Stereotyping of Arabs in Western Media - Essay Example

?The presentation of Arabs in western media has, from the very beginning been in the negative light since they have been presented as a race of people who are steeped in religion and outdated traditions. Arabs have been portrayed as being some of the most violent people in the world, often plotting, one way or another, for the destruction of a westerner, who in the movies is often the hero. The western media seems to have been influenced by the long history of conflict between the Muslim and Christian worlds for the past thousand years and the mark of this conflict seems to have developed unconsciously into the minds of the producers of western media. This has created a mentality of us against them, where producers still unconsciously perceive the Arabs, and Muslims in general, as being the enemy, although they would never to such a thing. The various events which have taken place in the twentieth century have worked to strengthen this opinion of Arabs, as seen where the latter are looked upon as being a violent people, whose religious fanaticism is the cause of all the major conflicts in the world today. The events leading to the September 11 attacks and its aftermath have all been blamed on Arabs, who are seen as having had a direct hand in these events. The fact that a majority of the Arab people in the world are just regular people like any other westerner seems not to have been put into consideration as many of them have become victims of racially instigated attacks because of who they are and what they look like. According to Hussein (2010, p118) Hollywood films that feature Arabs are examples of the inherent racism that has long been established in western media and that the fact that these films are shown in public comes to influence how its audience views the Arab people. The American media, especially the films, tend to include evil Arab characters as well as racial slurs which are used to demean them and this creates a situation where people from the Middle East are viewed as being an evil race, with no set moral standards. This is not a true reflection of the Arab people and, because of the bias of western media against them, they have come to be portrayed in an extremely negative light where it is difficult to determine or differentiate between the Arabs with good intentions from those with evil ones. The Arab men have come to be depicted as being chauvinistic in the movies that feature them, showing them not only mistreating their wives and daughters, but also keeping them in the background where they have little or no rights (Hassan 2001, p.56). They have also come to be depicted as being greedy for money and as being willing to sell their souls for the sake of acquiring more of it, a depiction which goes against the fact that Arabs have throughout their history been an entrepreneurial race much involved in trade. Because Islam allows Arab men to marry up to four wives, western media has come to depict them as being womanizers who are extremely attracted to western women. Whenever Arabs men are shown in films, they are depicted as traveling with vast harems to satisfy their every desire, a depiction which is not a true reflection of the character of this race. The Arab-Israeli conflict has not been of much help in improving the image of Arabs in western media and this is because of the fact that the true story concerning the conflict has been distorted in favor of the Israelis. This conflict has been a key feature in western media since the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 and despite the fact that the Jewish state has committed many injustices against the Palestinian people; the latter are still depicted as being the aggressors. The fact that women, children, and the elderly have fallen victim to Israeli attacks has been kept in the background, while the image of Arab men as being fanatical terrorists attacking the state of Israel has been brought to the foreground (Onwudiwe 2005, p.6). This has created a situation where it has become difficult for the image of Arabs to be redeemed in the western media and its audience. The fight for statehood by the Palestinians has been depicted as being acts of terrorism by the Arabs against Israel, and it has led to the radicalization of the public opinion against them, with many looking upon Arabs as being uncivilized and uncouth people who have no place in the modern world. Films concerning the Gulf War show Arabs as being a disorganized bunch of people who, because of their religious fanaticism, do not care about death, and instead of attempting to shield themselves, rush into the line of fire. This not only depicts them as being fanatics, but it also shows the Arabs as being a people of less intelligence than their western counterparts, who are shown as tactical geniuses. Shaheen (2000, p.24) makes an overview of how Arabs are depicted in western media, not only in film, but also in print and broadcast news where they have come to be shown in a negative light. This negative depiction of Arabs, and Islam as a religion, has been adopted into western popular culture, with these stereotypes having an impact not only on the western mentality, but also on the Arabs themselves, especially those who live in the western world. Instead of working towards the ending of racial stereotyping, especially in the globalised world, the western media has instead come to further ingrain these stereotypes in the mentality of its audiences. This has created a situation where individuals of the Arab race living in the western world have to undergo instances of lower self-esteem (Suleiman 1982, p.147). In addition, such stereotypes often end up causing the injury of innocents, impact policies, and inspire divisiveness by emphasizing the differences between westerners and Arabs putting at stake/ sacrificing those human qualities that link these people together. The Arab stereotype has come to be used by western media as a way of making money since some producers claim that they are only working towards satisfying public demand. The fact that it is the western media which has worked towards creating these stereotypes and that its continued use of them has caused the public to demand more, has created a situation where it has become difficult to end such negativity towards the Arabs. It has become so easy to sell these stereotypes of the Arabs since most westerners are not aware that there is a different world outside of theirs which functions in ways which are dissimilar to theirs (Rosenberg, 1986). Because of this ignorance of a people and culture which is different to theirs, westerners have come to follow the interpretations of Arabs made by their media, which depict the latter as being alien, vicious strangers, determined upon fighting non-believers all over the world. Such flawed characterizations more perfectly reproduce the bias of Western journalists and image makers than they do the realities of the Arab people in the modern world. In the film industry, the Arabs and their culture have come to be presented as representation of the opposite of western culture. The fear of this unknown culture has made many audiences of the western culture to come to believe that the Arabs are their cultural enemies. Furthermore, the religion of the majority of Arabs, Islam, has come to replace communism, in the mentality of these audiences, as being the main threat to the western world. The stereotypes that have come to be formed of Arabs have equated them with holy war and abhorrence, extremism and violent behavior, bigotry and the repression of women. The depiction of Arabs in film tends to be based on the assertion that they are a monolithic people, who practice the same customs, culture and religion. This is far from the truth since, despite being members of the same race; Arabs from various regions have come to evolve their own local cultures, which are different from those of other Arabs (Balaa 2012, p.173). These differences among the Arabs have come to be ignored by western media, which continues to portray them as one people who have the same ambitions all over the world. This depiction of Arabs as religious fanatics has led to the blatant isolation or shunning of those Arabs living in the western world. It has created a situation where it has become difficult for them to live their lives normally because of the fear that they might be victimized for their being Arabs. To be an Arab in the western world has become a burden for many of this race, since the discrimination they face even from the authorities, has been formed by stereotypes of the media depicting them as terrorists. This has created a situation where Arabs, especially the youth, are growing up in a world which has been set against them and this is perhaps the reason why they have come to become involved in activities such as terrorism, which would not have happened if such depictions of them had not been made (Said, 2003). Kamalipour (2000, p.90) states that the stereotyping of Arabs in the western world began during the Middle Ages with the expansion of the Islam into Europe, which pitted the Arab dominated culture against the European one. This led to a conscious effort by the westerners to do everything they could to discredit not only Islamic, but also Arab culture as well. This tradition of discrediting the Arabs and their culture has come to be inherited by the western media and one would say that because of the latter’s influence; the system of indoctrinating westerners against Arabs begins early. During the childhood period, children are exposed to programs which portray Arabs in a negative light and this continues to develop as they grow older. In other words, a background is made available so that future movies and other leisure materials can easily be built upon it. Slowly but surely, the amount, and intensity, of such misinformation increases to the point where by adulthood, western viewers are showered with astounding and damaging portrayals of the Arabs. These media images then become public perceptions, which form the basis for human interaction between westerners and Arabs. Many in the western world believe that since the Middle East is a traditionalist society, it does not have the necessary development to be in the modern world. The American image of the Middle East is one of nomadic Arab tribesmen moving from place to place in the desert with nothing better to do than breed religious fanatics (Kamran 2000, p.479). This image of the Middle East is a very bad stereotype of the people of these states because most of the population of this region stopped their nomadic lifestyle more than half a century ago and in fact, many today live in the urban areas (Suleiman 1991). The people of the Middle East have adopted many of the ways of the Western world and this include the use of cars to travel instead of camels, many wear Western clothing (especially the men), and most of all, they live in houses which have been built in the modern style. The popular opinion in the western world is that the Middle East consists of extremely fanatical societies when it comes to religion (Harris, 2003). This image only applies to a few of the people in this society because the majority are surprisingly very liberal in matters concerning religion and they only appear to be fanatical because of their obedience to the Ulema, which is the leading religious authority in many Middle Eastern countries. Very few people in the Middle East share the same religious point of view as that which is propagated by the various fanatical groups such as the Taliban. In fact, most Arabs tend to display the same kind of liberalism that is displayed by the other many of the people in the western world. The American perceptions of Arabs and the Arab world have been clearly fueled by the media’s portrayal of it and the only way to learn the truth about it is to see it for oneself (Lamb, 1991). One of the factors which have come to change the western perception of Arabs in recent times has been the development of the Arab Spring in the Middle East. The Arab Spring is the series of events which happened in the Arab world when the people of the various Arab nations started mass protests and open revolts against the autocratic regimes ruling over them. These events started taking place in Tunisia and they spread through Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and currently, they are happening in Syria. The Arab Spring has seen the fall of several autocratic regimes whose toppling has surprised many in the world (Abdelbaki 2013, p.189). The coming to an end of some of the most powerful Middle Eastern regimes has provided the opportunity for Islamist parties, which had been previously suppressed by these regimes, to come to power democratically. The Arab Spring and the changes of government that followed in certain Middle Eastern countries brought with it a lot of positive outcomes. The most imperative of these is that it has brought about, for the first time in many decades, an opportunity for real democracy in many Arab states. Not only has it done this, but it has also brought a new confidence in the power of the people to change their own destinies. The reflection of Arabs as a dormant people politically by western media was shattered when these events took place and it has instead led to the development of a new respect for the Arabs (Seeley 2008). In conclusion, one would say that the portrayal of Arabs in western media has for a long time been biased against them and this has become even worse after the events of September 11 when the United States was attacked by individuals of mostly Arab origins. The ending of the negative stereotypes of Arabs in western media would have an increasingly positive effect not only among the Arabs, but also among westerners as well. The fact that there will be more interaction between the Arabs and those who initially avoided them will not only enrich their cultures, but it will also ensure that some of the positive characteristics of Arab culture are spread all over the world. However, it should be noted that globalization might play a hand in the eventual rehabilitation of Arabs in western media. This will most likely be done through the erosion and near extinction of some of those cultures which are opposed to Arabs and these will come to be replaced with the dominant global, which is the driving force behind globalization. The world has become interdependent, with one state or society not being able to survive without the support of others. It is therefore be said that the western media will have to come to terms with the Arabs and will have to present a true picture of these people if the western world is to develop a lasting, peaceful relationship with them. References Abdelbaki, H.H. 2013, "The Arab Spring: Do We Need a New Theory?" Modern Economy, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 187-196. Balaa, L. 2012, "The Comic Disruption of Stereotypes in Loubna Haikal's Seducing Mr. Maclean", Antipodes, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 173-180. Hassan, R. 2001, "Challenging the stereotypes of fundamentalism: An Islamic feminist perspective", The Muslim World, vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 55-69. Hussein, L.J. 2010, "Reel Bad Arabs - How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006)", Film & History, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 118-120. Kamalipour, Y.R. 2000, "The TV Terrorist: Media Images of Middle Easterners", Global Dialogue, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 88-96. Kamran, M. D. 2000. Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia: The shape of a client feudalism. The Middle East Journal, 54(3), pp.479-480. Harris, D. A. 2003. Seeds of hate in Saudi Arabia. The Washington Post. Lamb, D. 1991, The Arabs: Divisions Beyond the Stereotype America and Arabs: A Shifting View The Arabs have always been fair game for political cartoonists and moviemakers. But the war is finally forcing a re-examination of long-held stereotypes about the people and the region, Los Angeles, Calif., United States, Los Angeles, Calif. Onwudiwe, I.D. 2005, "Defining terrorism, racial profiling and the demonization of Arabs and Muslims in the USA", Community Safety Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 4-11. 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