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Julie DiCaroVerified account
@JulieDiCaro
Women in Hijab Play Sports. Get Over It.
http://thebea.st/2bkoQGS via @thedailybeast
From the article:
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For the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Team USA presented the first hijab-wearing athlete. Ibtihaj Muhammad is an unapologetic Black Muslim woman and brilliant fencer who speaks candidly about the toxic American political climate while casually attempting to slay in world-class competition.
The media attention around Muhammad is important—but the obsession about her clothing choices is tiresome. Female athletes are often subject to incredulous amounts of misogyny, and in the case of Muhammad, gendered Islamophobia. Discussions from mostly male sportswriters on those issues are often lacking in nuance.
The coverage of Muslim women athletes often emphasizes their traditional roles in an exotic culture, and makes their uniforms and veils into the topic of much fascination and tokenization. According to a 2014 Women’s Media Center report, almost 90 percent of sportswriters are white, straight, able-bodied men. Therein lies much of the problem. When stories on Muhammad emphasize that she is not an oppressed and subservient woman, it just reinforces the unfortunate myth that most Muslim women are meek and oppressed.
1. "Casually attempting to slay" is just what JORR has talked about when he's called out the shitty writing of Julie, Baffoe, McClure, and their ilk: this breezy, slangy affectation that doesn't jibe with the context of the sentence. "Slay queen" has been done to death, but help explain to me what's so casual about an Olympic sport where there's a sword in your hand.
2. This issue with covering women up to play chess really lays bare that yes, it is about oppression and it's always been about oppression. There was plausible deniability with the bathing suits, because there are always sound arguments for varieties of swimwear: I know I would hate to be forced into a speedo with my giant thighs. But there's nothing about sunburn or aerodynamics or body dysmorphia with chess. This is just the insecurity of Muslim men on display.
Bougiefems like Julie love women like this because when white girls avert the male gaze by going out in public in North Face and sweatpants, they just look like slobs, but when Muslims do it by covering their bodies at the behest of men, it's a brave stance against culture-war conservatives and reddit-teen edgelords, two groups they can't align themselves with at any cost. Now that's a chess match.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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, so, if she didn't care, why should I? And with her having other morally liberal ideas, why rock THAT boat?