keep them coming!

First off, I apologize it’s taken me so long to get back here, I’ve had a lot of interesting stuff to do this week I hope to share with you soon.

@ Arianne: I didn’t mean to minimize the struggle you go through for acceptance and I acknowledge that as a Muslim I am more exposed to Islamophobia than homophobia. I was simplifying matters and in doing so I generalized so I apologize for that.

I won’t go more into this so we don’t get off tangent, but like Fatemah said, regardless of which victimized group one belongs to, you have to admit the representation of said group in media/ popular culture makes a huge difference to how it is perceived.

As for your second point about TV writers assuming you are more sophisticated that taking what is said at face value, well, I disagree. I disagree because I believe lies and half baked truths that circulate in mainstream understanding eventually accumulate and become taken for granted, EVEN if the viewers know they’re not true.

For example, I’m sure a lot of Americans know (or at least strongly believe) the Muslim who’s been living next door to them for so long isn’t going to kill them. But nevertheless, if they see their neighbours have visitors with niqab on, they’ll shy away from saying hello just because they’ve been exposed to too much media that scares them off and subconsciously they’re affected. I’m simplifying again, but I hope you get my point.

As for your third point about the American dad’s ignorance being the focus of the show, I think Anna did my job for me

Lastly, can I just add that freedom of expression and the press doesn’t necessarily mean everything has to be said/ published? Even newspapers don’t always publish everything submitted to them. We’re all free to say what we want, but we don’t, we filter our thoughts not because someone is forcing us to, but because of many other factors.

@ Maram: I don’t think you realize, but Egypt is my country too And I disagree—most women don’t blame themselves for sexual harassment though our culture (for the most part) tries to shame us into believing that.

As for your interviewees saying men had the right to beat their women, well, you just had the bad luck of choosing sources who misunderstand their religion. I’ve interviewed women who live in slums and peasant women out in the country, women with far less education, who believe that it’s not their husbands’ right to beat them.

And just because this belief is shared by some in our society, doesn’t mean it’s actually manifested in Egypt (our domestic abuse rates are far lower than many other countries) or that Islam somehow mandates it. As for you saying a group of men would leave a man beating his wife, that doesn’t happen everywhere. But I won’t go into this more because my responses are long enough as they are.

I disagree completely with you saying “sex in general is perceived in this sick view by most people, men and women.” Of course it’s not.

I went to both Axis of Evil shows (the one in Sawi and the bigger one in the Conference center), and I’m sorry, but they talked about everything under the sun! We should make fun of ourselves; no one’s saying we shouldn’t and the Axis of Evil trio is a perfect example. But even when we do, we never make things up, do we? And can I just add that poking fun at ourselves is usually much more acceptable when it’s us doing it and not someone that doesn’t ‘belong’ to us?

For example, I laughed like crazy during the Axis of Evil show(s), but not so much over Jeff Duncham’s “Achmed the dead terrorist” (look him up on YouTube). And that’s because I feel the former is laughing with us, the latter at us. Kind of. Plus you have to think of audience, reaction, will they believe what they hear/ watch or go find out the ‘truth’ etc

No one is saying there isn’t a lot wrong with ‘our’ culture, but that still doesn’t mean we take the worst things and exaggerate them. And not everything in the episode was true.

@ Jamie: Great comment! I particularly agree with you saying “some people find [these shows] a culturally-sanctioned way to enjoy being un-PC […]they feel better by watching an exaggerated version of [their steryotypes] played out on screen as something they can point to as definitely “bigoted” and distinct from their feelings (which they can afterwards define as therefore “not bigoted”).”

@ Anna: Nothing to add

@ Arianne: Like I said with Maram, it’s different when we poke fun at ourselves, and not when ‘others’ poke fun at us. And we shouldn’t be poking fun at any minority, not just because it’s PC not to.

@ Jamerican Muslimah: *applause*

@ Masoud: Although I agree with Sobia that the word obediance is perhaps not the proper word to use because of it’s connotations with right/ wrong behavior/ kids etc, I agree with you.

@ Mariam: I know what you mean, but I didn’t want to get into that because I didn’t want to turn the discussion into “that’s haram! Etc”

If you’ve read all this, thanks! And I promise I’l do better with responding to comments in the future.

OMG, this was really disgusting!! This should be offensive for every single person believing in GOD not just Muslims or Arabs!!!

As for their nasty way in portraying the Saudi culture, your analytical criticizing Essay is more than enough.

I just do have one simple silly question!! This cartoon, Is it for children or adults????

I’m going to read your comment as:

“Many Saudi women obey their husbands ( with MUTUAL OBEDIENCE)…”

Mutual implies the same in return. I don’t like the whole obedience thing being associated with appropriate Islamic behaviour unless IT is mutual. That may be their interpretation of some hadees but not all.

Sorry, but the word ‘obedience’ makes me very uncomfortable. Children can be obedient to their parents and pets obedient to their owners, but women are neither children nor pets. Nor are they subordinate to men in any way, shape, or form. So there is no need nor question of obedience. Obedience implies subordination of some form.

We are living in perilous times…excuse me if I cannot laugh at my own degradation.

I understand your point that this particular episode may not have done the most artful job at parodying a particular stereotype and instead just came across as crude/offensive. However, I still think it’s a bit strange to complain about one particular episode that may be offensive to one group of people (Saudis) while not objecting to the fact that the entire show focuses on making fun of another group (Americans). When the the overlying attitude of our culture is “let’s only fuss about stereotypes of certain minorities and accept stereotypes of others,” then we’re not really promoting tolerance or understanding — it’s just plain political correctness.

- Arianne

As someone who actually enjoys some episodes of American Dad, I have to disagree with your analysis. Yes, Stan is the epitomy of American ignorance and xenophobia. But Stan’s shtick only works in episodes where something happens that shows how wrong he is – i.e. in episodes where the writers go out of their way to break down and subvert the stereotypes that Stan espouses. That happened in the episode where Stan suspected his Iranian neighbors of being terrorists, but it turned out they were just normal folks born in Ohio. Nothing like that happened, however, in “Stan of Arabia.” Stan spouted ignorant stereotypes and then everything that happened in the episode SUPPORTED Stan’s view.

That’s actually my number one beef with the “But we’re parodying the stereotypes, not regurgitating them!” defense. Guess what? You are just regurgitating the stereotypes, unless you do/show something that actually proves that the stereotypes are wrong. That’s how real parody and subversion works. “Stan of Arabia” doesn’t do anything to undermine, deconstruct, subvert, or parody the racist views of Saudi Arabia that Stan espouses; if anything, the butt of pretty much every joke in those episodes boils down to “Ha ha, Muslims are ignorant, savage, and sexually regressive!” I’m sorry, but that’s promoting stereotypes, not subverting them.