On 07/09/2011 04:02, Nathan wrote:
>
>
> Since we know that the gender gap exists in many cultures, and not
> just the U.S. or Europe, being aware of and sensitive to specific
> cultural biases takes on special merit here. Far more "gratuitous"
> nudity is not terribly uncommon throughout Western Europe, for
> example, in everything from general interest magazines and newspapers
> to street ads, movies, other media and even in personal interaction
> (see [[Love parade]]).

Yes nudity in Western Europe has become so frequent that it is devoid of
any significance now. Showing sexual intercourse can provoke a debate
about proper and improper, but Western Europeans will hardly notice an
ad with a naked woman.

However, there is a new element. That is the pressure from Islamic
immigration.

Some radical Muslims want the sharia immediately applied to all
populations, even non Muslims, because sharia is the law from God, and
God is far superior to any parliament or constitution. Some Muslims are
more tolerant for other populations, but for their own family it is
still the law, the law as in not a personal choice. Some other Muslims
would like to get rid of Islam, but they are not helped by the
prevailing multicultural policies, which tend to accept community
leaders as the true representatives of what they wish.

In the past, xenophobia was restricted to extreme-right political
groups. However recently there has been a change, and the liberal
lobbies have turned against Islam, which creates a new situation as it
is the immigrant population which is now perceived as culturally
backwards and threatening for civic rights. The majority of native
European populations now perceive immigration as civilization
threatening, and in this context Islam is perceived as particularly
incompatible with Western civilization. Gender issues have become a
major landmark for that in public debate. Gay groups, feminist groups,
secular groups, now perceive the right to show female nudity, the right
to celibate autonomous life, the right to gender orientation as gains of
modern civilization, to defend actively and specifically against Islam.
In the past it was against the local conservative right, now it is
explicitly against Islam.

As far as medical treatment of women is concerned, the sharia explicitly
states that :

- A woman patient cannot be seen naked, or even touched, by a male
doctor. When the doctor is female that is not an issue, and fortunately
many doctors are female. However, for specialized or emergency
treatment, we now have a record of of life threatening situations or
severe lasting damages, because the husband, the father or even the
brother did not allow treatment.

This also includes severe damages to the baby in obstetrics, when a
complication occurred and the intervention of a male specialist was
refused by the "man in charge".
All this to explain to you that in Western Europe as it is now, the
refusal to show nudity is becoming clearly identified with Islam, and
feminists are turning clearly against Islam.

If you have time you can have a look at the photos in pregnancy pages in
Farsi and Arabic. You have the languages column in the left of the
English page. The decency of those pages, which in North American
feminism would be typically considered as protecting women, is now in
Western Europe becoming associated with a threat to civic rights of
women. The pages with the naked woman are the pages of countries with
strong women rights.

Urdu and Punjabi pages are not developed, but then they are seldom
developed for anything, so it is not very relevant. Some European
languages have very little population and contributors, so they are not
very relevant either. The Dutch page is surprising, as it shows more
nudity, and in Holland they both enjoy high standards of women's rights,
and Islam has become widely considered as an equivalent for political
murder and threats to civic rights.


Arnaud

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