Original Story: Muhammad Ali's advice to his daughters...Powerful!
An incident transpired when Muhammad Ali’s daughters arrived at his home wearing clothes that were quite revealing.
Here is the story as told by one of his daughters:
“When we finally arrived, the chauffeur escorted my younger sister, Laila, and me up to my father’s suite. As usual, he was hiding behind the door waiting to scare us. We exchanged many hugs and kisses as we could possibly give in one day.
My father took a good look at us. Then he sat me down on his lap and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to.
Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected.
Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell.
Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You've got to work hard to get to them.”
He looked at me with serious eyes. “Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.”
From the book: More Than A Hero: Muhammad Ali's Life Lessons Through His Daughter's Eyes.
Keari Lee Bell-Gawne It's a cute story, and it does speak words to how to handle a modern day situation where a daughter dresses in revealing ways during adolescence. I do fear however it leaves the sexist history of how covering women came to be. Actually, as I'm looking at this, geeking out, I find the parrallel between women and resources really intriguing. For instance women in ancient greece were often referred to in resource terms. Sexual relations often had agricultural rhetoric such as plowing or sewing seeds. It was spoken of in a way of a field needing to be tended to, and women as resources for which to bear children. Indeed controlling the female body (both sexually and otherwise) has been historically used as a method for controlling her as a resource for childbearing. Particularly for insuring that she is a pure resource for the patriline (thus virginity being so highly regarded, notably in societies where financial and land resources are passed down through the patriline). The ancient greek story of pandora (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora) tells a story of women as a necessary evil (side note: the story has some interesting ties to genesis). There has always been a connotation of women's sexuality as a double edged sword. It has been the method for creating male heirs, and populations in general. Yet it has always contained with it the lack of control of male lust, and in that lack of control comes a lack of hierarchical power dynamics. So a women's sexuality has often been viewed as almost having an element of witchcraft or dark evil. One way in which this sexuality was contained was through the covering of women's bodies. It was the women's fault (and still is in many societies) if she is raped, for she is the one who was the 'temptress' showing her magical skin to which the male had no other choice but to succumb. (take the tale of Odysseus and Circe for example, link here:http://homepage.smc.edu/cramer_timothy/story_of_circe_and_odysseus.htm). But when we leave out the male role in that dynamic of sexuality, we fundamentally blame the women for the ways in which male sexuality is casted upon her, So that it becomes her fault. I find the passage, speaking of fine gems and jewels quite interesting in this way. They too have a mysterious allure to them that compels us to greedy overindulgence. Not only that but, like gems, women are a rich resource for men, for they bear the father's children. Like golem's ring in lord of the rings, womens bodies and sexuality represent an indulgence, but also a fear of loss of control. And because they are so (no pun intended) precious to the user, there is a certain extreme protection of them and their bodies from others. Like golem sneaking peaks of his ring but then jamming it away in his pockets from others, the way in which we cover women's bodies may be of similar hoarding desires. And while this system makes sense for male society, we should be gratuitous enough to ask ourselves if women wanted this protection to begin with. For we live in a society in which women are frightened by the lusts of men and in that fear remain hidden. But perhaps instead of questioning how buried in clothing a women's body should be to be safe, we should instead question males whether it is right to grab snatchedly at their bodies to begin with.
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