Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality is an American police comedy film, starring the beautiful Sandra Bullock. This movie can be considered as one of the girly movies, and it includes the ten common traits of the girly films that we learned in sociology class.

Define Gracie Hart

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is FBI agent shows no signs of having any femininity in her behavior or appearance. Her appearance is a crucial aspect of her identity. She has the feeling of ambivalence about the role of romance, marriage and work in woman’s life. Thus, Gracie can be defined as the protagonist, because she is a single woman who works for a living, and whose work defines her.

Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt), is Gracie’s colleague whose assigned to lead the high profile case of a terrorist called “The Citizen” instead of her to stop the attack. Both of them determine that “The Citizen” 's next target will be the Miss United States beauty pageant. Eric assigns her to go undercover as a pageant contestant to see if she can catch “The Citizen”. This movie takes place in a large, well-known city, which is San Antonio, Texas; where the beauty contest takes place.

The Transformation

The FBI used the assistance of the previous pageant contestant coach Victor Melling (Michael Caine), to do the impossible task of transforming Gracie, not only into a woman, but into a credible beauty pageant contestant. Victor represents the consumer culture, in which everything goes right with him. There is a theme of personal transformation, as she becomes beautiful and attractive. Gracie enters the contest as Miss New Jersey. She suits the example of the Miss United States beauty pageant. She had the ability to transform which helps her lead to resolve her conflicts and to achieve her goals.

The Past.

Gracie has difficult time to proceed in the transformation. Victor continues to teach the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk and act like a contestant. She is not used to such behaviors. She has the sense of nostalgia or glorifying the past during the contest when she demonstrates self-defense techniques during the talent competition. She has the hard times when she can’t continue in this undercover job. She thinks she doesn’t belong to this place.

The Happy Ending

Gracie gets to know the other contestants. Then, she discovers the evil element is present at the pageant. She will do whatever it takes to crush that element and protect her new friends, namely the other innocent contestants.

Gracie displays some femininity during the movie. She begins to have more womanly feelings and that attracts the attention of men, in particular, she starts to attract Eric.

When Eric fails to support Gracie, he then realizes that Gracie’s suspicions are correct, and he returns to help her. Gracie surprises everyone, including herself by discovering “The Citizen”. She and Eric save the day, and they arrest the criminals. At the end, Eric admits his crush on her, and she starts a relationship with Matthews. She finally lead succeeds in her goal of having affair with the man of her choice.

The Girly Truth

In today’s post, I will analyze the 10 common girly traits found in girly or neo-feminist films. In my post, I look for these traits in The Ugly Truth. I will give examples in each of the 10 traits when applicable because this will allow for readers to better understand what I am referring to when I use my examples to explain the traits.

1.    Women’s appearance is a crucial aspect of her identity?

In the course of the movie The Ugly Truth, Abby cannot find her perfect man who fits all ten of her checklist criteria. The entire plot revolves around how she will eventually get the man of her dreams by changing her appearance, which as a result will reflect her new identity and attitude. Mike is her guide and he is the one who emphasizes the importance of her appearance and how she has to change a lot about herself to get the Doctor she has her eyes set on. 

2.    The female succeeds in her goal of marrying the man of her choice?

What’s interesting about this movie is that Abby succeeds in obtaining the man of her dreams but realizes that he wasn’t the man of her dreams after all. Instead, Mike is the right man for her. She does eventually end up with Mike and at the end of the movie we don’t actually witness a wedding but the idea of marriage is implied.

3.    The protagonist is a single woman who works for a living and whose work in some way defines her?

From the beginning we can tell that Abby is a single, uptight workaholic. She is a producer for the KSXP news company. When her boss told her the bad news that he may need to kill the show, she immediately considered canceling her date and staying home to think of ideas to raise viewer ratings for the show.

4.    The ability to shop is a tool that enables the female to resolve conflict and achieve her goals?

The main goal in The Ugly Truth is for Abby get the man of her dreams, which for the most of the film Collin, the doctor. Mike takes her shopping and helps her change her look from the woman “operating heavy machinery” to the attractive lady that is desirable.

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5.    Consumer culture offers a magical place where everything goes right?

After Abby changes her look and identity through appealing to consumer culture and going out shopping, everything begins to go right. When Collin comes over to see why she never called him back earlier that day she greets him at the door wearing a tight black dress that compliments her body. In that scene we see that he starts showing interest in her right then and there because he asks her on a date to a baseball game.

6.    There is ambivalence about the role of romance, marriages and work in a woman’s life?

Abby is trying to balance out her professional life with her personal life. Throughout the film we see how she tries to be the independent, confident workaholic while still having a girlish feel to her through her endless search for her perfect match. She believes in true love and that she will find it when she finds the man that fits all ten of her checklist criteria. In one of the scenes Abby has to give up her romantic getaway with Collin for work reasons. Her boss asks her to accompany Mike to his interview with Craig Fergusson and she does as her boss requests. During her time with Mike, she realizes she is in love with him and not Collin and that’s when things become quite complicated for Abby and she is put in a position where she has to choose.

7.    The film takes place in a large well-known city?

The Film takes place in the capital of the state of California, Sacramento, which is the sixth largest city in California.

8.    There is a theme of personal transformation?

This is definitely evident in the events of the film. Both Mike and Abby help each other to transform to the better versions of themselves. With Mikes help and guidance, Abby is able to transform to an attractive, desirable woman who can get the guy of her dreams, Moreover, she learns that check list items don’t matter in the face of true love.

At the beginning of the film Mike comes off as a misogynist who does not believe in true love. The time he spends with Abby allows him to discover how amazing she truly is and therefore ends up falling in love with her. Because of Abby, Mike is transformed to a man in love.

9.    The plot contains a “do-over” in which a past mistake is resolved?

The mistake that takes place in The Ugly Truth is that Mike lets the elevator moment slip away because when he goes to Abby’s room to talk to her about it, Collin greets him at the door. Abby tells him that Collin surprised her in the hopes that Mike would tell her to leave Collin and be with him but Mike fails to do so. In the end Mike fixes his past mistake on the hot air balloon by admitting to Abby that even thought she drives him crazy he’s in love with her.

10. There is a sense of nostalgia of glorifying the past?

Not applicable.

9/10 of the common traits are found in this movie, definitely making it fall under the genre of the girly film or the neo-feminist film.

Marriages in our World

Arranged marriages (family choose the bride)
- Family choice from along time, when bride and groom where children. They might be related in a way or two families are friends.
- Or they choose the bride whenever the groom wants to get married she can be a cousin relative or anybody.
- Or the family chooses depending on specific things the groom wants in the bride. Ex (physical appearance, or social role, education..etc.)

Certain Choices can be affected sometimes by the family trying to:
- Maintain their social class with choosing the bride from the same class or higher.
- Keep the family name.
- Keep the blood in the same family (tribe point of view)
- Keep certain relationships.



Groom choice but arranged by family:
- Groom knows her (from work, seen her, can be a relative of his choice.. etc.)
He can even just have seen her for once and even never talked to her.
The grooms family proposes and after the acceptance they get engaged and then married.
The family for lots of different reasons can maybe sometimes refuse the groom’s choice. So that can cause a huge conflict with his family.


Self chosen and arranged by the groom:
Can be in reaction to social pressure and society and social constrains on his choice. Sometimes a one wants to get married to girl with different ethnicity, nationality, or religion..etc. So he finds a big rejection from his family and it causes conflicts with his society as well. Social pressure and constrains limits the boundaries of a grooms choices either by tribe or other differences.


Marriage in Islam

Islam on the other hand considers it Haram to force a couple to marry each other. It advises people to get married to people from outside the extended family to avoid negative genetics and other negative affects.


Abu Hurairah related that the Prophet said: “Men choose women for four reasons: for their money, for their rank, for their beauty and for their religion, but marry one who is religious and you will succeed” (Bukhari, Muslim).
This of course, applies to women as well.

Weddings in Doha

Family in any culture is very important, it is what shapes up a person. As a Qatari, family always comes first. Recently I attended a family wedding. At the wedding, I thought it would be a great idea to talk about the family relations and how weddings are set in Doha. There is so much to look at in weddings in Doha.
The first thing that I realized was the way the people were seated based on their age and their relation to the bride and groom. The nuclear family and the extended family sat at the very front next to the stage. However others were seated based on their age too. The older the person was, the closer they would sit to the stage. Out of respect the youngsters would let the elders take the good seats to get the best view.
In Qatari weddings, the men and women have separate weddings. However the women’s wedding has much more details. In a women’s wedding, loud music is played with a dance floor in the middle for the young girls to dance. This wedding that I attended was a marriage that was endogamy. Both the groom and the bride were related to each other, and were both from the same social group. However an exogamy wedding does not happen often in a culture like Doha. People tend to marry people from their same group.
Families in Qatar in most cases go with the Breadwinner system

; the husband works and earns the money to support his family. In the wedding, the groom enters the woman’s wedding for around 30 minutes and he leaves. When he enters, the women who are not related to the groom have to immediately cover up. He enters the wedding to take pictures with his wife on his wedding day and with his relatives as well.
When the groom leaves the wedding, the bride leaves with him as well. Women then uncover and the dancing continues. The close relatives usually stay till very late at night, however friends mostly leave early.

My big fat Arab wedding

Family and marriage are two aspects that are very important in most cultures. In most societies marriage is defined as being a group’s approved mating arrangements marked by a ritual, such as a wedding ceremony, that indicates the couple’s new status to the public. Many people are familiar with the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It revolves around two people overcoming their cultural, racial and social class differences and getting married. The family portrayed as the Greek family of the bride, in the movie, reminds me of Arab families quite a lot. The large, loud and opinionated extended family that somehow always comes as a package.

Most of the time people tend to get married to others who are similar to them in age, education, social class, race, and religion. When someone decided to break that norm and get married to someone with different customs, both partners will receive some form of cultural shock when they meet both the nuclear and the extended family. Exogamy is often not encouraged in Muslim families, as they believe their sons/daughters should marry within the social group in which they belong to, and continue to pass on the traditions and customs of Arab cultures.


This summer my cousin got married to an English guy, who she met while she was studying in London. A small number of the groom’s family and friends flew out to Amman to attend their wedding. The wedding incorporated traditions from both sides of the bride and groom’s traditions.

At the beginning of the ceremony there was the Arab norm of the bride and groom’s nuclear families standing at the entrance to greet their guests. When the bride and groom later arrived they came down an aisle separately and were accompanied with their best man and made of honor, and bridesmaids. My younger cousins even had the roles of being flower girls and the bride’s niece was the ring bearer. After the newlyweds had their first dance together, the Arabic traditions began to kick in. There was the traditional palestinian zaffeh, where men dressed in traditional clothes play instruments and dance Dabke, and later on there was a belly dancer in the center of the stage.

I talked to the groom’s dad and asked him what he thought of the whole ceremony, he was really surprised with the large number of family members and how close everyone was to one another. Having a belly dancer and a Dabkeh dance at a wedding was also an experience that was quite foreign.

Bedouin Culture - The Modern Version

Bedouins have existed for over 1000 years, however over time the exact meaning of Bedouin changed. According to the dictionary they're described as wanderers or rovers, basically people who don't live in a specific place and instead move around depending on the resources available in the place. This may have been true before when they'd change an area once the food was running out or other factors that may make living there harder. However, with all the changes that have happened in the past 60 years or so that has changed. Most Bedouin tribes now live at a set place, in homes just like us. Therefore, some may say Bedouins are no more. However, that is far from true as being a Bedouin is more than what the dictionary makes it out to be Bedouins have their own culture with their own sets of norms, beliefs and traditions. That is what defines them and not whether they wander or migrate.

Bedouins are a prominent group in Qatar and most of the Arab world, including Palestine/Israel, Most of these Bedouins have the same norms, beliefs and traditions. For example, tribes are still very important in Bedouin culture, and the relationships between these tribes can be good or bad depending on the history. For example, if two tribes are not in good terms with one another it is taboo for a women from one tribe to marry a man from the other tribe. On the other hand, a more would be if two tribes have a good relationship and if a man from one tribe is looking to get engaged to a women from the other tribe, to reject that man is seen as an insult and tribal relationship will turn from good to bad instantly.

Whats most interesting is how Bedouins kept their culture intact while still accepting the change that comes from the outside. For example, Bedouins used to live in tents, however, in order to better their living conditions they now live in houses but keep the tent feel to it by keeping the design inside similar to that of a tent or in some cases include a chimney. Another interesting thing is how they've kept their foods the same as they have been in the past. The foods and remedies they would take from the desert, because it was the only thing available, is still what they mostly eat, outside of the weekend McDonalds or KFC. These foods include

camel milk, a kind of truffle called Fagah ( فقع), camel and sheep meat and arabic coffee and if possible all prepared on a fire like the one above. Bedouins have not strayed too far from the desert. On any free day, with no work, they are always at the desert in their tents.

Bedouins, have many traditions and sports that they take part in. Football (soccer) is one however the traditional ones are hunting, with falcons and dogs, and searching for Fagah.

Hunting is a very popular sport and people take pride in having a well trained falcon or dog. Having one's own falcon or dog is a rite of passage for young guys almost as important as getting their first Nintendo. While hunting, in the past people would follow them on camels or on foot, now however each person is equipped with a Land Cruiser to follow the dogs and falcons.

Meanwhile, searching for Fagah, while done by the whole family, is seen as a form of competition for kids. Who can find the biggest one. these two sports like many Bedouin traditions have diffused into Qatari culture as even I remember competing with my cousins on who could find the biggest Fagah or going hunting with my Father.

Interestingly, the biggest change is the use of the camel. The camel, called the ship of the desert in arabic, is what helped people live in the desert before. It provided transportation and food. However, transportation has now shifted from the old ship of the desert to the new ship of the desert, the Land Cruiser. Land Cruisers are a must have in the Bedouin Culture as it provides easy, safe transport through the desert and is much faster than a camel.

In conclusion, Bedouin Culture is a very dominant culture in the Arab world, even diffusing into the country's culture, while the world has changed and Bedouin life has evolved with it, the core beliefs, norms and traditions have stayed the same.