I just read this story from BBC News which seems to me to represent in microcosm several things:
1) It seems like this echoes discussions that the United States had many years ago. And the answers that our culture came up with surely, surely shape, no perhaps even created, this very conversation in the Middle East.
2) Rightly or wrongly, this influence of the West is one of issues that is at the root of the Islamic terrorism.
So, is this objectification or empowerment or both? Do Muslims have any justification in being angry at the West for such cultural influences? Are concepts such as propriety and modest hopelessly culturally relative or at least always culturally situated?
Lots of questions. I don’t have many firm answers. I do know that in cultures where there is not much overt suggestive material, such as in Pakistan where I grew up, even a little bit of suggestion can have a powerful effect. Should this be the norm/ideal? Alternately, is a more European view of nudity and the body, etc. appropriate and even healthy? What does Christianity inform us to do? Is its message different for different cultures?
Oh, and for reference, here are some Youtube videos of several of the performers mentioned in the BBC article. Pretty tame by today’s Western standards; way out there by Islamic standards, though perhaps not by pre-Islamic Middle Eastern standards, because there is the traditional belly dance after all. In the selections below, Nancy is a little more traditional, in her first video at least. Haifa? Well, she could give Shakira a run for her money.
Haifa Wehbe
Nancy Ajram
Nancy Ajram
Well… it’s my opinion that in the middle east they really don’t hate us for who and what we are. I don’t believe they hate freedom, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and a slice of grandma’s apple pie. They just don’t like us being there for last half of a century. Hence I do believe they are a little bit more open to western influences than the state controlled censored mass media would have us believe.
As for selling image/lifestyle over content/substance, well, I guess they’re catching up with the rest of the world. Remember, nobody’s forcing anyone to buy/view/watch/listen/read any of that.
Peter, you may be right that the effects of colonialism and occupation have a great deal to do with Middle Eastern antipathy to us. However, I do think the most extreme terrorists are also ideologically motivated. I am not in agreement with their actions nor their ideology which forces beliefs on people in essence, but I partially “get” their anger.
As to the question of the erosion of standards of propriety and modesty and such, in some ways, I do get the objections that people have in traditional cultures to the inroads of contemporary Western values in this area, or at least the values that seem to be guiding our entertainment industry. So in that sense, I am sad when other countries “catch up” with us in that department. Again, I am not for coercion, but neither I am for simply being silent as standard after standard gets eroded by the waves.
Oh my goodness, I am sounding old. Yet, there are real casualties of a permissive culture, myself included, who, it is true, can choose to turn off or tune out, but who nonetheless have an uphill task if they want to participate in the culture at all. Now, I should add here that it has always been so on one level, but technology, which I do believe is morally neutral, contains the power to amplify all sorts of things, both good and evil, and to influence individuals and societies at scales which were hitherto inconceivable.
Enough for just now.
Good questions Neil. Also, speaking as a casualty of a permissive culture, I too mourn other nations adopting the Western values on displayed by our entertainment industry. In the US it seems like it is getting more difficult to avoid images and content that are objectifying to woman and men! For example, just think of what you are exposed just for the sake of marketing? The myriad of suggestive billboards alone is enough to raise concern (and to say I’m not forced to see that seems untrue). Sheesh even hamburger commercials have bought into the sex sells so use it philosophy.
P.S. Im not saying sexuality is a bad thing. On the contrary, being sexual creatures is a great thing! Im just saying that by being constantly bombarded with sexually suggestive images we run the risk of seeing sex as cheap tool (to achieve power, to impress, to manipulate) rather than a beautiful, sacred gift to celebrate. That’s a big deal! But what can be done?
Over tea last night after house church, I was able to articulate my thoughts on the modesty question. I think that standards of modesty are, indeed, relative to culture, but not hopelessly so, because the the concept of modesty is universal (at least in traditional cultures).
In every culture, even in subcultures that self-define themselves by rebelling against the standards of a traditional culture, there are standards and lines that we might not be able to articulate clearly (and it sounds preposterous when people do) but which we know are there because we tend to know when we or someone else has crossed them. And, because of our sinfulness, we are always wanting to push against those lines.
I am very interested in the process of how standards change in areas such as modesty and the acceptability of words, adornment, and behavior (e.g. the acceptance of a word like “sucks,” of tattoos, and the punk aesthetic ala stores like Hot Topic and many increasingly commercial Loop in St. Louis), but that will have to wait for another post.
Regarding the question of whether the women in the Middle East are being empowered or objectified, that question is more complex. Perhaps the answer is both. In the sexual revolution here, I think women clearly did get more empowered, but it was a sort of empowerment that clearly played into the licentious nature of us men, which I think leads to greater objectification on the whole. Not sure about all that, though