Yousef Al-Khattab: When you take the women and dress them like whores, on the street... Richard Dawkins: I don't dress women, they dress themselves... Yousef Al-Khattab: But you allow it as a norm, to let the women go on the street dressed like this. What's going on with your society?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Dawkins denies direct control over how women dress but acknowledges societal norms play a role in what is accepted on the street.
- In plain terms
- Individuals choose their clothes but society sets the norms.
- What can you take from it?
- Distinguish between personal choice and societal norms.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who decides what is acceptable dress?
- How do norms limit freedom?
Another view
The exchange simplifies complex cultural dynamics.
More from Richard Dawkins
One of the things that is wrong with religion is that it teaches us to be satisfied with answers which are not really answers at all.
Permalink to quote #75 You've just said a very revealing thing. Are you telling me that the only reason you don't steal and rape and murder is that you're frightened of God?
Permalink to quote #77 Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
Permalink to quote #74
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