Maureen Dowd slumming in neo-Saudi garb
We are seen—our intelligentsia see us–as capitalist fatcats, living at the expense of downtrodden others—not as generous and altruistic. America is criticized for trying to free people from torture chambers all over the Islamic world. We are criticized by American politicians for wanting to keep Ground Zero mosque-free—or at least free from a mosque with terrorist ties. The probable future governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, is in favor of this mosque, as is NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The world is no longer safe for American travelers—actually, it is no longer safe for civilian travelers. Woe unto the Jewish or Israeli traveler: Think Daniel Pearl, think Nicholas Berg, think Chabad House in Mumbai. Think July 4th—the anniversary of the heroic Israeli raid on Entebbe to free Israeli hostages from their Palestinian and German airplane-hijacking terrorist captors.
The idea that Wonder Woman will not “sell,” internationally if she is presented as an American comic-book warrior may make sense, but it also makes me very sad.
I don’t see Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Afghanistan forcing its women to give up their native, imprisoning clothing for the sake of becoming more pleasing “global” actors. Indeed, when Maureen Dowd recently visited Saudi Arabia, she took a great many photos of herself, an American woman, in neo-Saudi dress. (Glamorized slumming is what I think about this photo shoot).
I do not oppose hijab in America; I have said so many times. And yet: In 2007, when Nancy Pelosi visited Syrian strongman Bashir Assad, she donned hijab. In 2009, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accompanied President Obama to Cairo, she wore hijab as well. (The President did not don native Egyptian dress.)
Nancy Pelosi in Syria
Which civilization is far too eager to please? And which civilization not only demands more for itself—in terms of women wearing burqas and niqab in the West, but demands that Western women, American women, who visit the Middle East dress as if they are Middle Eastern women?
Wonder Woman’s change of costume is but a small part in this real-life drama: The sunset of the West. It is not a comic book.
