The eternal man vs woman problem

So we've seen men flex their muscles and rescue their family from danger,work tirelessly to put food on the table for them and epitomize the responsible, reliable person; both in reel and real life. This self-sufficient characteristic that men have always been associated with represents what sociologists call the 'breadwinner system'. The breadwinner system emphasizes the belief that all societies are patriarchal and that men are often discharged with the responsibility of earning in their household. What about their counterparts then? The role of women in families and in societies at large has always been one to ponder. While traditionally  expected to stay at home and carry out all their filial obligations perfectly, there are enough examples of women from the past and present to show that this is no longer the case. They have broken the stereotype that women are mainly noticed for their appearance and need help from men to take care of themselves and their family.

One such example is that of Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India for almost two decades. Indira Gandhi's rise to the apex of the political scene in India was astonishing as it came at a time when the cultural beliefs of the nation were very much in the nascent, conservative state. Despite being labelled "mute doll" by those who opposed her ascension to the position of Prime Minister and seeing her party form two groups over her progress, she became one of India's most influential leaders of all time. She was responsible for drafting changes in the way the Indian economy would work, encouraging movements such as the Green revolution to develop the conditions of the agriculture sector and in expanding India's bilateral relationships with countries such as the United States, Iran and other Asian countries. What made her achievements even more significant as far as defining the new role of women is that she was also responsible for raising her children and taking care of everything that a woman and a mother was expected to.

Women have not only made contributions in the field of politics, even the corporate world has seen tremendous development from their side. The chairman of Pepsi Co. Indira Nooyi is today one of the most influential women in the world. As the head of one of the world's largest organizations one would expect her to be fully devoted to her business and not have time for anything else. However, as she was quoted saying in an interview, in spite of her commitments to her work whenever she returned home she was forced by her mother to look after her husband and her children in addition to helping out with the household chores. Quite a busy life by any standard!In fact, Indra Nooyi is believed to not sleep for more than four hours a day,proving that women can be equally workaholic and dedicated as men.

These are just two of the many cases that have proved that the age old "man works, woman stays at home" philosophy that was prevalent in almost all societies is a thing of the past in the modern world. Women have demonstrated that they can be competitive and capable of contributing to a family's income; all of this in addition to taking care of their families. Isn't it time to rethink who actually takes on several roles effectively then?

Here is a video of a debate that discusses the differences in the roles of men and women in the corporate sector:

Family Guy is so racist, it’s not racist

For those of you who aren't aware, Family Guy is an animated series featuring the Griffins, a very dysfunctional family. It has been going on for a while. Seth MacFarlane has produced 11 seasons so far. This show has attracted the attention of many viewers and also the critics who labeled it as offensive and immoral.

First of all, as a personal fan of this sitcom, I believe that those critics need to get a sense of humor. People should stop ignoring the big elephant in the room and start accepting that blue comedy is becoming a part of our lives. We get it, children get it, and everybody gets it. Honestly, the less taboo these topics become, the less intriguing they become and the more mature and astute kids become.

As for the offensive part, I think MacFarlane was clever by featuring racist and stereotypical representations of all ethnicities and religions on this show. They are so stupid and offensive, they make us reflect upon our own perceptions of other people and help us realize how silly these things look like.

One thing I learned in sociology class that was all too new to me is that the terms race and ethnicity mean different things (shocking, I know). Race is a group of people who share genetically inherited physical features that distinguish them from other people. On the other hand, the ethnicity of a group of people refers to how they identify with one another on the basis of common ancestry, nationality, or cultural heritage. I could look like someone, but identify with the culture of someone else more than the person I look like. Which is cool. But the existence of different ethnicities creates stereotypes, prejudice and descrimination that we socially construct.

Stereotypes are inaccurate generalizations about a group of people. We hate stereotypes when they are about us, yet somehow manage to create dozens when they are about other people. In every culture we have the main group and “the other.” It’s the people of the city and the foreigners who live in it. Here in Qatar, for example, we have Qataris and non Qataris. In the US, you have white people and then the other colored people who tend to have beautiful babies.

Movies and TV shows play a huge role in shaping those stereotypes of “the other.” They subconsciously let us behave towards them in a certain manner and therefore, discriminate them. What people try to do now is create this “new racism.” Basically, “we are colorblind, racism doesn’t and shouldn’t exist, we’re all the same.” Sounds sweet. But the problem with that concept is that it fails to recognize that people are different, that we are not the same, that people were treated differently “back then” and might still be treated in that manner.

Now this is where Family Guy beats the rest (at least in my opinion). The show is a social commentary of how people behave and think about others. In order to show that, through comedy, they employ all sorts of stereotypes. “They make fun of jewish people, dorky white people, hispanic people, arab people, catholic, homosexuals … if you can think of a race or religion it has been made fun of on that show.” My personal favorite is Consuela, the Hispanic maid:

When people see those things, they laugh. Yes, we get offended, but eventually, we realize how stupid it would be if we actually viewed people in that manner. The show also makes fun of racist people by having racist characters. Brian, who is a white dog, doesn’t pick up black guys in his cab. The constant bombardment of those representations remind us of our differences, the racism that we face and the discrimination we have towards others. When we start to see how ridiculous it looks like, we start to change our views but respect and accept differences.

You should definitely check out the show if you haven't. I have personal DVDs of most seasons because I just love this show so much. It's so funny.

Qatar portrayal in American Media

In the history of movies black people have always been portrayed as poor, stupid, and uneducated. All of those are unfair discrimination that have been attached to the dark skinned people. An example of that is the large collection of movies in the 80's about being a gangster, where the qualities that come with being a gangster are violence, murder and rape. Also, black women are over sexualized in almost all of the movies.

Arabs, also, have always been discriminated at. You have a long beard, you wear a headscarf or if you wear the traditional abaya and thobe. You are immediately discriminated at. It is truly upsetting how much the media have the prejudice against my own country Qatar by portraying it as the country of the poor, bad and uneducated. Two examples to prove that are:

1.     In Transformers which was a blockbuster released in 2007. There was a scene where the aliens are in Qatar. In this scene the movie changes the country from the “modern” America to the “poor” Qatar. The Americans come with their big fancy weapons and modern suits. They start fighting the aliens in what is supposedly called “Qatar.” And the Qatari citizens run for their lives with their sheep while they’re wearing old dirty thobes! This was very problematic due to the massive number of people who watched this movie and formed this FALSE idea about Qatar. 

2.    The Second example comes from another U.S. blockbuster called Taken. It was released in 2008. This movie is about a retired CIA agent traveled to France after his daughter got kidnapped. He discovered she was going to be sold to become sex slave. In one of the final scenes in the film, his daughter was in an auction to be sold. The father purses her buyer in a car chase. Here they showed the shocking part; the car that the father was chasing to get his daughter had the licence plate of Qatar!!! As a citizen of that country I find it very upsetting that my country is being portrayed like that. As a place with low morals where they would buy a human being for sexual pleasure. 

 

Those previous examples can only prove one thing. The media is feeding the public and the audience these prejudices. A personal example to show how this is working is a situation that happened to me back in 2009. I was volunteering for the WSDC schools championship. A British guy approached me saying he was very surprised of how modern Qatar was. He thought that he would debate in a tent! He also thought that he would move from tent to tent on a camel. Personally, I thought that was hilarious because it is far away from the truth. Qatar is a very modern state. If you haven’t lived or seen Qatar before, this picture should give you an idea about the modernity of Qatar.  

I hope one day those stereotypes would disappear, but deep down I know this is not going to happen anytime soon. After all it’s only human nature to put people and judge them into boxes.  

                            

Social Class in Qatar

People have a misconception that ALL Qataris are filthy rich and Social Class does not exist in Qatar, well amongst Qataris. The general belief is that the different social classes in Qatar are as follows:

Upper Class = Qataris

Middle Class = Foreigners with jobs that pay middle range salaries

Lower Class = Expats who usually come to do the dirty work e.g. Construction workers.

However, that is not the truth, this is a generalization of Khaleeji (GCC countries) stereotypes or Qataris in particular and it also forms yet another misconception that the social inequality in Qatar favors locals over expats.

This is the real structure for Social Classes in Qatar that I have perceived (A Qatari myself) is as follows:

Upper class = SOME Qataris and Foreigners (usually Americans and Europeans) with high-ranking jobs which requires years of expertise and specialists.

Middle Class = SOME Qataris and other foreigners with middle range incomes

Lower Class = Expats (usually south-east Asians) with low paying jobs.

I know that it is hard for non-Qataris to spot the differences because to them we all look the same. There are many elements that suggest a person’s social class and wealth starting from Family name and origin.

Family name can sometimes be misleading because just because two different people have the same family name, it doesn’t mean that they are both EQUALLY rich. In fact, there is a great contrast between each person’s social status and wealth.

YES, I agree that not every Qatari is exactly “poor”, but they are not all as ignorant and swaggering as we are portrayed in the western media outlets and especially social media.


Just listen to this idiot who's obviously NOT Qatari

 

This is a movie that shows a woman who was kidnapped and then sold a to an “Arab” rich man whose car number plate “happened” to be Qatari.

The movie’s name is Taken and it was released in 2008.

In the Sociology, the concept of “Social Mobility” is defined as “shifting from one social status to another, commonly to a status that is either higher or lower. For example, a child of day laborers who becomes a professor achieves upward social mobility”.

The problem with social mobility in Qatar is that SOME Qataris want to keep up with the rest of the rich population by the accumulation of material goods. This is known in Sociology as “Conspicuous Consumption”.

 Conspicuous consumption is the purchasing of luxury goods such as: cars, antiques, expensive excursions, and beach-houses.

SOME would go to extremes like taking out loans that they know they won’t be able to pay back in order to buy things that they can’t afford. Therefore, the social mobility is fake and temporary.

As Qataris, the first thing we do if we want to determine another Qatari's social class is we simply look at them, their hand bangs, Abayas, cars, houses, where do they travel every summer and how often do they travel. Those are all obvious things, well at least to us. My advice to non-Qataris, whether you're an Arab or not, NEVER make premature judgements especially when they're absolutely false. Because behind all the fancy Abayas, designer handbangs and shoes, and our fast Mercedes, there are normal, nice, down to earth people. Including myself of course ;)

Separate but Equal

A paradox in the making of the world has shone light on a topic that the world suffers most from, Racism.

Racism is the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. For this blog post, I’m not only talking about Racism in the area of Race, but also in the area of stereotypes.

How can one be called a racist? Well, one must not tolerate the other race. Anyone can be called a racist these days. This is because everyone has ideas about other people. They are all socialized to believe that they are of one race and the others around them are different. Some people teach their children not to socialize with other children from different ethnicities or even races due to the fear of “Identity loss”.

How can one have an identity when one lives in such a diverse world? There are people in the same family that are of different races, let alone your next-door neighbors or your friends. Everyone is different; people need to seriously start realizing that!

My latest project in my major class was about Labor workers in Qatar and how they live their social life. Out reporting for hours on end in this mild spring weather, I realized that there’s a lot that people don’t know about this place.

The workers had one day to socialize and they use that day to do their shopping, play cricket with friends and make the longest phone-call to their home country.

They are seen as single workers who are not allowed in on Fridays to Malls. Well, in this country, Friday is Family Day. They are seen as the workers who people don’t want to associate themselves with all the time, unless they have to.

If we actually think about it, these people are the ones putting their sweat and blood into building our nation and we repay them with what?! Little money! One day off! Living in poor housing, complexes outside the main city. They’re fine with all of that trust me! But then you even take away their privilege of being free to roam in the country they are building? Why?

An anthropologist, Ms. Rico said that it is “Violent” that these workers cannot enjoy the privileges that they are building for us. It really is a sad image to see when a worker builds the mall and when it is finally open, he is not allowed in to see his work complete.

Sociology has played a huge part in making this issue come to reality. The more people are socialized from their birth to be with the people they look like; this would never be a world with no discrimination, racism or hate!

Stereotypes are given to everyone from all races, there are even jokes made about these stereotypes. Humor and movies are used to shine light that not everyone is equal, but not everyone is separate either. I guess that’s what the workers would witness time and time again, they are equal with people, the citizens, but they are also very separate and living separate lives.

Good vs. Bad

We’ve been talking about Arab stereotypes quite a bit recently and how Hollywood portrays us in several different negative ways: the most prominent being as terrorists. When we see these images, we usually (as expected) criticize the film and the filmmaker for having such prejudiced views against us.

But, when we were watching the film, Amreeka, which was directed by an Arab woman, I realized there were a lot of stereotypes about Arabs in there as well. These stereotypes, however, had a much different effect on me.

For me, a lot of the comedy in this film came from recognizing these stereotypes. My favourite one being the cute, sarcastic grandmother that tends to worry a bit too much.

I started to wonder why these were stereotypes different. Was it because they had nothing to do with portraying Arabs as backwards and violent people? Or did it have more to do with the fact that these were stereotypes I faced on a daily basis and were written by an Arab herself?

I think who the filmmaker or the screenwriter is makes a huge difference. Usually, when Hollywood uses Arab stereotypes, they use it to create an outgroup – they make the Arab the “other.” They use this to socialize the viewers and fill them with fear, hatred, and discrimination, When an Arab filmmaker uses an Arab stereotype, however, they create an ingroup, allowing other Arab viewers to identify with what’s going in the film and better connect with it.

I even caught myself writing a very stereotypical portrayal of a Palestinian mother who only cares about her daughter getting married in one of my scripts. When my friends read it, they found it absolutely hilarious because they could all almost relate the character to their own mothers. When I took a second look at it myself, I criticized myself because I know that there is a lot more to Arab mothers than just being an obsessive and psychotic matchmaker. But for some reason, I was reinforcing that stereotype.

I guess the important thing with all stereotypes, whether they’re “good” (I’m not sure they can be) or bad ones, is to recognize the fact that they are stereotypes and to interrupt the process of socialization. 

Why Maz Jobrani is so famous

In high school one of my closest friends lent me one of his CDs and told me that it would be one of the most amazing stand up comedy shows that I will ever watch. He was right. The “Axis Of Evil comedy tour” was probably one of the funniest shows I have ever watched. I love stand up comedy, but I had never watched Arab Americans talk about their experiences in America and the concept of being both American and Arab the way these comedians had.

And that is how Maz Jobrani was introduced to me.

The bald headed Iranian man was all over the stage, limbs flailing in the air, being goofy, talking about the stereotypes of Arabs, the American government, Bush and his own experiences with co-workers.

The crowd went wild. The sub-culture of Arab-Americans from all over the country were finally able to laugh about the things that they had experienced after 9/11. The experiences that had brought them less business and more social persecution was the thing that tied them together. And now they could laugh about it.

I think Maz is famous because of how many people can relate to the things he talks about, not only in America but among people in Arab countries who can relate or understand what it is like to be Arab in a world where they are nothing but belly dancers, bombers and billionaires in the media.

The media has been so successful in making Arabs seem dangerous, primitive, evil or stupid that people rarely find stories about normal Arab families and people who are not belly dancers, bombers and billionaires. Maz joked in one of his comedies that news channels would not show an Arab man doing something normal like baking a cookie unless a “cookie bomb” exploded somewhere.
It is because of the negative image of the Arab community in media that Maz Jobrani and his colleagues decided to begin the tour. “I want people to understand that middle-easterners are normal people too. I want them to say “Hey, I heard this Arab guy the other day and he was funny, and he dint try to hijack the place or anything,”” Jobrani said in a video.

Maz was hilarious in the 12 minutes he spent on stage. Being an actor and a comedian, he was spectacular in his performance. My family and I spent hours and hours laughing and talking about the things he said during the 12 minutes he spent on stage. He made us talk about the negative image of the middle east and Arab men.



We hope that someday this will change when my friends and I become journalists and filmmakers. And make films like “Amreeka.”