Western Harems?

I recently read Fatema Mernissi's article called Size 6: The Western Women's Harem. For my college class, we had to analyze it. So I did. I was hoping to find a link to a free copy on the internet, but apparently it is copyrighted. So, the gist is, Mernissi was born and raised in a Muslim Harem in Morocco. She has since left the country and lived abroad. She is a feminist and a sociologist, I think. I am more certain on the first one. She is certain that the Western women is kept in a harem, too, just like some Muslim women, so she seeks to find it and concludes with a largely flawed article. I would say that it inspired me to write an essay in response, but actually it was a college assignment, and this is what I came up with in evaluation.
I hope you find it interesting.

Holey Thesis

It is a good tactic to use a new perspective to introduce a startling topic; however, to convolute the truth is a major fault that can cause a thesis to falter. Fatema Mernissi states in her article “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” that “the image of beauty in the West can hurt and humiliate women as much as the veil does when enforced by state police in extremist nations” (282) equating the Western image of beauty with the Middle-Eastern Muslim harem. Her Western audience is attracted by her use of a familiar social paradigm and her correlation of it to the Islamic harem she earlier defined as a place where “Muslim men and women both acknowledge the inequality of the harem and women resist men in any way they can.” After this, she attempts to prove her points with examples, parallels, and conclusions. She does not seem to realize she has blown them out of proportion. While Mernissi brings up an interesting position from a culturally different angle, her down-right skewing of facts, contrasting incompatible social aspects, and reflecting inaccurate reality of true issues causes her article to collapse inexcusably for lack of credibility.

Mernissi makes many errant broad assertions in her article. She ironically claims that she is oblivious to all fashion designers right before she identifies the exact fashion designers of a saleswoman’s clothing. She proceeds to say that Western men, like Islam, control what women wear, although women designers are a significant force in the fashion industry. Readers are perforced to conclude that she is either excessively ignorant of American culture or deliberately leaving out the data that includes the extensive list of female designers. Either way, neither the facts nor her own statements support her allegation.

A common theme throughout her essay is a heavy blame upon men. It is her idea that men are the reason women put themselves through the loops to measure up. Using a personal example, Mernissi recalls an experience in a department store with a clerk. The clerk practically calls her fat before admitting to be under a beauty harem. This interchange leaves the audience stunned and skeptical. Anyone familiar with American culture knows that a clerk who desires to keep her job wouldn’t dare treat a customer so rudely. True, if one were to ask a group of girls why they dress the way they dress, a number would answer, “for all the cute guys.” After some exploration on the topic, though, they would all admit it is also because girls judge and determine how they treat people based on appearance. The confirming head nods and admissions of this latter truth will be nearly uniform (English 101 & City Central girls, 2013). Mernissi seems to take for granted her belief that it is all man’s fault and not even consider that a judgmental culture of both men and woman might be the issue. She reveals a bias against the male gender and an inability to provide the reader valid evidence in regard to her support.

Mernissi references Chinese foot bindings for her evidential support. The originality of the tradition is unknown. According to her, “Chinese men did not force women to bandage their feet… all they did was to define the beauty ideal… a beautiful woman was one who voluntarily sacrificed” (285) her comfort to please a man. This is a popular theory among feminists as well as the least supported story. Another of the many legends says that the daughter of the empress had club feet so the queen declared that the deformity was beautiful and all women should have club feet. Another legend claims that is was for social standing. If a family could afford to keep a member at home, the family must have been wealthy, and the daughters would marry well. According to Harvard’s research on the subject, though, the idea that bound feet would give girls a better chance at wealthier marriages is an illusion. The data the researchers gathered revealed that bound feet had no impact on the social status of a marriage. In regard to the originality, it appears to them that the “practice was directly linked to the use of young girls and women in the hand-labor force” (Walsh, 2011, 1). Handwork was more lucrative for women than the labor men and boys did. At present, there is no fully verifiable story and Mernissi’s reference to her theory of the Chinese foot binding as though it were fact is misleading.

While fashion in the US is a major influence of the social norm, it is not forced. In extreme Islamic countries, a girl can be detained, interrogated, and punished for not dressing appropriately. Punishments include “up to two months in prison or even [a] lashing.” (as cited in Bolton, 2013, para. 4 ) In countries like Afghanistan, unlike Morrocco where Mernissi is from, “roving police physically punish any woman who calls attention to herself even by wearing shoes that squeak or click on the pavement.” (Cooper, 1) There are videos posted on YouTube of modesty police in the capital of Iran stopping women and lecturing them about their clothes (infolive, YouTube). One girl was coaxed into a police van when they told her they, “just wanted to talk to her.” (as cited in Bolton, para. 19) Once inside, they reprimanded her so harshly she began to cry. After being released she expressed to her father, “as soon as I finish high school, I’m leaving this country forever.” (as cited in Bolton, para. 20) In 2008, a secret cell phone video was taken and posted on YouTube and was unfortunately recently removed about a young woman who’s head scarf did not satisfy the modesty police resulting in an arrest. Infuriated and frightened, the young woman fought back. A nearby crowd became angry and surrounded the officers causing all but one to flee. The ill-weighed comparison of Muslim’s approach to fashion and America’s attitude is disproportioned.

In the US, people can choose what they want to wear or weigh. The US government spends thousands of dollars attempting to support the healing of those who might be in situations where they are condemned for their appearance. Even in the media “there have been some signs of a backlash against the prevailing body image… so-called full-figured models like the popular Emme are increasingly showing up on magazine covers. ‘I stand for accepting your body size, whether you are a size 2 or a size 14,’” Emme says (as cited in Masci, Body Image). There are places for victims of eating disorders ranging from anorexia to compulsive eating disorders to find encouragement and people to rally behind their journey to healthy living. Unlike under Muslim law, in the United States there is a choice and there are no penal consequences.

In Mernissi’s article, she falsely claims that the majority of women are the size of her “fourteen year old niece” or an “adolescent girl”. According to statistics, “more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013, Adult Obesity Facts). Additionally, “women have been getting heavier. Today the average adult American woman weighs 152 pounds, up from 144 pounds in the 1970s” (Masci, Body Image). “This is already causing a lot of problems for women, and all indicators are that it's going to get worse in the future, not better,” the University of Cincinnati's Gass informs (as cited in Masci, New Threats). It is evident according to statistics that the majority of woman in the United States are not the size of an “adolescent girl.”

Mernissi quotes the clerk as saying, “Many women working highly paid fashion-related jobs could lose their positions if they didn’t keep to a strict diet” (284) as though all careers are similarly affected. There is only one major career affected by size on face-value. That is the fashion career, which has the singular focus on appearances. There are thousands of careers with people who couldn’t care less  about what a person looks like as long as she can get the job done professionally. Despite the evidence otherwise, Mernissi describes dieting as a “fast” that lasts twelve months in order for a woman to fit into what she call the beauty expectations (286). Again the reality does not align with Mernissi’s perception. For most Americans, dieting is an attempt to lose unhealthy fat, not a way to keep a job or to measure up to a physical standard.

The essay is not without its merits, but its lack of consistency leaves the reader frustrated and offended. Mernissi does not portray the West culture accurately. She does not value the reader enough to give accurate facts. In addition she contradicts herself throughout the essay. In the end, the reader begins to feel Mernissi is an emotional, insecure woman with a bone to pick with men and the West leading her to write an unsupportable article. It is very disappointing because she had the potential to write a very profound and inspiring article, but instead allowed her own clouded experience to get in the way.

Works Cited:

Bolton, Kent. “Struggle Over What to Wear in Iran.” Hydrablog. Hydrablog. 22 July 2012. Web.             24 Oct. 2013

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013.) Adult Obesity Facts. CDC. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Cooper, Mary H. (1999, April 30). Women and Human Rights. CQ Researcher, 9, 353-376.

English 101 & City Central girls. (2013) Personal interview. September and October.        

Infolive, Youtube. “Modesty Police Cracks Down on Women.”

Masci, David. (2003, November 7). Women's health. CQ Researcher, 13, 941-964.           

Mernissi, Fatema. “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem.” The Bedford Reader. 11^th Edition.       X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane Aaron, eds. Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.     Boston. 2012. Print 226-229. Pages 282-287

Walsh, Colleen. “Unraveling a Brutal Custom.” Harvard Gazette. Arts and Culture. History,         Language, & Culture. 2013, Dec 9.


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I actually wrote this last year, almost exactly. I thought I might post it since I enjoyed it.