Stupid research annoys me
December 19th, 2007, 7:24 am · 2 Comments · posted by fsherman
Emily Yoffe, a writer on the Slate Web site, discussed Islamic honor killings in a recent post–including a case that happened in Canada–and grumbled that feminists don’t seem to care: She’s been to the Web site for the National Organization of Women and can’t find any opposition to such murders.
Amazingly, I found a page condemning honor killing after oh, 15 seconds searching.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Ms. Yoffe may have undermined her own case by not conducting proper research, but her overall point has merit. The baby should not be thrown out with the bath water here.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
“Reclaiming Honor in Jordan”
December 20th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Which point? If you mean the point that honor killing is monstrous and should be stamped out, I agree 100 percent.
If you mean the point that feminists are turning a blind eye to it–which seems to be part and parcel of her overall point–she’s full of crap.
Plus, as the blogger echidne points out, honor killings aren’t some kind of feminist special-interest issue. They’re a human rights issue, but conservative critics rarely seem interested in pushing our government to do anything–apparently if women are oppressed, it’s strictly a feminist matter.
Of course, the point–like a recent post by blogger Ann Althouse–often isn’t so much about honor killing as to try and prove American women are so much better off, any questions they raise about sexism, rape, job discrimination, etc. are really trivial and shallow.
But again, I agree with you that as far as honor killing goes, it’s a serious and horrifying problem.