Response: Human Variation

In response to Martha Bruso's post on May 5, 2012:

It depends on what you mean by misconceptions.  Certainly, many Middle Eastern nations are quite sexist, and much of the discrimination that the American media loves to portray does occur.  However, I do not think it is nearly as widespread, or in many cases as severe, as the media implies.  This is largely because the media implies universality, a concept which rarely exists in regards to humans.  Humans are quite variable; even within one nation, or one state, or even one county or town people's outlooks on life and various social, religious, and ethical views vary.  In one single, Massachusetts town you might find people who are radical, vegan, LGBT-friendly, atheistic liberals, and other people who are strict, patriarchal, homo-and-trans-phobic, highly religious conservatives.  There is no reason to think that Middle Eastern countries cannot contain similar variability, although perhaps not quite to the extent found in America (due to the heterogeneous nature of American society).