For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
1,896
views
0
references
 Top references
cited by
1
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      389
      similar
       All similar

      If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

      Arab Studies Quarterly is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journals. Furthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

      scite_

      Arab Studies Quarterly

      Volume 42, Issue 1-2
       
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      US Media Darlings: Arab and Muslim Women Activists, Exceptionalism and the “Rescue Narrative”

      research-article
      Bookmark

            Abstract

            Using critical textual analysis based on the postcolonial school of thought, this essay analyzed a ten-minute segment, called “Women of the Revolution,” on the ABC news program This Week, anchored at that time by Christiane Amanpour, for its portrayals of Arab and Muslim women. The analysis showed that Arab and Muslim women were portrayed positively only when they fit a “media-darling” trope of Western-educated Arab or Muslim women, or those who looked and acted similar to Western women, especially if they ascribed to a Western view of feminism. Those women also were seen as the exception to the “repressive” culture that characterizes the Arab and Muslim worlds, according to the Orientalist stereotype. The implications of this analysis indicate that, in spite of the visibility and progress of many Arab and Muslim women in their countries and indigenous cultures, they are still framed within old recycled molds in US mainstream media, even if these seem positive at face value.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50005550
            Journal ID (jcode): arabstudquar
            Title: Arab Studies Quarterly
            Publisher: Pluto Journals
            ISSN: 0271-3519
            ISSN: 2043-6920
            Publication date (Print): 1 January 2020
            Volume: 42
            Issue: 1-2 ( doiID: 10.13169/arabstudquar.42.issue-1-2 )
            Pages: 7-24
            Article
            Publisher ID: arabstudquar.42.1-2.0007
            DOI: 10.13169/arabstudquar.42.1-2.0007
            SO-VID: e8e92d58-0332-44cf-9d87-b2b92a1be9b7
            Copyright © © 2020 The Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
            License:

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Custom metadata
            lang eng

            ScienceOpen disciplines: Social & Behavioral Sciences
            Keywords: Arab/Muslim women,media darling,exceptionalism,rescue narrative,Orientalism,postcolonialism,victimhood

            References

            1. ABC News (2010). Christiane Amanpour Named “This Week” Anchor. (March 18). Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/christiane-amanpour-named-this-week-anchor/story?id=10134734

            2. ABC News. (2011a). Hillary Clinton on the Crisis in Egypt 1/30/2011. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXGVZeW8ZL0&feature=player_embedded

            3. ABC News. (2011b). Roundtable: Egypt's Impact. (February 6). Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/roundtable-egypts-impact-12852095

            4. ABC News. (2011c). Women of the Revolution Discussion Video. (March 6). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/women-revolution-discussion-tina-brown-nawal-el-saadwi-zainab-salbi-sussan-tahmasebi-politcs-13069559

            5. Abdulhadi, R., Alsultany, E., and Naber, N. (2011). Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

            6. Abu-Lughod, L., and El-Mahdi, R. (2011). Beyond the “Woman Question” in the Egyptian Revolution. Feminist Studies, 37, 683–691.

            7. Ahluwalia, P. (2006). Race. Theory, Culture, and Society, 23(2–3), 538–545. doi:10.1177/026327640602300298

            8. Ali, Ayaan Hirsi. (n.d.). Retrieved from Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs website: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/2635/ayaan_hirsi_ali.html

            9. Amanpour, C. (2006). Amanpour on the Front Line. (2006). Broadcasting and Cable, 136(29), 3–16.

            10. Biography.com (n.d.). Christiane Amanpour. Retrieved from: http://www.biography.com/people/christiane-amanpour-212140

            11. Bullock, K. (2015). Visible and Invisible: An Audience Study of Muslim and Non-Muslim Reactions to Orientalist Representations in I Dream of Jeannie. Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, 8(2), 83–97. doi:10.1386/jammr.8.2.83_1

            12. Cloud, D. L. (2004). To Veil the Threat of Terror: Afghan Women and the «Clash of Civilizations» in the Imagery of the U.S. War on Terrorism. Quarterl Journal of Speech, 90, 285–306. doi:10.1080/0033563042000270726

            13. Darraj, S. M. (2003). “We all want the same things basically”: Feminism in Arab Women's Literature. Women and Language, 26, 79–82.

            14. Deeb, L. (2006). An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

            15. Democracy Now (2011). From Tahrir to Wall Street: Egyptian Revolutionary Asmaa Mahfouz Speaks at Occupy Wall Street. (October 25). Retrieved from: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/25/from_tahrir_to_wall_street_egyptian

            16. Douglas, K. (2011). Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture. In Gender, Race, and Class in Media, ed. G. Dines and J. M. Humez (pp. 7–18). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

            17. El Guindi, F. (2005). Gendered Resistance, Feminist Veiling, Islamic Feminism. Ahfad Journal, 22, 53–78.

            18. El-Mahdi, R. (2011). Orientalising the Egyptian uprising. (April 11). Retrieved from: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1214/orientalising-the-egyptian-uprisin

            19. Eltahawi, M. (2012, April 23). Why Do They Hate Us? The real war on women is in the Middle East. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/23/why-do-they-hate-us/

            20. Farooqi, S. (2011). Intertextual Semiosis: An Analysis of Implications of the White Man's Burden on Speeches of Albert J. Beveridge and President George W. Bush. Language in India, 11(9), 13–33. Retrieved from: http://www.languageinindia.com

            21. Gilmore, I. (Producer). (2011). Gigi's Revolution [Motion picture]. USA: Frontline. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/revolution-in-cairo/video-gigis-revolution

            22. Gilmore, J. (2015). American Exceptionalism in the American Mind: Presidential Discourse, National Identity, and U.S. Public Opinion. Communication Studies, 66, 301–320. doi:10.1080/10510974. 2014.991044

            23. Hirji, F. (2011). Through the Looking Glass: Muslim Women on Television—An analysis of 24, Lost, and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition, 4(2), 33–47. Retrieved from: http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca

            24. Ibroscheva, E. (2013). The First Ladies and the Arab Spring: A Textual Analysis of the Media Coverage of the Female Counterparts of Authoritarian Oppression in the Middle East. Feminist Media Studies, 13, 871–880. doi:10.1080/1468077.2013.838377

            25. Lipset, S. (1996). American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York: W. W. Norton.

            26. Macdonald, M. (2006). Muslim Women and the Veil: Problems of Image and Voice in Media Representations. Feminist Media Studies, 6, 7–23. doi:10.1080/14680770500471004

            27. Magnet, S., and Mason, C. L. (2014). Of Trojan Horses and Terrorist Representations: Mom Bombs, Cross-Dressing Terrorists, and Queer Orientalisms. Canadian Journal of Communication, 39, Article 2. Retrieved from: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal

            28. Mahfouz, A. (2011). Mirror of 3 Vlog Post that Helped Spark the Revolution in Egypt. (February 4). Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcSs9_FY0Cs

            29. Mazloum, N. (2017). These Egyptian Feminists are Badass, and we Need to Remember that: Some of the Arab World's Fiercest Women. (January 26). Retrieved from Stepfeed website: http://stepfeed.com/these-egyptian-feminists-are-badass-and-we-need-to-remember-that-2476

            30. Mufti, S. (2014). Media Darling: Malala Yousafzai's Long and Delicate Dance with the Press. Columbia Journalism Review (January). Retrieved from: https://archives.cjr.org/feature/media_darling.php

            31. Naureckas, J. (2011). Losing the Plot. Extra!, 24(7), 8–9.

            32. Powell, K. A. (2011). Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism since 9/11. Communication Studies, 62, 90–112. doi:10.1080/10510974.2011.533599

            33. Redmond, H. (2011). Five Women Who Matter Most. (October 4). Retrieved from: Truthdig website: http://www.truthdig.com/report/page3/five_women_who_matter_most_20111005

            34. Muslim Reverie. (2012). Responses to Mona Eltahawy's “Why do they hate us?” [Blog post]. (April 27). Retrieved from: https://muslimreverie.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/responses-to-mona-eltahawys-why-do-they-hate-us

            35. #Revolution. (2011, February 20). Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/revolution—12959657

            36. Sadar, P. (2014). Exotic Beauties, Victims and Terrorists: Representations of Veiled Women in the British Press (2001–14). Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, 7, 59–73. doi:10.1386/jammr.7.1.59_1

            37. Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.

            38. Said, E. (1989). Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors. Critical Inquiry, 15, 205–225. doi:10.1080/448481

            39. Said, E. (2004). Orientalism Once More. Development and Change, 35, 869–879. doi:10.111/j.1467-7660.2004.00383.x

            40. Shaheen, J. G. (1984). The TV Arab. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Press.

            41. Shaheen, J. G. (1994). Arab Images in American Comic Books. Journal of Popular Culture, 28, 123–133. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1994.2801_123.x

            42. Shaheen, J. G. (2001). Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Brooklyn, NY: Olive Branch Press.

            43. Siddique, H., Owen, P., and Gabbatt, A. (n.d.). Protests in Egypt and Unrest in Middle East—as it Happened. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com

            44. Stabile, C. A., and Kumar, D. (2005). Unveiling Imperialism: Media, Gender and the War on Afghanistan. Culture and Society, 27, 765–782. doi:10.1177/0163443705055734

            45. Stelter, B. (2011). Amanpour to Leave ABC's “This Week” and Rejoin CNN. (December 13). Retrieved from: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/amanpour-said-to-be-leaving-this-week

            46. Syed, J., and Ali, F. (2011). The White Woman's Burden: From Colonial Civilisation to Third World Development. Third World Quarterly, 32, 349–365. doi:10.1080/01436597.2011.560473

            47. van Bakel, R. (2007). “The trouble is the West”: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islam, Immigration, Civil Liberties, and the Fate of the West. (November). Retrieved from: http://reason.com/archives/2007/10/10/the-trouble-is-the-west

            Comments

            Comment on this article