April 16, 2011
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Lately I’ve been watching various Muslim/non-Muslim hijaabi’s videos on youtube. I’ve come to a few conclusions after all of the videos watched/listened to. I especially admire the hijaab and the reasons for wearing it. I, myself, am even considering wearing it (the only thing really stopping me is my mom/college in general because I feel like it would be really hard to sleep and stuff if my roommate brings boys home or something…it’s complicated).
However, there is something that comes up in my mind whenever I think about wearing/people who wear the hijaab.
Doesn’t wearing the hijaab cause some parts of the body to become overtly over sexualized? I would imagine no, but I have no idea. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about.
Does covering up a body part not give it a certain sense of shamefulness? I’m not sure if this applies to hijaab or not, but I do think it is worth thinking about.
Women cover their breasts and vagina area. At least in America, breastfeeding is kind of stigmatized. Few women really have an indication of what is actually “normal” in terms of breasts/vaginas etc. I’m talking about these things in a purely non-sexual way, of course. Men cover their penis area. There seems to be, at least within my understanding, some issues with guys there too. Obviously, I’m not a guy, so I don’t really know what those issues are. In general I think it is fair to say that most Americans are uncomfortable with nakedness. Either way, I’m not saying that we should or should not cover our bodies; I’m saying that there might be a link between covering and not covering the body and some sort of shame/oversexualization.
On the contrary, maybe there is another reason, such as culture, that causes people in America to be ashamed of their bodies.
What do you think?
Disclaimer: This was not meant to offend anyone. I definitely support wearing hijaab/modest clothing.
Comments (2)
Don’t we generally cover places that secrete or excrete for hygiene purposes, much like restaurant workers wear hairnets?
Thus women must cover their nipples while men don’t always.
My theory doesn’t cover spit, snot, and earwax, though, which seem to be socially acceptable to see.
@dingus6 - True, but people seem to be grossed out by the things you mentioned