But I have to say that this -much appreciated- diary reminds me of so many conversations we have in America even about women and is dressing like a pop star a sign of liberation or another incarnation of our subjugation to men...  I mean some people will even go so far as to say that just being the object of the male gaze is badddd (so, do we lock ourselves in our homes?) or, conversely, that prostitution is an empowering career choice (sigh...).  So there's little new in this debate.   Even when we're free to be you and me, there is always someone, often other women, concerned if we are being women correctly.  I guess the news is that it's finally hit the Arab world.  I know one huge bone of contention in all of my feminist studies was the complex experience of black women, who faced not just sexism, but racism and classism and conflicting stereotypes and social expectations peculiar to being a black woman.  Perhaps in the Arab world there is that too, in different ways, with the whole social conservatism/fetishizing exotic sexuality thing, and with the different set of social repercussions for breaking the rules.  But I suspect the experience is still more universal than peculiar.  It's a different, perhaps more extreme incarnation of the evolution of sexual equality.  Which is messy all around.

But in fairness, people, men and women, are themselves full of contradictions.  It's a difficult topic.  Kinda why I try to stick to freedom of speech, equal pay, etc.  Equal rights.  So far as the sexual objectification of women goes, it's a problem.  But I think the answer lies more in educating men and empowering women, and vice-versa, than in debating what kind of sexuality is optimal for women and pop stars in particular.  

Hope some of that made sense.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.