Feminism phobia

It seems that most of my generation is torn between what feminism is and what people perceive it to be. “There is a very warped view of feminism because the movement has been hijacked by radical activists who soak up all the media attention. They damage feminism the same way that the Westboro Baptist Church hurts Christianity, or Islamic extremists damage the reputation of Islam. Understand that, though there are lots of horrid, hateful women that call themselves soldiers of feminism, the core of the movement is not what they say it is, and will never be” said one of my male friends while expressing his opinion about feminism.

Feminism has been portrayed in movies through the representation of powerful, smart women who are capable of defeating “evil” male figures. This representation made me assume for a long time that feminism truly stands for strong, independent women. The female characters in these movies could be described by two definitions: The Bond girl or the Single girl. According to Hilary Radner in her book Neo-Feminist Cinema, “The Bond Girl represents a change in the women’s position…the single girl, unlike the Bond girl, was not by nature exceptional. Rather, she was an ordinary girl who strove successfully to become exceptional.” Although problematic to some extent, those representations of women in movies reflect a side of feminism that does not seem to form a big problem considering that it is breaking gender stereotypes. So what is the problem with feminism?

In my opinion the problem stimulated from the fact that feminism now encourages the notion of gaining power through appearance and consumption. This is what Radner defined in her book as neo-feminism. According to Radner, “Neo-feminism refers to the tendency in feminine culture to evoke choice and the development of individual agency as the defining tenets of feminine identity.” An example of such form of feminism is presented in movies such as Sex and the City 2. The representation of women in such movies emphasize the importance of their appearance and the power they have through making the right decision in purchasing products (mostly fashion brands). If feminism was only concerned with empowering women and achieving equality, then why is popular culture using feminist movements to advocate for passivity through product consumption?

What we're left with are two forms of feminism: The tomboyish representation of women that is defined as the Bond girl or Single girl, and the autonomous female that has control over her appearance and is defined by the neo-feminism movement. The question is, does either of them represent what feminism really stands for?

Tajmeel Beauty Academy

I recently came across the Qatar International Beauty Academy, Tajmeel. It really grabbed my attention because I found out that it is entirely run by women, all the way from the top. It is part of the Social Development Center (SDC), which is a center that helps develop the capabilities of the members of society in Qatar by offering programs to nurture and further develop these capabilities. Within the SDC lies the Qatar International Beauty Center, Tajmeel. Tajmeel is Qatar’s first professional training center that offers internationally awarded Beauty Therapy qualifications. It’s called the ITEC qualification and it is awarded by the International Therapy Examination Council in the UK.

I decided to visit Tajmeel to see what the place is like, and I was very impressed. Here are a few pictures of the academy, inside the classrooms, and all around.



When I first heard about Tajmeel, I was very impressed to hear that such a highly qualified and highly reputed academy is entirely run by women, and especially here in the Middle East. That got me thinking about Sutherland’s theory of Power-With. Power-With involves women working together to define and achieve feminist goals. Power-With encloses three stages. 1- struggling within the constraints of an oppressive system 2- coming to realize the extent of this oppression 3- working together to confront the system that oppresses them.

Although it’s not to that extent, but the women here are oppressed to a certain degree. Middle eastern women aren’t expected to have a huge successful career. This goes back to the theory of breadwinners, and how the men are supposed to be the breadwinner of the family, while the women sit at home and take care of housework and the children. And that’s when the Power-With theory comes in. The women here started struggling with this oppressive system, so they got together and built this highly reputable and highly educational academy, to help other women like them educate themselves and make something of themselves.

Although this is probably one of the only enterprises created and run by women, but it’s a huge start. Women are beginning to take charge and not only request, but enforce change.

Men, men, men, men, manly men, men, men!

In our latest Sociology class we discussed masculinity and cinema. The discussion was both entertaining and fascinating, considering that we only have two males in our class: a student and our professor. But seeing as the demographics of Northwestern University in Qatar is majority female, I found it really interesting to know more about males, who in our university are outnumbered.


Gender movements are almost always associated with women. No one really acknowledges men when it comes to their rights or the fact that they are also discriminated.


There is little doubt that there’s discrimination towards men. They do, in fact, make up the majority of inmates in prisons and work some of the most dangerous jobs in society. I was surprised to learn about a men’s rights movement in class. I think because I was under the impression that men have it made when it comes to getting good job positions. But then I understood that it was about more than just being a man. It was also about being a member of a particular race and social class too.


Usually race and social class are in correlation with each other. White men, when they aren’t in their home countries, tend to have better jobs than Indians in other countries, such as Qatar. Indian men in Qatar usually work as laborers or cleaners, not very glamorous jobs. There are those few Indian men who have good job positions but that’s mainly because they were raised in upper-class households. But in countries such as the U.S. there are white men who work in job industries such as construction or sanitation. There isn’t really an issue of pay with these types of jobs, but with the quality of the jobs.





We learned in class that there are three categories of men. There are some who are “soft” and sensitive, traditional and aggressive, and those who are a hybrid masculine. In society today, hybrid masculinity is accepted in comparison to men being sensitive or aggressive. Hybrid masculinity associates both muscle and compassion; so portraying a tough guy image, but also being caring and considerate of others.

We talked about different celebrities in class who fall under each category of men. Tupac was categorized as being hybrid masculine, while Bruno Mars and Twilight star, Robert Pattinson, almost fell short of being called men. However, I read in our sociology textbook that men in power, who have affairs with women, while they are married, tend to be seen as more manly. While sexual scandals can boost the masculinity of a man, physically abusing women will most definitely demean it.




The incident between Chris Brown and Rihanna in 2009 caused many people to dislike Chris Brown. Prior to them dating, he was pretty much a heartthrob and girls swooned over his music, particularly his very emotional lyrics directed at females.


“You changed my whole life
Don't know what you’re doing to me with your love
I'm feeling all Super human
You did that to me
Super human heart beats in me
Nothing can stop me here with you, superhuman”

These lyrics are from one of his songs called “Superhuman.” It’s kind of hypocritical that he can sing these kinds of songs yet still beat up his own girlfriend. Ever since the incident he was targeted in the media and became the butt of many jokes. The fact that he could hit a woman could have been an action to boost his masculinity, yet it backfired. Even today, Chris Brown continues to attempt to sweep women off their feet. Although many women were against his actions and it stirred up controversy over abuse, other women still continued to be “fan girls” and listen to his music.


Overall, what I learned is that men have rights too. Despite that they’re the ones who have the top positions in almost all kinds of work.

Gender and our society

A society labels all male and female individuals according to their genders. It is the way of classifying and separating the males and females in terms of dressing, in terms of behavior, in terms of their respective roles and responsibilities. An individual cannot define his/her gender by himself/herself; the society mostly establishes a gender from their perspective. Most of the communities perceive gender differently. However, gendering people plays an important role in publicizing community organization. Due to globalization and tremendous growth of technologies, the roles of these two separate genders started mixing up. Even though this has not been so prominent, women and men have proven that they can perform each other’s role perfectly without any strain. Is gender today necessary for the society’s organization?

Does it limit our skills and talents? Now days mostly women play the roles of breadwinners in our society. This wasn’t possible in the past because the society made sure that a woman gets married to a man who would take care of her and would support her for family needs. Gendering has always been a part of human culture. Since like culture, the gender roles are so dynamic that keeps on changing from time to time. Gendering takes place soon after birth and all the children are designated according to their particular genders. After the birth of a child, girls and boys are treated accordingly with clear differences in the type of clothes that they wear, the kind of games that they play and also both of them have different behaviors.

The activities carried out by men and women may indeed be genetic and also their behavior may differ according to their genes. For example, biologically it is proven that men are more aggressive than women because of the hormones that are produced in their bodies. The aggressive behavior is common in almost every species but it differs with sex. For example, Crime rates are usually higher in men than in women. But boys usually display a lower level of aggressiveness as compares to girls. Does the genetics really influence the genders? Studies have shown that, if the levels of testosterone between the two sexes in animals are reversed then the aggressive behavior is also influenced.



There are some clear things that we notice like male children usually play with toy guns and violent toys but on the other hand, female girls play with dolls and soft toys. Some of the homely tasks like washing dishes can be done by both the genders but usually females more commonly do this task.



The society today, has failed to promote gender equality. Why is it that even after the developmental measures of equal rights, there are clear discrepancies on the gender roles of the community? Why is it that when people try to cross the gender lines, they are always seen as deviants in our society because they hold a small position in our society?

On the other hand, our society is successfully ensuring that the community is organized along gender lines and that gender cannot be compared to sex. Every individual accepts gender because gender promotes similarity. Living a life in a normal way and by accepting the social norms, these people do not conflict with the society. Every individual wants to be identified with the society. The good thing about gendering people is that is creates recognizable roles, rights and responsibilities to the different sexes making it easy for society organization. Anyhow, gender creates social stratification in our male dominated society that places men above women. We can find many examples and issues like employment, education etc. Girls and boys can be different and at the same time equal in terms of respect. Today living in this world of modernization the society has still not changed when it comes to a task that men can do and women cannot.