" . . . the same violence, abuse and male-dominance that would provoke virulent critique in the West are sometimes ignored, or even defended elsewhere. Captured concubines in Persia are celebrated as strategic, modern Cairene women who embrace obedience and seclusion are heralded as ‘agentic’, while laws banning female genital mutilation are condemned as ‘stigmatizing’.
What on earth went wrong? Western feminists gain moral prestige by ‘punching up’ and criticising male hierarchies at home, but are often reluctant to scrutinize gender norms in other societies for fear of being branded neocolonial or racist. Elites in the Global South may downplay patriarchal oppression in their own countries, wary of being cast as ‘backward’. Globally-comparative analysis of gender is thus taboo.
Yet if we actually want to advance gender equality, we need to get real. We need to stop pink-washing patriarchy, and embrace an open, empirical enquiry.
https://www.ggd.world/p/stop-pink-washing-patriarchy
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