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ARAB DESTROY the STEREOTYPEs

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UNVEIL

CONTENTS

hAVE ARAB STEREOTYPES engulfed the popular mind ?

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O V E RS E X ED

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O P P R ES S ED

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TE R RO I S T/

C O R RUP T / /

divergence vs convergence

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The increasing explosion of visual media in Western societies reveals Western ways of interacting with the world - a “scopic regime that equates seeing with knowledge” (Rose, 2012: 3) so that Western perception and interpretation become “perilously intertwined” (Chris Jenks, 2003, cited in Rose, 2012:1), and the modern view of Arabs comes to be

Each title represents an image that explores how Arabs and Islam have suffered extreme prejudice in the West.

seen as different from what is expected of a normal individual in the West.

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The Everday Pollution of Stereotypes 2

The Cyclone of Vicious Media 3

Hijacked !

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False Hope 5

Uniting Two Opposites 6

Opposing Perceptions 7

Separate Identities 8

The Victim 9

Oil Wealth 10

HATRED 11

Gold Plague 12

The Price of Wealth 13

Contamination 14

Trapped 15

Filthy Rich 16

BRANDED

Pollutes your mind.

1

The Arabs exist only as an occasion for the tyrannical observer:

the

world is my idea Said, 2003: 310

Everyday life.

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ANXIETY

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Media has the ability to challenge even the most repressive regimes but also can be used in other ideological ways, such as the introduction, evolution or reinforcement of a myth or stereotype.

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‘The word stereotype is today almost always a term of abuse.’

Dyer, 2002:11

One that has recently suffered immense attention in the media is the Arab.

‘[How]... has Islam become synonymous with the Middle East, Muslim men with violence, and Muslim women with oppression?’

Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008:4

‘Islamophobia: anxiety of Islam?

Can this really be compared to individual psychological traumas such as acrophobia, arachnophobia, or xenophobia?’

Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008: 4

‘Marking difference leads us, symbolically, to close ranks, shore up culture and stigmatise and expel anything which is defined as impure, abnormal.’

Babcock, 1978 cited in Hall, 1997:237

It is as if the media deliberately layers fear onto their representation of the Arab stereotype in order to spawn fear amongst the population Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008:5

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YRANOITATS 4

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SDRAWKCAB

1. The shape of the white and black characters are a mix of Arabic style letters but reads in English.

2. These unique serif characters embrace the white space yet the darkness of the letters rejects any opportunity for expansion in the same way that the stereotype eats away at the identity of the Arab.

3. There is an obvious struggle for change but unless people unite and look deeper into the true identity of the Arab the movement for change will remain stationary.

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& r r &b ‘Living with the other, with the foreigner, confronts us with the possibility or not of being an other. It is not simplyhumanistically-a matter of our being able to accept the other, but of being in his place, and this means to imagine and make oneself other for oneself.’

Kristeva, 1991:13

STATIONARY

‘Je est un autre [I is another].’

Kristeva, 1991:13

‘We assume that if an Arab feels joy, if he is sad at the death of his child or parent, if he has a sense of the injustices of political tyranny, then those experiences are necessarily subordinate to the sheer, unadorned, and persistent fact of being an Arab.’

Said, 2003:230

‘Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorising views over it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.’

Said, 2003:3

‘I myself believe that Orientalism is more particularly valuable as a sign of EuropeanAtlantic power over the Orient than it is a veridic discourse about the Orient...’

Said, 2003: 6

‘One aspect of the electronic, post modern world is that there has been a reinforcement of the stereotypes by which the Orient is viewed. Television, the films, and all the media’s resources have forced information into more and more standardized molds.’

Said, 2003:26

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Look Deeper

FORWARDS

The ampersand says AND is more, it says you and me, through this ampersand we see the foreigner and I. Can the East and West ever intertwine?

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English ampersand Arabic punctuation mark

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OR

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1. Indeed. Before the worst terror attack ever experienced in the West, this was the modern view of the Arab image. Is it possible to fall any lower than nil, could the Arab image be even further belittled and reduced?

TRUE ?

“…The only way in which Arabs count is as mere biological beings; institutionally, politically, culturally they are nil, or next to nil.”

Said, 2003:312

FALSE?

1. This explores the perceived identity based on what’s on the outside without knowing or thinking to learn about what lies beneath.

2. In pursuit of meaning and satisfaction we are led to objectify persons and address others through the medium of television, which is one of the primary conduits of ideology. Since we experience alienation from ourselves and others, we best comprehend others and ourselves through TV.

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WHO IS SHE ?

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1. This young female is a victim of negative labelling. It reflects how it has caused her great stress and anxiety.

2. She looks into her reflection in a sudden panic because she is afraid of society’s misconceptions.

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1. Westerners have taken statements of Arab “undeserved wealth [as] an affront to real civilisation” (Said, 2003: 108). They have become “undifferentiated in their stereotyped qualities, scheming and money mongering” (Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008:114).

2. There exists a predominant perception where we come to see the Arab as nothing but an oil supplier and a nuisance “with the absence of any Arab moral qualifications for owning such vast oil reserves” (Said, 2003:286).

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l i o

a e w

h lt

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HATRED

The Oriental knows “no other environment than hatred” (Kristeva, 1991:13); anyone would feel this way if they were seen as a subject matter and classified as a “radically peculiar object” (Said, 2003:98) or creature.

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frustration An Arab oriental is that impossible creature whose libidinal energy drives him to paroxysms of over-stimulation-and yet, he is as a puppet in the eyes of the world, staring vacantly out at a modern landscape he can neither understand nor cope with.

“ Said, 2003: 312

1. Gold is a plague.

2. The visual entertainment and advertising industry depicted Arab rulers with their women of the harem. In films such as The Dictator (2012) critical depictions of Arab women as sex objects obsessed with luxury become constant. But in reality only a minority own such vast amounts.

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1. The Middle East is almost always being targeted for its wealth and so the Arabs face consequences of war. They are almost being plagued by their very own wealth. Some would rather strip themselves of this wealth to protect themselves from constant military occupation, violence, rape, death and destruction.

2. An Arab’s positions of power through oil, gold and the ‘arrogance’ of powerful politics promulgate negative discussions and offer the Arab a “total absence of any cultural position” (Said, 2003:27).

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WEALTH VS

FREEDOM

TARGET IDENTIFIED: “The foreigner comes in when the consciousness of my difference arises...”

(Kristeva, 1991:1)

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trapped

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FILTHY RICH Undifferentiated sexual drive: there is a ‘powerful sexual appetite...characteristic of those hot blooded southerners.

“ Said, 2003: 312

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1. Depictions of Arab women as “slaves, sex objects, sex obsessed, despots” (Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008:31) have become embedded in our minds.

2. The entertainment and advertising industry reflect “western appetites the titillating secrets of forbidden places that teasingly promised prohibited sensual delights” (Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008:35).

3. The European seeks Oriental licentious sex, unobtainable in Europe and in order for the East to be extremely successful they cater to Western appetite. In a country where women are veiled and males are the majority the secret sex trade is one of the largest.

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LOCKED UP

GRADUATE

BRAINWASHED

LOVES SHOPPING

ARRANGED MARRIAGE

SINGLE

OPRESSED

HONEST

CONFUSED

ARAB MUSLIM

PECULIAR

SOCIABLE

UNTRUSTWORTHY

RESPECTFUL

HOUSEWIFE

BRITISH

ABUSED

CARER

INFERIOR

HEALTHY

SUICIDE BOMBER

INTELLIGENT

DELLUSIONAL

GOOD SENSE OF HUMOUR

SECRETIVE

FAMILY ORIENTATED

DISGUISE

OPEN MINDED

NINJA

HAPPY

CRIMINAL

POLITE

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SEE BEYOND IMAGE

CORRUPT ?

TERRORIST ?

OPRESSED ?

ARCHAIC ?

‘NO, I AM JUST AN ARAB’

divergence vs convergence

READ UP!

Arab culture and Islam remains a mystery to those who only absorb the negative depictions and indifferences presented to them making understanding impossible.

Chomsky, N. Barsamian, D and Naiman, A. (2012). How the world works. London: Hamish Hamilton.

Mainstream ideologies remain perplexingly agitated and tense, and

Gottschalk, P. and Greenberg, G. (2008). Islamophobia.

Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Johnstone, S. (2008). The everyday. London: Whitechapel.

Kristeva, J. (1991). Strangers to ourselves. New York: Columbia University Press.

Rogan, E. (2012). The Arabs. London: Penguin Books.

Said, E. (2003). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books Ltd. Welch, D. (2013). Propaganda. London: The British Library.

this imagery has shown that media power and dominance endure.

Between the idea and the reality falls a shadow...

Between the idea and the reality appears a light...

It is as if the media deliberately layers fear onto their representation of the Arab stereotype in order to spawn fear amongst the population... & so the distance between the idea and reality of the Arab should ideally be destroyed since there can only be one truth.

Your perception should no longer be more than the distance from your mind to your hand. ! WARNING: Do not fall into the shadow of global media.

decide now.

THINK.

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