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Random neuron firing, lame philosophy, literary pontificating, movies, sex, clothes & other femme stuff

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Islam puts pubic hair on your head

Earlier, I was tying a scarf on my head and having a little trouble adjusting it. Having posted that last bit about how onerous it is for women to maintain appropriate coverage out in public in Iraq, it hit me again what an unbelievable pain in the ass it must be to have to always make sure that not the slightest stray hair on your head is "showing." No "showing" your hair, even if it happens to decide to show itself. If an Islamic woman removes her veil in the forest, is she really "showing" her hair? Is it like in Judaism, where they cleverly get around this question by saying you have to cover your head in front of god? After all, god is supposed to be everywhere. (Irrelevant aside: Max once asked my ex, if god is everywhere and I punch the air, am I punching god?, and my ex, going with the flow of the logic, said, yes. Max replied triumphantly, so then when I pee, I'm peeing on god!)


The Japanese taboo against pubic hair comes to mind: apparently, in the Japanese hierarchy of obscenity pubic hair is considered even more obscene than the genitalia it surrounds and obscures. I remember watching Japanese porn videos in a Tokyo hotel: all pubic hair and genitalia were meticulously digitally fuzzed out, but semen prodigiously splurted from behind the digiblur, and the camera's authoritative sharp focus confirmed the presence of, if not caressed, skinfold puddles of it. Now, if I had to label something the offensive part, it'd be the cum, not the genitals. But then again, that's me. (Always weird to be reminded there are such cultural differences-- makes me wanna do research in comparative obscenity-- although, come to think of it, that's basically just another name for the first fifty years of cultural anthropology)

What's the natural consequence of suppressing through social mechanisms of shame the display of some part of the body? Um, could it be to eroticize it? By collectively agreeing to (or at least acting within the boundaries of) a taboo on pubic hair more stringent than that in the U.S., the Japanese pack pubic hair with a greater sexual charge than we.

OK, so you see where I'm going. . . . Islam, by enforcing women's head covering, is effectively trying to turn all women's tresses into Japanese pubic hair.

Shouldn't a "correctly" socialized Islamic person seeing a woman's head hair in public have pretty much the same charged response as a "correctly" socialized Japanese person confronted with luxuriant undergrowth between a woman's legs? The charge might carry attraction, revulsion, or some combination of the two. But the sense of significance, of scandalousness, of rarity, and above all of the female hair-violator's unambiguous and blatant sexual display would attach almost inevitably, regardless if a particular spectator were male or female, straight or gay.

I wonder if some Islamic men think of the West as foremost a civilization where women constantly run about displaying their pubic hair in public and freaking everybody out . . . .
Comments:
Hi,

Though I'm signed as "anonymous", I'm not. My name is Jack (it's not really better...lol!). Ok, right to the subject: Listen, I can't say i know anything about Islam, because it wouldn't be true, I know only a few things about it. I'm a jewish guy and I live in Israel. Here in Israel, and usually in the whole world, religious jewish (married) women neither don't show their hair. You said in Islam, it's like in Judaism, I'd say more than this: even in the chinese philosophy and medicine, the hair is considered as an aspect of the sexuality, and many chinese man dye their hair when it starts to become white, for the only reason that they fear that chinese women would understand that their sexual strengh is going and weakening! Though in Islam, all the pubescent girls and the women do it, In Judaism only a married woman has to cover her hair in order to keep that sexual appeal only for her husband, and also in order not to seduce involuntarily other men. It's not because she has to cover her head in front of God, where did you get this silly idea from? You said it yourself, God is everywhere! So tell me, these women surely couldn't have a bath... Never! Because for having a bath you have to be naked once a day in front of God! Come on...
This principle of covering the hair is (at least in Judaism) a part of the religious law, but also on a strictly human plan (I mean that involves only men's acts in the society) a way of preserving oneself and his values. What is more normal, when you consider a part of your body represents a sexual attribute, than to cover it? Do you always go bare naked in the streets?
Though you don't consider you hair as sexual, you consider your sexual attributes (penis or vagina) and don't show them (amazing that the reason you act this way is because of a religious belief!) Well, you see it's a question of definition, and one has to respect others definitions and rites... And as to judge them, one has at least to know them precisely before he speaks...
Thank you for understanding
All the best
 
I think the last comment from the guy from Israel was really lame. Most people around the planet, independent of religious ideology, would have general consensus not to show their pubic areas publicly. However, how the heck does showing the hair on your head have the same meaning and charge as showing your pubic areas to someone? Hello, it's like comparing apples and oranges. They don't compare. Whether it's religiously mandated or socially sanctioned, showing one's pubic area and showing one's head hair just doesn't compare. Get a life, and let people have their own life too. If someone wants to leave his or her head uncovered, it should be all right. And if someone wants to cover his or her head, that should be fine as well. No one should be forced either way because some person somewhere in the past was loony enough to prescribe either. Move on, and get with the program, and please, please, please, catch up with the spirit of the modern era. Don't get stuck in some lame medieval aged sensibilities. Chiao!
 
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