The Global Sociology Blog

Lest we think Aborigines communities are bastion of gender equality, as opposed to evil Western societies:

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Didgeridoo book upsets Aborigines via kwout

Oh please. Give me a break. Because heaven that in the 21st century, girls get to play a specific musical instrument. So, here again, traditions are used to justify gender discrimination and who gets to apologize? The discriminators? Nope, rather those mildly promoting gender equality. I wonder what the reaction would have been if the activity in question had been limited to white boys. Would there be any apologies coming? Now, I know aborigines are not a majority group, so, it’s different.

What seems to be universally consistent is that practices that discriminate against women and justified in the name of tradition, culture, or religion are so easily accepted as “normal” and their challenging, as a faux pas.

Now, I know that the Australian society still has a lot of issues to resolve when it comes to its treatment of Aborigines communities, but does this mean accepting drivel like this (via the Independent):

“Dr Rose said that, in indigenous culture, there was “men’s business” and “women’s business”. He said: “The didgeridoo is definitely a men’s business ceremonial tool. We know very clearly that there’s a range of consequences for a female touching a didgeridoo. Infertility would be the start of it.””

When defense of culture is used (1) as a tool for discrimination (after all, in Taliban culture, there is “men’s business” and “women’s business” as well, no? It’s also an argument made by fundamentalist of all tripes, like the Christianists. Would we accept such a normative attitude from them?), and (2) as a backdoor way to promote woo-ish beliefs, that’s where a line should be drawn.

Of course, this case of indigenous gender discrimination was well illustrated by the movie Whale Rider: