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. 

"We've Got The Power"

In our last Sociology class, we discussed women and gender. Considering how there is an overwhelming majority of females in our class, the topics on femininity, neo-feminist cinema and power were highly intriguing.

I have witnessed and experienced a significant amount of sexism, not only from males but females too. Mothers in particular. They seem to conform to their roles as being housewives and homemakers; cooking and cleaning are an integral part of a married woman’s daily routine. Men, however, conform to their roles as being the breadwinner of the household. If men are placed in a situation where they can’t be the providers of the family they will submit to playing no part whatsoever in helping around the house. This is because they feel emasculated and since socialization portrays working around the house as a female’s responsibility, men would rather be useless than serve a purpose.



I have first-hand experience, in my own household, of my brother telling me to make him meals because I’m a female. I have also experienced something similar from my mother. She advised me to learn how to cook earlier on, in order for me to provide meals for my future husband. Parents, and the family, are the most prominent agents of socialization in any individual’s life. This explains how people can justify that they’re right for whatever reason – may it be on buying a house or car, or making the right choice on a certain issue - because their parents have cautioned them on what is right and what is wrong.


This week I attended the student-faculty dodge ball game. Seeing as the majority of students are female, some male students expressed bitterness because they saw this as disadvantageous to the students’ team. “The only reason we’re losing is because we have so many girls on our team,” said one male.


Men seem to be under the impression that women can’t exert physical power. This is mainly due to socialization – movies such as Rambo and the Expendables convey masculinity through strength and violence. But even when women play roles that show ‘power over’ others, which means getting others to do something even when they don’t want to, it isn’t interpreted in a serious manner. This is mainly because men find women playing aggressive roles attractive, and almost all of these roles played by women are sexualized.



Although the faculty won the dodge-ball game, there were quite a number of females on their team as well. The males on the student team purposely targeted the females on the faculty team, assuming that they would be the “weak” point. But the females played a large role in contributing the large number of points the faculty team won by, which shows that it is merely a social construction that “women are physically weaker than men.”

“They have nowhere to go”, said Giovanni.

Over the Spring Break I went to Soug Wagef with my younger brother for some gelato from La Dolce Vita. While we were there, we met the shop owner, Giovanni and began talking about what ended with me thinking of the socialization of people in Qatar’s public spaces on the weekends and the Indian culture and movies.

Last class we discussed Masala films, Indian society and culture, and tradition versus modernity. Generally, Masala films last for three hours, which is much longer than the amount of time a typical Western movie would last. The reason for this is because during Indian summers, the weather gets very hot making it difficult to spend most of the day outdoors and many of the people living their come from poor backgrounds. Therefore, what many Indians do is purchase theatre tickets and spend three hours indoors watching a movie in air conditioned environment.

During our conversation with Giovanni we talked about weekends at Soug Wagef and how labor workers who consist of mostly Indians are not permitted inside because of “family day”. The reason for this rule is because many women feel uncomfortable because these labor workers just hang around and “stare”. However single males who are not labor workers are permitted into the soug. This is not just the case in Soug Wagef but also in all the malls.

The reason labor workers just hang around in public spaces and “stare” instead of going to a movie during the hot hours of the day is because they cannot afford to given the low wages they are paid. 30QR is a large sum when you are paid a monthly wage of only 600QR –some of which you want to send back to your family. All these labor workers are looking for are air conditioned cheap or free spaces. 

There exists a problem for both women and labor workers living in Qatar. The labor workers want to avoid the hot sun during their free time and the women want to feel comfortable. Since going to the movies and watching three hour long Bollywood productions is what Indians do back in their home country to avoid the summer heat, I am sure they would not mind doing that here either. Currently, the cheapest movie theatre in Qatar is Gulf Cinema, which also happens to play many Masala films. As a solution, the companies in sponsoring the labor workers could look into this matter and consider opening another lower priced movie theatre for their workers so that they could spend their free time –maybe even in the Barwa project by the Industrial area.

Modern (Not) Versus Traditional

Since this week’s reading was about family, I decided to observe the socialization found in my own family. In class we discussed how in most societies there is a stereotype of the father being the breadwinner and the mother being the one who stays home and takes care of home-related topics. In the U.S, this has become less common and moreover, many countries are moving farther away from this ideology. In my blog post, I will talk about how being brought up in an Arab home has affected the way I think when it comes to family related matters.

In my own family, I notice that my parent’s roles are alike in some aspects but are different in others. For example, both of my parents are employed however, they have very different household responsibilities. My father is the one who provides us with a house but my mother turns it into a home. My father provides us with a quality education by enrolling us into the best schools but my mother comes home from work and helps us with our homework. Simply put, my father pays bills and my mother pays attention.

Growing up in a semi-traditional, semi-modern Arab family, I formed specific assumptions concerning what my role would be as a wife and mother and what my future husband’s roles would be as a husband and father. I know that as an Arab woman I am expected to know how to cook, clean and take care of the children at a minimum. Additionally, I am expected to work since more and more women of my generation are entering the workforce. I am expected to marry a man of the same social status as that of my own family or higher. My future husband is expected to have received an education equivalent to or higher than that of the one I did. He is also expected to be a workingman who can provide for his family by ensuring a house for them, good education for his children, and a comfortable lifestyle in general.

     

After taking a closer look into my own family, I realized how I am influenced by the modernization found in my generation yet still connected to my Arab roots. Societies are in fact shifting away from the old stereotype of the male being the breadwinner and the female being the home caretaker. However, they are not completely letting go of their traditional views.

Color Of Films

We can list a number of ways how films affect the socialization process for its audience. For example, films tend to set a trend of the current fashion sense, diet patterns, technological conformity with society, etc. Also, in the 21^st century, it is wise to assume that film goers definitely have a greater appeal for color films, in addition to the other incredible effects filmmakers tend to use, like 3D technology, special effects, pyro techniques, other graphic effects, etc. But foremost, color is on top that revolutionized the film viewing experience. And now, viewing and making a color film has become a norm in the world of cinema.

Fairly recently, while watching movies, I felt that the filmmaker’s use of color also has a potential for socialization process. These days, it is not very hard to notice that different genres are color-coded. For example, the horror genre is usually has a blue color gradient; romance tends to lean towards vivid colors like yellow and red; apocalyptic genres tend to be more washed out, or have a more grunge and grainy look to them. So, where is the socialization process in this?

Horror (Blue tone): The Sixth Sense (1999), Underworld (2003)

Romance (red or warm tones): Titanic (1997)

Post/Apocalyptic (Washed out tone): Book of Eli (2010), The Road (2009)

As an audience member, after I watch these films, I tend to view reality in that manner, just like any other socialization process. Whenever I think of romance, I feel the need of red, or vivid warm colors in the scene. Hence, I can understand why a candle light meal, or gift a red rose is more appropriate for a date. Another great example, how do all of you picture a post-apocalyptic world? What color scheme pops up in your imagination? Definitely not a green environment, definitely not a plain desert either; but rather, a barren land, with a washed out texture, just like the ones they depict in the movies. In other words, films are not only influencing the ways we act and behave, but also our thought process and imagination.

Qatar Motor Show 2012

This weekend I attended the Annual Motor Show with one of my female friends. Although my friend was taking her brothers and their friends along, the two of us wanted to go see the ‘cool’ collection of cars too. Upon entering the Exhibition Center, which is where the cars were being displayed, my friend and I came to the sudden realization that we were the only two female companions amidst a sea of male bachelors, families and couples.


This observation shed light on the fact that the event is mainly catered for men. It’s not surprising, especially seeing how in our society we tend to associate cars with men rather than women. Even as toddlers, boys are socialized to play with toy cars. It’s a social construct that classifies males as masculine.


At the event a couple of things provided proof that the cars were directed at a male audience. There were women hired to model for the cars. Many of the men at the event asked the models if they could have their picture taken together. If the cars were aimed at women, surely there would have been male models promoting them.


Last year, one of my friends had modeled for Bugatti. She told me that prior to working the job, she was given information about the car itself. So if she was asked about the specifics of the car, she would be able to give the information. But the people who handled the selling of the cars were men, highlighting that women do the marketing while men manage the deal making.


Although the event was for men, it specifically targeted Qatari nationals. The reason for this is obvious: affordability. The majority of men at the Motor Show were expats, so the most they would do is pose for a picture in front of a Ferrari or Lamborghini. But Qatari men were actually buying the cars.


The overall experience was quite memorable. But being a knowledgeable and experienced sociologist I was more aware of the fact that the event was highly gendered. Apart from walking away with more knowledge on gender and society, my friend and I were asked if we wanted to test-drive a BMW, and happily, my friend agreed.

Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality movie revolves around the FBI agent Gracie Harts who works undercover as Miss New Jersey with her team to protect the Miss United States Beauty Pageant from a possible terrorist attack.

Throughout the movie we can see a huge transformation in Gracie’s identity. At the very beginning Gracie seems to be very masculine in both her looks and her behavior. She doesn’t wear any make-up, doesn’t do her eyebrows, she doesn’t even brush her hair. Moreover, she is aggressive in everything she does, including eating, walking, and laughing. One of the ladies she meets at a bar asks her if the FBI forces all women over there to wear these “really masculine shoes”, and Gracie clarifies that its not the FBI, its her own personal choice. Moreover, her beauty pageant consultant for the mission, Victor Melling, compared her walk to the walk of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.



Gracie faces a hard time accepting her new assignment to work undercover as Miss New Jersey in the pageant. She gets a new look that shocks her colleagues, where she starts to look more feminine to others.




We can also see through the film how Gracie starts to socialize and learn the norms of this new culture she has to fit in. She takes the instructions from her adviser and watches video clips of beauty pageants and starts imitating the moves of the contestants.

At this stage Gracie’s front stage behavior is in the pageant trying to act more feminine, and her backstage behavior is with her team where she can act masculine, as she’s used to. However, as the time passes and through her interaction with the other girls in the pageant, Gracie seems to absorb more of these norms and attitudes and become more feminine overall, while maintaining some aspects of her original masculine identity, like power and independence.



Her transformation gets her the guy, her FBI colleague Eric Matthews, after she had really low chances in finding any guy who would be interested in her. This shows us how society as a social force puts a lot of pressure on individuals shaping their identities in order to have some of the things we desire, like a partner, which would be considered as positive sanctions for following the norms of the society for how we look and how we behave.

Happy national day UAE

In this day UAE celebrates their 40th national day with many festivals. They celebrate this with drawing on their face decorations and their cars, music and poems. They dress up and perform the youlah. Not only do they celebrate, Qatar also joins the celebrations by doing a 'masera' (cruising around Doha city together with flags) highlighting their happiness and joy. One of our famous local radio channels (sout al khaleej) dedicated a whole day just for UAE. Even the people in Doha are all celebrating the event by putting a status and profile picture to resemble the unity between Qatar and UAE. This conveys socialization between the two cultures.

 UAE was first colonized by the British, and gained independence in 1971. They are 7 emirates with one leader, sheik Khalifa Bin Zayid. Even though sheikh Zayid passed away, people of the UAE still relive his existence, as he was the one who changed the country. 
Both our culture are similar, however theirs a slight difference in accents. Also in the old days, we both had the same currency. Our clothing’s are similar; the males wear the traditional ‘thoub’ and the female wear the traditional ‘abaya’. We share the same norms. Our societies developed in a wider range. We are both more globalized countries but we still hold on to our past and celebrate every year. 
  

Gender Polarization in Professional Tennis

Many of us enjoy watching tennis matches. We are entertained by the excitement of the game, the gracefulness and probably the elegance of the players. However, it takes sociologists to pinpoint various sociological aspects in professional tennis, and one of the most prevalent of these is gender polarization.

For instance, if you glance at the outfit of the male and female players, you will find tremendous differences. Men usually dress in loose short-sleeved t-shirts and knee-length shorts. This type of clothing identifies the masculinity of the men, which makes them look socially acceptable. On the other hand, women immensely integrate fashion into their sport. Their typical clothing would be short skirts, shorts with tank tops, or a short dress. However, women players wear these garments in attractive colors, exotic designs and glamorous jewelry on-court, which bring a lot of attention beyond their performance. Obviously, women players commit to such fashion statements because they want to remain feminine regardless of the athleticism their sport demands. Sometimes these outfits are very controversial, which was the case many times with the former world number one American tennis player, Serena Williams, who wore a leather-like catsuit in the 2002 US Open. Also, in the same event in 2004, she showed up in boots and a denim skirt.


Another aspect that shows gender polarization in professional tennis, is the game style. Men not only have more powerful consistent ground strokes, but they also like to attack a lot by moving forward to the net and finishing the point with a sensational volley. Also, the speed of men’s serve can reach to 250 kph. In contrast, if you watch the women’s game, you will see a lot of long rallies thanks to their excellent coverage of the court, but you hardly see them introducing exciting strategies as men do. They simply just hit and return the ball till one of the players makes an error or misses a shot. So men are paid more due to their capability to entertain the crowd more with their outstanding game tactics, but also in the grand slam tournaments men play best of five sets while women just play best of three. The idea of sexism fits perfectly in this scenario, as the male players receive more audience due to their high quality matches and they get paid more because they play more sets in major tournaments. As a response to this sex discrimination, many women players underwent a feminist movement to prove that they are just as good and achieve equality. Examples of these feminist acts would be when a number of top WTA players like Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki justified why they should be paid more. They said that they do a lot of endorsements, and that spike up the financial state of the businesses involved in making professional tennis possible. Besides, women tennis is becoming more aggressive and physical, so people start to sense that the women are playing and behaving more manly on the court. For instance, they run faster, hit harder and grunt louder. One of my all time favorite women’s matches, which exhibited the masculinity women players are increasingly integrating in their game was the semifinal of the 2005 Australian open championship between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Here is the video of the match:


Moreover, regarding the feminist actions taken by the female players, the WTA created a global campaign with the tagline “Strong is beautiful.” This campaign featured 38 of the professional players and the advertisement that was produced showed the women wearing very revealing tennis clothing to display their athletic bodies while hitting aggressively their shots in slow motion. The ad clearly illustrated that women players are capable to deliver assertive tennis without any compromises to their femininity.


If you also analyzed how male and female players celebrate their victory on court, you can recognize obvious differences. Men usually collapse on their backs with their legs wide open or jump around very vigorously. As an example of how wild Novak Djokovic celebrated his first Wimbledon title this year, he snatched up some blades of grass and shoved them in his mouth. But for women no matter how exciting the moment can feel like, they still take less bustling actions. Crying is quite common among women who win majors, and that explains that women are more emotional than men.


Besides, the commercialization of gender ideals, which is the process of introducing products to the market by using advertising and sales campaigns that draw on socially constructed standards of masculinity and femininity, heavily influences the type of commercials male and female players do. For instance, male players usually promote technical items like cars, rackets and watches. However, women players would advertise items related to beauty like shampoos and deodorants. And even when these women are featured in commercials about cameras and rackets, they still embrace their feminine appearance mixed with the assertive attitude.



All in all, gender polarization nearly exists in every facet of our lives. It is the people’s duty to conform to their gender ideals in order to keep the socialization process functioning well. But sometimes, gender polarization can be detrimental to women’s growth and success in certain fields. That is why women feel it’s unfair to live in a “glass ceiling” society, and that motivates them to lead feminist movements. In many cases, feminist acts were successful and society gradually started to perceive that it’s “okay” to see women working in areas that are masculine in nature and receiving privileges that they never used to be awarded before. However, it would be considered socially deviant if men started to engage in more feminine-like activities. They would probably receive a lot of sanctions and will not feel as comfortable as women feel working in more manly environments. That is just how society works.

A Sociological look at the Brazil vs. Egypt Friendly Match at Al-Rayyan Stadium

After driving at snail speed in the midst of traffic on the road to Al Rayyan Stadium in Doha last Monday, I walked a considerable distance from my car to the stadium’s entrance. On my way to the actual stadium, I came across a few things besides screaming fan groups with painted faces and floating flags, and people trying to sell merchandise (flags, snacks, lights etc.). First, I come across stand-by police cars, and security officials waiting at the outer gate of the stadium parking lot. And what I didn’t expect to see is a line of security officials on horses (more like cavalry), perfectly aligned and still, and ready to be summoned at any moment. The number of spectators in the stadium that night was announced to be over 25,000 people. When there is such a large mass of people, there needs to be some sort of control.





Without some form of social control, there is a possible threat that too many people will deviate from the norms that regulate accepted and suitable behavior. To ensure that no people deviate from these norms and expectations, security officials inside and all around the stadium keep a diligent eye and sanction anyone who even attempts any mild deviant behavior like aggressive talk between two opposing groups (Brazilian fans and Egyptian fans) trying to vandalize property or sneak in without a ticket, or sit somewhere that is unauthorized to you.




Next, I reach the security screening of spectators, similar to an airport manual check-up that doesn’t include walking through a detector system. This is where I noticed strict gender segregation: female security employees checked women and young children in a separate section and men (including young boys if they were accompanied by a male adult) went to another section where they were screened my male officials. People tried to rush past without getting checked, but security guards at both ends of the separate sections pulled them back. Officials at the entrances told women to go to the women’s section, and men to go to the male section, constantly monitoring the flow of people to ensure conformity to the rules. Failure to conform these rules might result in formal sanctions – which are, according to Joan Ferrante, expressions of disapproval or approval supported by official laws, policies, rules that dictate how people should be punished or rewarded for specific behavior.



Finally after ticket processing, I was directed to the gate number that leads to the section my seat is in. More security meets people heading towards the gate entrance, and security staff and personnel open the door to the fenced area where my seat is located, and I am ushered to the seat number printed on my ticket. The view is unlike what I usually see on my television screen at home. No matter how “HD” you get with the broadcast of any game, this is different. This is the “real” experience. You get to absorb the game and the reactions of everyone around you; cheering fans, the excitement, the anticipation, and the thrill of the game.





In the area close to where I was sitting, there were a lot of families with young children, older children, and even infants, carried on parents’ shoulders. Many believe that there is so much more to football than a game of set tactics, skill and rules. Sociology would call part of that added meaning and “effect” the process of socialization. These children are socialized at a very young age, through experiencing watching a game, cheering for their team, and their country, to value the game, and their national team, and participate in this experience that shows belonging to a group, pride of belonging to that group, and the importance of support for that group. They develop a sense of self, a sense of the group they belong to and the ways of that group, and the way of society. Joan Ferrante defines games as “structured organized activities that usually involve more than one person and a number of constraints, such as established roles, rules, time, place and outcome,” (p. 96).




The players on both the Brazilian and Egyptian national teams were probably exposed to the game at a very young age, where they developed a system of expected behavior in the football game stage. This system is called the generalized other, (Ferrante, p. 96) It shapes and defines meanings, behaviors, and perspectives that go beyond those participating in the game. These expected rules, behaviors, and meanings were already pre-established by people before the players even started learning the game.




At a young age, the players learn more than just passing the ball, and scoring goals, they learn to see things from a particular perspective. By performing their roles (striker, defender, goalkeeper, mid-fielder), in a shared activity, with a common goal, and interacting with each other to achieve that goal, the players learn to anticipate other peoples’ moves, their views, and their expectations of how to behave.




The game can result in the creation of ingroups and outgroups. The Egyptian team for example is a group in which its members feel a strong sense of belonging, and in many different cases when playing against a particular team, they share a strong sense of opposition for that team, that goes beyond the sense of competition in the game in itself. Similarly, the same concept can expand to all the Egyptians and Egyptian fans in the audience. To the Egyptians, the Brazilian team can be regarded as the outgroup (the group towards which the ingroup – the Egyptian team, feel opposition). The Egyptians in this case is the ingroup, and Brazilians the outgroup. In another sense, the Brazilians in the stadium could feel a strong sense of separateness towards the Egyptians and hence, the Egyptians in this case is the outgroup, and Brazilians the ingroup.




There are many past incidents where ingroups and outgroups clashed during a game in a stadium, and outside a stadium all around the world. Luckily, at this game, the horses at the front gates didn’t have to charge, and neither did the fans around me. I thoroughly enjoyed the match, and all the surrounding spectators and fans showing support for their team in many different ways; singing songs, cheering (with a combination of drumming on seats, apparently an Egyptian specialty), painted faces, waving flags, funny wigs, and not a favorite of mine – the screeching loud cheering horns that echo in your ear drums till the end of the night.