Class Discussion Reflection from 11.14.12

The class on Middle Eastern women and their representation in the media was a very interesting one because it brought up a lot of things that I never thought about before. I know that Middle Eastern/ Muslim/ Arab people get discriminated against and stereotyped just as much as any other minority group if not more. Like discussed in class women in particular get represented as passive and silenced, but I feel like Middle Eastern women get represented as this more than any other group of women. I believe that this occurs because we see the veil as a hindrance and an object that silences these women.  As mentioned in class, a positive representation is hardly seen. Women of the Middle East are educated, fight for what they believe, and are outspoken this is something that is hardly represented.

The other thing that really stood out to me in class was the fact that may people in Western societies tend to group Muslim, Middle Eastern, and Arab together. That is why it was so surprising that the man in the documentary “Bad Arabs” only used the term “Arab” to describe the people in the film.  There were a couple of ideas that the man in the documentary brought up that really stood out to me, the idea that our country has engrained fear in people and made Middle Eastern/Arab/ and Muslims out to be “one type” of person, that is being associated with terroristic activities, only furthers the stereotype that already exists. There was a sentence that really stood out to me in the documentary and that is when the narrator said “…we have been pre conditioned that those innocent civilians are part of terrorist groups… automatically profiled”.

Lastly at the end of the class we spoke a bit about different shows that portray Middle Eastern people in the media, especially reality show and both “All-American Muslim” and “Shah’s of Sunset” came up. The interesting thing is that one of the shows was cancelled after the first season, while the other one is about to begin a second season. As mentioned in class, it would be interesting to try to find out why one show survived over the other.  Below I posted two short promos for both shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy_VoBqLTis    (Shah's Of Sunset)


(All-American Muslim)

Personally I have never watched either show, but judging from the promos the shows seem very different from each other. I believe that “All-American Muslim” shows a more realistic portrayal of “everyday life” for different Muslim- American families living in this country. While “Shah’s of Sunset” is a more “glamorized” portrayal of Persian-Americans living in California. My assumption would be that this show might have had higher demand because it is more “Americanized” and as discussed in class this show only further supports the hegemonic structure of the U.S.

Media Moment: 2 Chainz

 

Hey guys, it's Emily. I am sure most of you have heard this song, "Birthday Song" by 2 Chainz, one of the most popular songs right now. Though I knew the lyrics in the song are degrading to women ("All I want for my birthday is a big booty ho"), I recently watched the music video for it and it portrays the objectification of women and their bodies to an extreme. The women in the video are only shown with a close up on their shaking behinds. Towards the beginning, a woman is carrying a butt-shaped cake and the camera is focused only on the cake and her cleavage. When the camera finally follows 2 Chainz to the backyard of the birthday party, there are men wearing business suits lined up in chairs while random women in bikinis bounce on their laps in an sexual manner. Even though Kanye West's verse is degrading in itself (it is a plea to his girlfriend to allow them to have a threesome), his verse portrayed in the music video shows him riding a bicycle carrying a chariot-like structure surrounded by nameless woman, suggesting that these women are his slaves.
I think the worst part about the nature of 2 Chainz' music and this video is the fact that he is close to forty years old. He is not encouraging this behavior to younger people, like most rappers, but to older men. 2 Chainz is more than double the age of the women in the video and could easily be their father.

What are your reactions to the portrayal of women in this video?
Do you recall any other recent videos like this? (Post them!)
Is it the responsibility of the women hired in the videos to stop this degradation? If not, how can these depictions change in Hip Hop culture?

Class Reflection 11/14

We left off class on Wednesday with many people still wanting to participate, me included.  Last comment made was that the US should only intervene when the nations well being is at stake. I personally completely disagree. Why? It's simple: the war currently going on in Iraq.  What is the point of the U.S. still being there since 2003 when the person who was supposedly in charge of Al Qaeda and leading the terrorist attacks was killed? Is this really the nations way of protecting us from future attacks?

During the class discussion there were two things that came to mind in relation to the video and the readings. First the fact that humor is used when it comes to stereotypes.  Jeff Dunham is a ventriloquist who has one of his dolls as Achmed The Dead Terrorist. Here is a clip of one of his standups:

Although this is funny it does show that comedy is used to make fun of certain stereotypes. At about 7 minutes they speak about being a "suicide bomber".

Another thing is the movie Borat. I did not finish watching this movie but the way the main character, Borat Sagdiyev, a journalist from Kazakhstan, was portrayed was disturbing. He was portrayed as a dumb man who came to America to cover a story but then focused on wanting to find Pamela Anderson and marrying her.

Media Moment, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"

I wanted to share a document that I feel ties directly into the ideas of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. You can find it here:

https://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html?pagewanted=al

Tell me what you think about the Nacirema society. I don't want to give too much away because I want you to come to your own conclusions. (Hint: Does anything sound familiar?) What is the mystery and what can we take away from it?

I was introduced to this text in my anthropology class and ever since reading it, my eyes have been completely opened. It showed me that when one is so utterly and completely immersed in one's environment and culture, it is difficult to distance oneself and take another's point of view. 

To me, reading and discussing this with that class opened up an entirely new perspective. I hope that it will do the same for you. Or at least give you a little aha! moment. 

Media Moment: Islam people in films.

Hi, everyone in my class. This is Se. I'm major in media analysis and criticism.
I'd say, I'm a longtime movie-lover. I watch every movies on the world.

I want introduce two films that I watched which relate to with our last class.

First, I want to introduce a film The Sheik. This film is one of the most racist film against Arabs. Of course, this film came out almost a century ago, before we have sound-sync technology.

The Sheik is one of the hegemonic Hollywood film represents Arab as a savagery.
This film's plot line is very problematic because the main character Diana is simply submissive and being depicted as an sexual object. An antagonist character Sheik (or Ahmed Ben Hassan) kidnaps Diana and puts her in his camp in middle of dessert. Diana has no choice unless become a wife of Sheik.
Sheik is very decent to Diana (Sheik and his men wear white clothes). This Arabic character is not depicted with lechery, rather, he is gentle and heroic figure.
In the climax of film, Diana attempts to escape from Sheik and his companies - Diana, however, lost in the dessert kidnapped by a lewd bandits whom wear black clothes.
Sheik saves Diana from the villains. And Diana realizes that she loves Sheik. (stockholm syndrome).
In the last part of film, Sheik compasses that he is not Arab decent, he is a white man.
This wired twist meant to be relief anxiety from seeing interracial marriage between White woman and Arab man.

Thhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheik_(film)

Check more details about this film.
This film is one of thousands film depicts Arab as a savagery and inferior to whites.

And compare this film with films are made by people in middle east.

One example, I saw a good film, Bab El-Oued City (1994).

(I'm sorry I can't find clip with caption)

This film shows Islam in Algeria experience cultural and sociological changes.
As every one knows, the Islamicphobia and Orientalism in media is not only a one-day-built ideology.
Christianity Vs. Islam has almost couple thousands year history.
I would like to suggest everyone in this class try to watch films that made by Islam people which gives you better understand of their culture and thoughts about social issues they have.

Media Moment, Fiat 500 Commercial

I remember seeing this commercial on TV a few months ago. Will this comparison between a woman and a car ever stop or is it another one of these mechanisms that advertisers continuously use?

In this commercial, the woman's body is literally juxtaposed with that of a car. Her presence on screen is replaced by that of the car with the same colors that she is wearing (red and black). The fact that she speaks Italian and is presented as foreign to the viewer relates to the "foreign car." Does anyone else find this insulting? There is constant play on the idea of "riding" in a car and I don't think that this should cross over into the use of a woman's body. Ban these tropes!

At the end of the commercial, you hear the woman's voice say "you never forget the first time you see one." This immediately places her in the position of "object" because of the word "one."
I think this commercial presents a man as being the potential driver of the car, not the woman. This is also linked to the stereotype that men make better drivers than women do. I do not think that the woman in the commercial is empowered in any way. She is not driving the car, but is "seducing" the man who passes by after she scolds him for ogling her. This implies that staring at a woman's body is nothing to feel nervous about and is even encouraged. This is evident in her suggestively touching him afterwards.

A few weeks ago, I saw another TV commercial. I wanted to share it with you, but I can't find it anywhere. Let me know if anyone comes across this so that I can put it up too. Thank you!
The commercial that I'm referring to featured a woman who was advertising a car. She was surrounded by three different "types" of men. She was characterized as the protagonist who had her choice in different types of cars the way she had in men. Does anyone see this as any better?

Media Moment, NY Times Article

Thank you, Simmi, for reminding me of a perfect example of having to confine to a culture's "norms." The difference here is that there is law enforcing this. Does anyone know if this ban on wearing the niqab was boycotted against in any way?

After Simmi presented in class yesterday, I found an article online that was published just this September:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/world/europe/tolerance-eases-impact-of-french-ban-on-full-face-veils.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Here is a quote I found that was echoed in the articles on Sex and the City 2. 

"A French businessman of Algerian origin, Rachid Nekkaz, has offered to pay any fine incurred for wearing the niqab. So far he has paid 412 fines totaling more than $60,000, plus $16,000 in legal fees. But many Muslim women who wear the veil simply stay home, he says, adding: “The law was meant to protect women but it has imprisoned them instead.”"

I learned in my anthropology class that everything is relative. Just because something is different than what you are familiar with doesn't make it wrong. I also learned about the term ethnocentric and I think that it is a dangerous thing. Every culture has different practices and evaluating someone's culture based on one's own standards leads to the taking away of people's voices.