion and cultures. This really messes things up; especially if we let our bias slip in. In Bush's case, his ideology was that a woman in a Burqa was not 'free' to wear what she wants without understanding that maybe she chose to wear it because it is in her religion?

I look at Malaysia and I look at the tudung girls. As much as I condemn those who wear tudung and slut around, it is at the end of the day, her choice to be a slut and wear a tudung. As much as it is immoral, only God can judge her.

But my bias towards this would still go, shit that's sick and hypocritical. Might as well not wear tudung. Sigh. This is probably because I live in a Muslim society that portrays non tudung girls as sluts and those who wear tudung to be 'better'.

So evidently, it pisses me off when I find out these tudung girls are doing the same thing.

So you get what I am trying to say right? That we can't simply be quick to assume what is deemed to be 'right' for our genders without looking at religion, culture and of course, location?

Its a complicated process I swear.