Newsflash: "Don't mind the gaze: you're not in London anymore" from The National

Each time I read The National and come across a bad piece of journalism I think "it can't get any worse than this."

Then the next day's edition hits the streets.

Today, this article discusses THE GAZE -- that omnipresent stare that western women who travel to the Gulf are warned about.

To be honest, I don't mind that much if the editors at The National feel the need to fill a few empty column-inches with editorials about how much women get stared at and whether it should or shouldn't bother them.  I DO mind, however, when rubbish like this makes its way into the presses.  So bear with me while I attack critique the journalist and her two fatal mistakes.

Despite professing to follow the rule of "never say never or always...", she has "come to notice that the western women who complain about the unwanted gaze are seemingly always [my emphasis] women that are by normal standards plain or self-conscious."  Hmm.  If I remember correctly, I've done a fair amount of complaining about people staring at me when I walk around the streets.  Guess that means I'm either plain or self-conscious.  A quick check in the mirror dismisses the first hypothesis, so I must be the latter.  Thanks, Madam Journalist, for pointing that out to me.

The second mistake is better.  Or worse.  Depending on how one looks at it.  Our journalist reports taking a blonde woman's "...complaints about the unwanted attention with a grain of salt...But then again, I am not blonde so I don't know.  Or maybe I know better because I am not blonde."

Let's repeat the last sentence:

"Or maybe I know better because I am not blonde."

Wow!  What a slam!  Well, that was my first thought.  My second just chuckled at the fact that the brunette who wrote that has a Master's degree.

This blonde has a Doctor of Philosphy.