Practically the only example given of the femininity that is incompatible with feminism: Eve Ensler's belly-trimming woes--which stand for the whole capitalist beauty/diet/fashion-industrial complex and its imperialist hegemony over women's self-images. Feminism is right to take on this battle for female self-determination.

Where I question this formulation of femininity--I'm not sure if it originated from Laura Kipnis's book or the reviewer's gist of it--is this equating all of femininity with the colonization and exploitation of women's bodies for the sake of superficial appearances.

At this point I hear the voice of Margaret Cho explaining why she loves belly dance--

"The audience was practically all women. I had this notion that belly dance was strictly for men, like strippers, but I couldn't have been more wrong. There were women of all ages, all shapes and sizes, dancing for each other and having a blast. I've never seen a more accepting environment for women's bodies. It blew my mind. Here, what is considered excess flesh by mainstream Hollywood standards is considered beautiful. In fact it's better to have some weight on you if you want to shimmy properly. Women were moving their bellies, popping them out, popping them back in. Undulating. I had never seen women celebrate their stomachs before, ever. The stomach had always been a shameful thing for me, the dead giveaway that I was never going to be the ethereal love object, the chic and popular model, the movie star's girlfriend, but merely a fat and unchangeable human being. In ballet class, I was always admonished for not pulling my stomach in tight enough. In the gym, I was screamed at because I could never do enough crunches. I didn't even like to drink water because it made my belly bloat. These are the reasons I just stopped working out. I couldn't take all the dehydration and self-hatred. At the Cairo Carnival, my belly was free. Cairo—a name that conjures up the desert—ironically is the one place I finally felt safe to drink. Drink in the joy of women enjoying their bodies, loving each other and themselves."

The richness of femininity expressed by this dance--which does not depend on trim bellies but accepts all bellies of any size and treats them as beautiful--provides an example of femininity at a deeper level than the superficial. As in the poem "Belly Dancer" by Diane Wakoski, invoking the motion of the serpent:

If a snake glided across this floor

most of them would faint or shrink away.

Yet that movement could be their own.

That smooth movement frightens them—

awakening ancestors and relatives to the tips of the arms and toes.

So my bare feet

and my thin green silks

my bells and finger cymbals

offend them—frighten their old-young bodies.

While the men simper and leer—

glad for the vicarious experience and exercise.

They do not realize how I scorn them:

or how I dance for their frightened,

unawakened, sweet

women.

"'and if you try to stop me I am going to break your face.' Most frightening of all, Baldwin is succeeding. All of his dude-speak is actually speaking to the dudes."

Yes, it is frightening. This is the result of dumbing down education. Not only is critical thinking not practiced, now it's actively dissed with contempt. Our democracy, born of the Enlightenment, needs rationally thinking, informed citizens to function. This butthead version of Christianity can only lead to fascism. Wake the fuck up before it's too late, America.

"Be Intolerant"

"And because of that, I see cities on fire."

Yeah, speaking of September 11, I bet New Yorkers could tell you a thing or two about fanatical religion setting "cities on fire." While we claim to fight Osamah bin Ladin, we have our own Bin Ladins growing from within.

With deep concern as an American,

J.Hy

I very much do NOT want to see Taliban tactics returning. This needs monitoring. The Afghan feminist groups there deserve our awareness and support. Remember the Afghan women!

LauraBB--

"If you're worried about it though ask a doctor to break your hymen for you. "

Why, are doctors' dicks extra-special, made of gold, or something?

I'm a Muslim feminist, but with the emphasis on *feminist*--lately I've become more skeptical and pessmistic about looking to any patriarchal religion for advances in women's rights, it is an oxymoron. At the core of my feminism as a Muslimah is radical rejection of any paternalistic claim to "protect" me, because second-class status and gender oppression starts from there, saying "We're only doing this for your own good." Bullshit. They're doing it to institutionalize patriarchy.

I wear (mostly) modest clothing, almost always long sleeves and long skirts, but I don't cover my head, except when praying (because it encloses a private sacred space for one). That's my personal preference. My hope for other women, Muslim or non-Muslim, anywhere in the world, is that they will feel free to wear and do "whatever they fucking well please"--to quote Gloria Steinem.

The article about Beyoncé is too lightweight in substance to be worth much comment, except that it gains more worth by stimulating around it a lively conversation on Islam, the West, freedom, and feminism. I hope minds can meet on these issues and build bridges of understanding, not walls.

As a queer woman poised in between Islamic and Western civilizations, between genders, a liminal figure, I look for ways to cross boundaries and bridge the gaps between them. Take the locks off the doors--take the doors themselves off their hinges.

Love,

J.Hy

About Islam's connection to blues, jazz, rock-- Hakim Bey had some fascinating insights in his essay "Utopian Blues"...

http://www.gyw.com/hakimbey/utoBlues.html

"Why is the spirituality of the musician in 'High' cultures so often a low-down spirituality?"

"Blues for Allah, insh'Allah"

--Grateful Dead

Right on, Garrison Keillor. Tell truth to power. This guy's writing is a credit to Salon.