The Sunday New York Times included a piece, "The Racial Politics of Speaking Well," about why white people should avoid referring to black people as "articulate" or "well-spoken": "With the ballooning size of the black middle and upper class, qualities in blacks like intelligence, eloquence—the mere ability to string sentences together with tenses intact—must at some point become as unremarkable to whites as they are to blacks." Odd, then, that many women still go about referring to themselves, their mothers and sisters, and other heroines as "strong." (Once, in a laugh-or-cry moment, I even saw an emaciated homeless woman wearing a T-shirt with the slogan: "Never Underestimate the Power of THIS Woman!") It's another characteristic that, if not exactly a given, can't be claimed without implying that its opposite is the norm.
"Strong woman" need not always be an irritating cliché, though. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, for instance, is a reminder of how few of us, male or female, deserve the epithet "strong." Imagine saying this in The New York Times when you are already the target of innumerable death threats:
Q. Have you seen any ideology coming from within Islam that gives young Muslims a sense of purpose without the overlay of militancy?
A. They have no alternative message. There is no active missionary work among the youth telling them, do not become jihadis. They do not use media means as much as the jihadis. They simply — they’re reactive and they don’t seem to be able to compete with the jihadis. And every time there is a debate between a real jihadi and, say, what we have decided to call moderate Muslims, the jihadis win. Because they come with the Koran and quotes from the Koran. The come with quotes from the Hadith and the Sunnah, and the traditions of the prophet. And every assertion they make, whether it is that women should be veiled, or Jews should be killed, or Americans are our enemies, or any of that, they win. Because what they have to say is so consistent with what is written in the Koran and the Hadith. And what the moderates fail to do is to say, listen, that’s all in there, but that wasn’t meant for this context. And we have moved on. We can change the Koran, we can change the Hadith. That’s what’s missing.
Plenty of people (that is, people who don't already want to disembowel her) have bones to pick with Hirsi Ali. She has been called an "Enlightment Fundamentalist." Her book's influence will be limited, because many will read it primarily for the satisfaction of agreement. Nevertheless, it will have the unintended benefit of humbling us, perhaps even embarrassing us, with its evidence that for all of our debate and dilation, we do little we can be proud of.
Sound harsh? It's February, and that means that on campuses across America self-styled "strong women" will stage productions of the Vagina Monologues. "Gender roles" will be explored, though in a way that won't horrify or even surprise many involved. I can promise, having witnessed this orgy of self-congratulation time and time again, that the plight of women like Hirsi Ali will be nothing but a dutiful footnote, if it's mentioned at all. But the world that wants her dead is encroaching on ours, and the difference between play-acting at courage and putting it to the test will be made clearer and clearer.
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