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Thought I'd share some interesting experiences I had recently, that opened my eyes to my own prejudices, and how wrong you can be.
A few months ago I read the book On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I found it very good, but it really annoyed me for the first half of the book or so that I didn't know what colour the main characters were. I had a vague idea that they probably weren't white, but it wasn't stated explicitly anywhere, and that bothered me. Because usually people are white unless explicitly described otherwise. So I assume white if nothing else is said. That was the first thing I realised. The second, and slightly more bothersome, was that it actually annoyed me not to know - as if it was really important to know conclusively what colour these people were, as if i couldn't relate to them otherwise.
A while later I read another book, Voices by Ursula LeGuin. The main character of this book is called Memer, and it isn't stated what gender this person is. I had the same uneasy feeling as I did when I read On Beauty - I just didn't like that I wasn't told if Memer was a boy or a girl. Because I assume that if nothing else is stated, a charater is male. If it's female, that will be pointed out, as it's not the norm. But I also had a vague feeling, that Memer was probably a girl. And not knowing bothered me. That it bothered me bothered me even more.
About two months ago the bf and I went to Turkey. On our flight there were two muslim women, wearing headscarves. We saw them at the airport, while we were waiting for our flight, and both assumed they were from Turkey and going home to visit relatives. The idea that two muslim women would go on a charter trip by themselves, just as a holiday, never even entered our minds.
On the plane we happened to sit next to one of the women, and got to talking with her. It turned out that they were friends who were going on holiday. They were from different countries and neither were from Turkey, though the woman we talked to had been there on a previous charter trip. She also said that her husband travelled a lot because of his job and that she thought it was only fair that he got to stay home with the kids while she went on holiday with her friend. Further, she told us that she had lived in Dubai (iirc) for a while, but that she hadn't liked it and wanted to move back to Sweden. She missed the Swedish nature too much, and preferred living here even though she had more freedom in Dubai - she could go to the swimming pool without problems there, and so on.
This, again, had never entered my mind - that a woman would experience more freedom in an islamic state than in Sweden - self proclaimed Land of Equality. But it's obvious when you think about it - an islamic country is organised according to islam, whereas Sweden isn't. We don't have separate pools for men and women, all-female beaches and so on. So for a woman who actually wants to live in strict accordance with islam, of course Sweden is going to be a more complicated and restricting counry to live in.
A few months ago I read the book On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I found it very good, but it really annoyed me for the first half of the book or so that I didn't know what colour the main characters were. I had a vague idea that they probably weren't white, but it wasn't stated explicitly anywhere, and that bothered me. Because usually people are white unless explicitly described otherwise. So I assume white if nothing else is said. That was the first thing I realised. The second, and slightly more bothersome, was that it actually annoyed me not to know - as if it was really important to know conclusively what colour these people were, as if i couldn't relate to them otherwise.
A while later I read another book, Voices by Ursula LeGuin. The main character of this book is called Memer, and it isn't stated what gender this person is. I had the same uneasy feeling as I did when I read On Beauty - I just didn't like that I wasn't told if Memer was a boy or a girl. Because I assume that if nothing else is stated, a charater is male. If it's female, that will be pointed out, as it's not the norm. But I also had a vague feeling, that Memer was probably a girl. And not knowing bothered me. That it bothered me bothered me even more.
About two months ago the bf and I went to Turkey. On our flight there were two muslim women, wearing headscarves. We saw them at the airport, while we were waiting for our flight, and both assumed they were from Turkey and going home to visit relatives. The idea that two muslim women would go on a charter trip by themselves, just as a holiday, never even entered our minds.
On the plane we happened to sit next to one of the women, and got to talking with her. It turned out that they were friends who were going on holiday. They were from different countries and neither were from Turkey, though the woman we talked to had been there on a previous charter trip. She also said that her husband travelled a lot because of his job and that she thought it was only fair that he got to stay home with the kids while she went on holiday with her friend. Further, she told us that she had lived in Dubai (iirc) for a while, but that she hadn't liked it and wanted to move back to Sweden. She missed the Swedish nature too much, and preferred living here even though she had more freedom in Dubai - she could go to the swimming pool without problems there, and so on.
This, again, had never entered my mind - that a woman would experience more freedom in an islamic state than in Sweden - self proclaimed Land of Equality. But it's obvious when you think about it - an islamic country is organised according to islam, whereas Sweden isn't. We don't have separate pools for men and women, all-female beaches and so on. So for a woman who actually wants to live in strict accordance with islam, of course Sweden is going to be a more complicated and restricting counry to live in.