If you follow Jamie Oliver’s cooking programmes, alternatively known as The Naked Chef, you’ll notice that his cool and effortless boyish attitude to cooking strikes a chord with the young, mostly male, upwardly-mobile, and aspiring members of the British middle class; it’s about an obsession with fresh, locally-sourced or grow-your-own ingredients, and recipes firmly grounded… Continue reading Jamie Oliver, food, and Eurocentrism
Tag: Racism
Guest post: Asian fetishism is sexist and racist
The following is a guest post by regular commenter, Gareth: I am a white Englishman with an Asian girlfriend. I believe the so-called ‘Asian fetish’ is both racist and sexist, and here is why. Being a white, straight man gives me a ton load of privilege, and that privilege is systemic and global. I am… Continue reading Guest post: Asian fetishism is sexist and racist
Notes on interracial and (post)colonial traveling
Some interracial couples may have some misgivings about traveling abroad together, particularly to places that are reputed to be intolerant – Saudi Arabia, Dubai and a host of other predominantly Muslim countries are quick to come up as examples. I can kind of understand why. The ghost of anti-miscegenation laws, racism, and the effects of… Continue reading Notes on interracial and (post)colonial traveling
Book review: Race, Space, and the Law
First published at Feminist Review Institutional racism: we all know it exists, yet many deny it does. In this book, Sherene Razack, author of Looking White People in the Eye, edits a set of deeply disturbing accounts of racially-motivated public policies and resultant public consciousness in North America. Beginning with the premise “Race is Space,”… Continue reading Book review: Race, Space, and the Law
Latter day Victoriana: Drawing similarities between Compulsion and Bride and Prejudice
Crossposted on Feminist Review. The repressive, corseted Victorian culture of the novel found a perfect foil in the rigid caste strictures of Indian society. (The Times, 27 April 2009) Nesrine Malik’s scathing review of the ITV drama Compulsion got me thinking a lot more about modern day adaptations of pre-20th century literary works featuring ethnic… Continue reading Latter day Victoriana: Drawing similarities between Compulsion and Bride and Prejudice
The ideal Muslim man is… blond and blue-eyed.
Isn’t it depressing that according to Nesrine Malik the so-called ideal Muslim man is blond and looks suspiciously white? Apparently, this beautiful mythical creature can be found in the popular Turkish soap opera, Noor, where he can be seen observing Islamic customs like a good Muslim son-in-law (*half-hearted sarcasm*). She writes: […] the male protagonists… Continue reading The ideal Muslim man is… blond and blue-eyed.
Migration: Belonging and displacement
In an early sequence of a 1991 Channel Four television feature, Northern Crescent (a film about the white-Asian conflicts in Britain following the Rushdie affair), shows a new primary school headmaster, Mr. West, who introduces himself at assembly to his students, most of whom are of Pakistani ancestry. Mr. West asks the students to name… Continue reading Migration: Belonging and displacement
Confronting Malay privilege
It is true that whenever I write about the state of feminism in Malaysia, I write from a point of view of a privileged Malay whose ethnicity is a dividing force in Malaysia. While I write about the challenges of Muslim women with a global view in mind, my own Malayness oppresses every one else… Continue reading Confronting Malay privilege
Notes on the Anti-capitalist Feminist Event, London, Valentine's Day 2009
Spending the day talking about Bangladeshi garment worker’s working conditions and sex-trafficking may not be everybody’s idea of celebrating Valentine’s Day. But there I was, rather than getting loved-up by candlelight with Whitney Houston bursting her lungs in the background, I was brushing shoulders with left-wing trade unionists, sex workers’ rights activists, and a rainbow… Continue reading Notes on the Anti-capitalist Feminist Event, London, Valentine's Day 2009
Foreign bodies as sexual playgrounds
This post was featured in the first Asian Women Blog Carnival at ciderpress’s blog. So there was this American guy, Jake, who sat with Gareth and me at lunch last Saturday and was telling us how much he wanted to go to Malaysia because it’s apparently a great place to meet women, and claimed that… Continue reading Foreign bodies as sexual playgrounds
Alicia Izharuddin 