{"id":2163,"date":"2014-01-09T13:13:48","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T18:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2014-01-09T13:13:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T18:13:48","slug":"a-case-study-for-paternalism-and-good-intentions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/01\/a-case-study-for-paternalism-and-good-intentions.html","title":{"rendered":"a case study for paternalism and good intentions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Reflections<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a true anecdote:<\/p>\n

A hijabi chooses the bottom platform of a quiet staircase in her college’s library to pray. While she is deep in prayer, a white, male classmate walks by and stops to console her by putting his arm around her shoulders because she looked upset.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though succinct, there’s a lot to unpack here. The good intentions of the classmate are obvious, but there’s an implicit paternalistic attitude here that I think many males, including myself, may not realize they are perpetuating. This is a more subtle bias than men lecturing women about how evil\/noble the veil is, or the Femen group parading nude in “solidarity” with muslim women. There’s an implicit assumption in most male-female interactions that the woman is in need of “saving” and that assumption leads to an infantilization. That is certainly better than objectification, but it still falls far short of treating another human being as an equal. <\/p>\n

Food for thought. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a true anecdote: A hijabi chooses the bottom platform of a quiet staircase in her college’s library to pray. While she is deep in prayer, a white, male classmate walks by and stops to console her by putting his arm around her shoulders because she looked upset. Though succinct, there’s a lot to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75,24,28,34],"class_list":["post-2163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-gash-of-civilizations","tag-hijab","tag-islam","tag-muslims","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\na case study for paternalism and good intentions - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"a case study for paternalism and good intentions - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a true anecdote: A hijabi chooses the bottom platform of a quiet staircase in her college’s library to pray. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2164,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions\/2164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}