I was driving down the street in Burlington last week when I noticed two bumper stickers on the Toyota station wagon in front of me. One said “Free Tibet,” the other said “Girls Kick Ass.”
This was a problem. The bumper stickers created a philosophical tension my mind could not ease. There seemed, to me, a contradiction in bumper stickers.
“Free Tibet” is a popular bumper sticker in Burlington, which is home to a large group of resettled Tibetan refugees. It’s also popular among Vermonters of European descent, many of whom are enamored of Buddhism and Tibetan culture. Since so much of Tibetan culture is bound up with Buddhism, one serves as a natural entry to the other. The Tibetan case is a particularly appealing one. A remote, picturesque land of gentle, spiritual people, held for half a century under the callused, totalitarian thumb of Communist China. The good-versus-evil scenario has been more than Hollywood has been able to resist and several recent movies about Tibet have only increased interest in its culture and religion, thereby expanding the market for even more movies.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, has said he finds all this western fascination with Tibet unsettling, because he feels westerners are attracted to his culture for the wrong reasons. Instead of wearing a nice woolen hat, the Dalai Lama would rather that we learn about the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path. And what would he think, I wonder, if he were to see “Free Tibet” glued to one end of a bumper and “Girls Kick Ass” at the other?
Let’s talk about ass-kicking for a moment. I’ve had my ass kicked a few times; I didn’t enjoy it. I’ve kicked some ass in my time as well, and while it may have been momentarily satisfying for the viscera, it left me feeling hollow and empty. Ass kicking, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder – or perhaps the foot or the ass. It all depends on whose ass is getting kicked, and by whom.
There are any number of people on the left side of the ledger who would be offended if they overheard a group of West Texas sheriff’s deputies talking about “taking names and kicking ass.” I’d be one of them. We’d probably get together and call the ACLU. Yet some of those people, it seems, think nothing of trashing up the back end of their Toyota station wagon with a “Girls Kick Ass” bumper sticker. And that’s where I draw the line.
The West Texas sheriff’s deputy and the radical feminist are equally welcome in my home and in my heart to the point that they as individuals are willing to forswear ass kicking of any kind, now and forever.
Now before you start flaming me with e-mail, yes I know women have been – for millennia – oppressed as a class the way West Texas sheriff’s deputies have never been. But that does not and cannot justify ass-kicking. A disturbing trend I see in current and recent world events is the tendency of oppressed people, upon gaining some measure of liberation, to take on the worst characteristics of their oppressors. And that includes chauvinism, bad attitudes and stupid bumper stickers. I expect bad behavior from those with whom I disagree, but not from those I’m trying to support.
If we are ever to progress as a civilization, we must stop focusing on identity and start focusing on behavior. Ass-kicking is the problem here, and it doesn’t matter if the foot is wearing a jackboot or a Birkenstock.
A Contradiction in Bumper Stickers
I was driving down the street in Burlington last week when I noticed two bumper stickers on the Toyota station wagon in front of me. One said “Free Tibet,” the other said “Girls Kick Ass.”
This was a problem. The bumper stickers created a philosophical tension my mind could not ease. There seemed, to me, a contradiction in bumper stickers.
“Free Tibet” is a popular bumper sticker in Burlington, which is home to a large group of resettled Tibetan refugees. It’s also popular among Vermonters of European descent, many of whom are enamored of Buddhism and Tibetan culture. Since so much of Tibetan culture is bound up with Buddhism, one serves as a natural entry to the other. The Tibetan case is a particularly appealing one. A remote, picturesque land of gentle, spiritual people, held for half a century under the callused, totalitarian thumb of Communist China. The good-versus-evil scenario has been more than Hollywood has been able to resist and several recent movies about Tibet have only increased interest in its culture and religion, thereby expanding the market for even more movies.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, has said he finds all this western fascination with Tibet unsettling, because he feels westerners are attracted to his culture for the wrong reasons. Instead of wearing a nice woolen hat, the Dalai Lama would rather that we learn about the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path. And what would he think, I wonder, if he were to see “Free Tibet” glued to one end of a bumper and “Girls Kick Ass” at the other?
Let’s talk about ass-kicking for a moment. I’ve had my ass kicked a few times; I didn’t enjoy it. I’ve kicked some ass in my time as well, and while it may have been momentarily satisfying for the viscera, it left me feeling hollow and empty. Ass kicking, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder – or perhaps the foot or the ass. It all depends on whose ass is getting kicked, and by whom.
There are any number of people on the left side of the ledger who would be offended if they overheard a group of West Texas sheriff’s deputies talking about “taking names and kicking ass.” I’d be one of them. We’d probably get together and call the ACLU. Yet some of those people, it seems, think nothing of trashing up the back end of their Toyota station wagon with a “Girls Kick Ass” bumper sticker. And that’s where I draw the line.
The West Texas sheriff’s deputy and the radical feminist are equally welcome in my home and in my heart to the point that they as individuals are willing to forswear ass kicking of any kind, now and forever.
Now before you start flaming me with e-mail, yes I know women have been – for millennia – oppressed as a class the way West Texas sheriff’s deputies have never been. But that does not and cannot justify ass-kicking. A disturbing trend I see in current and recent world events is the tendency of oppressed people, upon gaining some measure of liberation, to take on the worst characteristics of their oppressors. And that includes chauvinism, bad attitudes and stupid bumper stickers. I expect bad behavior from those with whom I disagree, but not from those I’m trying to support.
If we are ever to progress as a civilization, we must stop focusing on identity and start focusing on behavior. Ass-kicking is the problem here, and it doesn’t matter if the foot is wearing a jackboot or a Birkenstock.