Friday, April 04, 2014

Social Justice Warrior Rania Khalek attacks Gloria Steinem for being a white woman

Well it should be no surprise that Social Justice Warriors have decided to attack Gloria Steinem - they've already proven to support rightwing feminism-haters (and Japanese internment defenders) like Michelle Malkin over actual progressives.



Naturally this was re-tweeted by Mikki Kendall - there's nothing that Mikki Kendall hates so much as a white woman, and never misses a chance to equate the actions of a single white woman with all white women. It's always helpful to check Kendall's Twitter feed when looking for that latest SJW attacks against feminists - Kendall's pretty much a vector for hatred of feminism, or as Kendall calls it, "white feminism."

So what is it that Rania Khalek thinks is so Islamophobic about this movie? She doesn't bother to explain - but then, Social Justice Warriors don't have to explain anything - they just make assertions and their followers accept them uncritically, as fact.

HONOR DIARIES FEATURES NINE COURAGEOUS WOMEN’S RIGHTS ADVOCATES WITH CONNECTIONS TO MUSLIM-MAJORITY SOCIETIES WHO ARE ENGAGED IN A DIALOGUE ABOUT GENDER INEQUALITY. 
These women, who have witnessed firsthand the hardships women endure, are profiled in their efforts to affect change, both in their communities and beyond. 
The film gives a platform to exclusively female voices and seeks to expose the paralyzing political correctness that prevents many from identifying, understanding and addressing this international human rights disaster. Freedom of movement, the right to education, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation are some of the systematic abuses explored in depth.
Spurred by the Arab Spring, women who were once silent are starting to speak out about gender inequality and are bringing visibility to a long history of oppression. This project draws together leading women’s rights activists and provides a platform where their voices can be heard and serves as inspiration to motivate others to speak out.
 
More than a movie, Honor Diaries is a movement meant to inspire viewers to learn more about issues facing women in Muslim-majority societies, and to act for change.
Now I'm the first to argue against the notion that Islam is any more innately misogynist than Christianity. Nor do I think that religion has a monopoly on misogyny. But the fact remains that there are plenty of really hideously misogynistic customs present in countries with Muslim majorities.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the movie's executive producer. Apparently Social Justice Warriors love to hate white women so much that they focus on Gloria Steinem, who has nothing directly to do with the movie, and ignore the women of color who were actually involved in making the movie.

So who is Rania Khalek? Well, like so many Social Justice Warriors she seems to have no problem getting published. According to her site:
My work has appeared at The Nation, Al Jazeera America, Truthout, Salon, AlterNet, Extra, Citizen Radio and more.
Funny how many supposedly liberal media outlets so frequently publish the work of anti-feminists like Khalek.

And naturally Khalek is a member of the too-stupid-to-get-satire brigade.



Khalek must be a member of the SJWs study group opposed to the privileging of intelligence in social discourse.

Based on her blog, Khalek doesn't actually have much interest in feminism. A search of her blog on "feminist" and "feminism" brings up six posts. Two of the posts contain the word feminism in a homicidal maniac's manifesto that Khalek posted. Another post uses the word feminist in the context of an attack on Amanda Marcotte, whom the Mikki Kendall brigade hates (in spite of Marcotte's defense of Kendall's scurrilous abortion article), second only to Lena Dunham. Another article compares the US occupation of Iraq unfavorably to Saddam Hussain's reign:
"The US-backed regime makes Saddam Hussein look like a feminist!"
In another piece she complains that the NYTimes had an editorial about rape in India, and she then proceeds to suggest that things are just as bad for women in the United States as they are in places like India - although she's too coy to come right out and say it plainly:
To the skeptics preparing to ask me whether I’d prefer to live in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan since I think the US is so awful, I wonder if you realize the level to which US foreign policy towards certain parts of the world has intensified violence against women. Backing sexist dictatorial rulers, knowingly arming religious fundamentalists who throw acid in women’s faces and forcing neoliberal economic policies that leave small farmers (most of whom are women) and their families starving; these are the policies that define the United States to many women abroad.
It's quite astounding: she manages to put the blame for the custom of throwing acid in women's faces on US foreign policy. But then, she doesn't seem to have such a big problem with the acid-in-the-face custom - she called a movie which criticizes such "honor" crimes Islamaphobic.

And then there is her piece in which she  calls the movie Zero Dark Thirty an example of "imperial feminism."

Being a Social Justice Warrior, Khalek's real issue is made clear in the Zillah Eisenstein piece she quotes:
My point: do not justify or explain US war revenge with a pretty red-head white woman with an "obsession" to catch the mastermind of 9/11.
Ah yes, it's the greatest Satan of the Social Justice Warrior enemies list - the white woman. Eisenstein mentions white women two other times in the article:
You do not drop bombs on the women you are supposedly trying to save. Do not now cleanse the wars of/on terror with the face of a white blonde female.
and
I was thinking through the film - if they hate us, they do so because we are hateful. I am sad to know that this film will be seen across the globe. It will be read as another story of imperial empire with a (white) female twist. How unfair to all the people in the US who do not choose revenge and murder. How unfair to my Pakistani friends who are also US citizens. How unfair to most of us across the globe.
This is published by Al Jazeera, BTW. They've also published Sarah Kendzior's attack on Katha Pollitt, and were a big promoter of Mikki Kendall's #solidarityisforwhitewomen.

Reading the quote above, you'd assume that Eisenstein was referring to actual human beings who "justified or explained US war revenge..." 

But nobody is - or if they are Eisenstein doesn't bother to name them. Because individual actions don't matter to SJWs - we are all undifferentiated members of a class of people identified by gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. Especially white women.

Unless, of course, you have become a SJW which gives you immunity - and then you can join the attacks against white women, even if you yourself are a white woman. Good times.