Treating the hoodie and hijab as equivalent symbols erases coercion behind the hijab

Evidence

A “One Million Hoodies” march was organised to demand justice for Martin. As Brendan O’Neill argued, this use of the hoodie is questionable enough . The wearing of “One million hijabs” to show public solidarity and outrage at the murder of Alwadi? I cannot think of anything more ironic and counter-productive. What I take issue with here is the equating of the hoodie and the hijab as sources of ethnic identity and pride. The hijab, which is discriminatory and rooted in men’s desire to control women’s appearance and sexuality, is not a choice for the majority of women who wear it. The hoodie, on the other hand, is a choice for everyone who wears it. The history and origin of these two items of clothing and what they represent could not be more different; like comparing the crippling footbindings of Chinese women with a “Made in China” Nike trainer. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 571

Categorization

• XREF: Contrast with the second-wave feminist ‘saving brown women’ dynamic that the collective response calls out — connects to the ‘us vs. them’ psychology the reader is tracking.
• SHARE: A specific person writing about agency, veiling, or postcolonial feminism would find this exchange valuable — the hoodie/hijab equivalence debate.