Last night I had a peculiar dream about being in hospital (I have inevitably had these since my two operations): I was sitting on the edge of a table and some nurses were taking my organs out and laying them on the table! One kept asking me if I wanted to donate organs. I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable at seeing my organs and wanted them back.
I was as stunned as anyone else by Michael Jackson’s death on Friday. I had a major crush on him in my early teens (1980s), and Thriller was one of the first cassette tapes I bought (shows how long ago that was!), listening to it over and over again. There were posters of him pinned to my bedroom walls, and I even got the doll for a birthday present (all, alas, long since gone in one of my purges). I can’t add anything to the reams being written about him, only express disgust at the tabloids who have pounced on this like vultures.
This letter in The Age, 27/6, makes a good point about double standards, and I agree with her views about the degradation of women in Western society (I am sick of seeing scantily-clad women in films, advertising, etc.):
Distorted revolution
The French President’s recent denunciation of the burqa (The Age, 24/6) as a sign of female enslavement has made me think. As a person who was born and lived many years in South Asia, I have been exposed to moderate forms of Islam and have developed deep appreciation of the values it promotes. But I don’t deny that when used as a tool of oppression, religion can be deadly.
However, the belief in the superiority of the Western cultural values promoting liberty and equality that underlies Sarkozy’s promulgation leaves me unconvinced. I have lived in the West for 13 years and its abject sexualisation of women makes me uncomfortable.
Female sexual power and autonomy asserted in the capacity to do whatever a woman wants with her body has made me wonder whether we are in fact witnessing a distorted revolution! Indeed, I believe that in many ways women are being reduced to the status of mere sexual objects, with their “power” really depending on their ability to ignite and satisfy men’s desire! This is an insult to all women who ought to be respected for who they are – their character, values and intelligence. This irony should serve as a stark reminder to anyone who unquestioningly assumes moral and cultural superiority of the West and denounce Islamic practices.
– Nive Achuthan, Brunswick
I am still feeling undecided about whether to continue here (my other two blogs here are for specific topics) or delete my old Journal or not (I am the world’s worst ditherer!).
