David CotnerIt was a headline that read more like a refrigerator magnet poem than news to believe.
“Donkey Rape Spurs Tribal Massacre in Yemen”
An undated third-hand story recently shot through the more titillating corners of the internet, and, after people worked the inevitable ass-rape jokes out of their system, the particulars of the case were revealed. Tribal fighting in a province of Yemen – incited when a male donkey pursued an ass and raped it near the house of the owner of the ass – resulted in human-on-human violence and 15 casualties.
Of course at this point it is helpful to note the difference between the two creatures.
A donkey is a domesticated ass.
An ass is a wild, smaller relative of the horse, but with various obvious physical differences – longer ears, a stripe down the back and so forth. The male is called a jackass. Preferably not to his face.
The owner of the ass – who hailed from the Bani Abbas tribe – chased the donkey and struck it in an attempt to stop his animal from being violated. The donkey's owner saw this and took great umbrage, calling in a favor from his Makabis tribesmen. Revenge was swift, resulting in death or injury during what may be one of the smallest “massacres” on record.
Saudi Arabic-language daily newspaper Aleqtisadiah – itself quoting unnamed newspapers in Yemen – claimed the attacks happened in a village in the southwestern province of Ibb (Abb). 8 arrests were made by a purportedly sizable police contingent.
And that's all the story says.
And yet the orgy of reflexive stereotyping and racist loathing that shadowed it (appearing as it did in the ordinarily-innocuous “Weird News” section of most newspapers and websites) became a unexpected tempest in a teacup – except that the tea here has been replaced by stomach acid. The story is a propagandist's wet dream, a logical heir to the old Tijuana donkey show story – which, roughly translated, means to say that countries with brown people are dirty and full of vile degenerates. At last count, “Donkey rape sparks” was a phrase that registers over 89,000 hits on Google. Infinitely repeated. Hardly questioned. Easily believed. The absolute essence of fantasy.
“Arabs, she said, are programmed to fight. It's in their nature,” one blog helpfully explained. Ironically, the one point at which racists and feminists come together – so to speak! – falls under the tastefully-worded rhetoric, “RAPE A WOMAN, NO SWEAT – BUT RAPE A DONKEY & IT'S ON!” And of course if one googles “Koran” and “ass” to see what that particular book recommends as a solution to this problem, a whole new galaxy of xenophobia opens up.
It was also a story especially helpful in summoning up a healthy level of casual bile towards Yemen, in which the U.S. currently has many keen new interests and initiatives. Ultimately, the pornography of disgust is duly lubed with the aphrodisiac of intolerance – which, it should be said, forms the basis of any good hate-fuck. Acting hard gets you hard.
And so it seems that the West and the Arab world are not so far from each other at all.
Sources: “Donkey Rape Sparks Tribal Massacre in Yemen”
“The Arab World: Too Habituated To Fighting To Give It Up?”
“Difference Between Donkeys, Asses, Mules and Burros Explained”
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