January 11, 2016

We are the champions, my friends!

editor:	Gurmeet Singh

There’s a painting in my hometown gallery that I want to talk about. Birmingham’s art gallery and museum has some incredibly interesting and valuable collections – including the much vaunted Staffordshire Hoard. But like all provincial galleries, it’s mostly filled with unspectacular works. This isn’t snobbery – I’m not saying the gallery isn’t worth visiting – indeed, the fact that you would never encounter the same works elsewhere makes it worth a look – but it’s pretty obvious, even to someone like me, who has no real, serious learning of art history or aesthetics, that a lot of the stuff in the gallery is pretty bad.

One painting sticks in my mind. A knight guards a woman from a Moor. It’s called ‘The Champion’, by Charles Lock Eastlake. Look at the knight’s infinite disdain, his anger, checked by his honour – his fearless protection of his limp, helpless damsel from the dirty, scheming, ratty Moor. The Moor points down to some riders on a path below - the knight will imminently vanquish them. And then maybe he'll do the Moor in, for good measure. Look at how the woman swoons behind the knight's enormous, unblemished breastplate – look at that javelin he uses to protect her - and how it bars the Moor's entry to 'this' side of the painting. She ties a cloth to him symbolising their, wait for it, bond – and a priest looks on, approving of the brave knight’s action.

In all seriousness, I think of this painting because of Cologne. Because this is where we are again – the kitschy, mock-serious fantasies of knights protecting women from dirty foreigners. We had a chance to talk seriously about women’s safety in the urban space – we had a chance to talk seriously about how we can prevent another event like the disgusting New Years’ grope-fest that took place in the West German city from ever happening again. Instead, we’re talking about race, ethnicity – about Islam. We’re talking about the innate tendencies towards sexualisation. We’re talking about them molesting our women. We’re putting on our armour and stopping those disgusting foreigners from ever getting close to our women again.

There is something to be said for Merkel’s attempt to shift focus from the identity of assailants to legal status: It’s a difficult position to argue against – the idea that those breaking laws should not be deported, if they were awaiting or granted asylum. But this is another discussion entirely. Firstly, we have to acknowledge that not only are we not talking about what should be talked about – women’s rights and safety – we’re probably talking about something totally irrelevant. Why should we discuss ethnicity in this instance? Why is it important? The case is being likened to a sex-trafficking ring organized in Northern British cities and towns by men primarily of Pakistani origin. It made sense to talk about origin then, since we were discussing belief – the men involved in sex-trafficking believed their victims were ethnically and culturally inferior to them, so were fair game for exploitation. There’s nothing wrong with pointing that out.

But in the Cologne case, despite not having a full-range of facts, despite not talking about belief, we’re already discussing the origin of the alleged assailants, as though their origin sufficiently explains their behavior. Therefore, not only are we talking about the wrong thing, we’re talking about the wrong thing in a stupid way.

The focus on ethnicity and origin reflects on a long-building neuroses in the German mainstream mindset that is fueled by immigration and multiculturalism. It’s an ugly mindset that explodes at the hint of an infringement, releasing a wave of fury against the other. It’s a mindset filled with colonialist dreams of protection against miscegenation, and what’s worse – the idea that this protection is noble, since it serves a better people. In the worst cases, this belief can be potentiated into full-on violence if an extreme-enough section of this mainstream goes for it; I’m not exaggerating – a ‘manhunt‘ has already taken place.

We shouldn’t focus on ethnicity and origin unless some serious facts appear. Right now we should be focusing on women's safety in the urban space. Notice I haven’t separated myself from this discourse.

I’m saying I’m a part of the group that needs to readjust their perspectives, and work towards not talking about the ethnicity of assailants, and focus on the issue at hand: women's safety. Furthermore, I am trying to see what I can do to show solidarity against stereotypes and violence against women.

Women have been assaulted and attacked in large crowds, while police were standing by. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. It is the most important thing we should be discussing. Because it doesn’t just happen in one train station, at one time. It happens everyday – and to go back to New Year’s Eve, as the Guardian writes: “Police in Hamburg said they had received 133 complaints from women who were sexually assaulted or robbed in and around the city’s red light district on the same night. Similar incidents appear to have taken place on a smaller scale in other German cities on New Year’s Eve. In Frankfurt, 15 women have told police they were assaulted, and in Stuttgart a further 12.”

Let's champion women's rights; not act like heroes or champions just for the hell of it.

IMAGE: The Champion, by Charles Lock Eastlake, in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Collections.