Havin' a perve

30.5.10

The other day at the pool, one of the fathers was taking photographs. Presumably of his kid learning how to swim. Annie noticed that none of the children in the pool looked related to him. It turned out that he was photographing the other teacher, who's pretty cute. She's young, thin, blonde. He was having a perve and not making a secret of it. In fact, he wanted to keep a momento on his phone.

If I told you this man was of Middle-Eastern appearance do you reckon you could find a way to convince yourself you weren't surprised by his behaviour? All Middle-Easterners are Muslim, and all Muslim men disrespect and objectify women, right? They go crazy at the sight of a woman's bare shoulder, don't they? And now they're here, treading all over our Australian beliefs and values!

I picture people thinking not only that such activity is definitive of Middle-Eastern men, but also "un-Australian". Firstly, if this is un-Australian, then what is Australian? Blonde bikini babes playing cricket at the beach? Is Lara Bingle more "Australian" than Megan Gale? I'm not trying to say that culture and nationality do not exist. What I want to say is that culture - in this case attitudes about norms of behaviour - is not inherent in appearance or origin. Such generalisations are born out of laziness and only further embed misconceptions. I think this is lamentable, even if the consequences are mostly benign. Everyone enjoys a perve every now and then. It is human, it is non-national. If the individual isn't ashamed to whip out the camera phone it's because of its personality.

He wasn't Middle-Eastern.