Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Alternative Media for Resisting the Hegemonic Representation


If we want to rethink gender and development, we have to start problematizing the stereotyping of both global south men and women–not just women. One way to do so is by highlighting grassroots forms of resisting the hegemonic representation, and another way is by learning from the local knowledge of activists in different cultures and countries.  In this essay, I will illustrate the "Hometown Baghdad” project as an example of alternative media activism that challenges the stereotypes of Iraqi women and men.

 White (1997) mentioned that: “In the gender and development literature men appear very little, often as hazy background figures. ‘Good girl/ bad boy’ stereotypes present women as resourceful and caring mothers, with men as relatively autonomous individuals, putting their own desire for drink or cigarettes before the family’s needs” (p.16). This simplistic dichotomous understating applies in times of peace as well as in times of war. Societies outside the western world are seen as groups of oppressive “powerful”/violent men and victimized “powerless”/peaceful women (Mohanty, 2004). Such simplistic dichotomous understating led to ignoring the complexity of the intersection between class, race, nationality, and sexuality as well as the effects of the unequal global economy and colonial power relations between first and third worlds. This act of ignoring was obvious in the U.S discussions to justify the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq after September 11. Abu-Lughod (2002) argues that instead of analyzing the historical and economical roots of oppression and suffering in the Arab and Muslim world, western feminists rhetoric was engaged in saving Muslim women from their seemingly oppressive societies. Here, I should refer to a profound point by Mohanty (2004) that Western feminist world-view dominant discourse was not only produced by Western feminists but also by scholars from developing countries who also adopted this universal patriarchal framework. In the example of saving Muslim women’s rhetoric, many scholars and activists from Muslim and Arab countries contributed to that rhetoric, and even encouraged the U.S invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq under the pretext of rescuing Muslim women.

Far from this dominant scholars’ and activists’ discourse, alternative media activism is located as channels or tools to tell different stories. As an alternative media activism project "Hometown Baghdad”, an online web series, challenges the dichotomous understating of Iraqi people as oppressive violent men and victimized women. "Hometown Baghdad” project tells us a lot about the stories of people who were terrorized by war and how they struggle daily to survive the war. Mainstream media coverage of armed conflict makes us, as audience, forget that these are flesh and blood human beings living their lives in the countries where there is a war. Mainstream media objectifies people and turns them to just numbers of deaths and injuries. "Hometown Baghdad” videos humanized Iraqi people and show their struggle to achieve their personal goals and wishes in life such as love (Episode 11 - "Saif Heart Noor"; Episode 36 - "Zaghareet"), education (Episode 1 - "Brains on Campus"), friendship (Episode 21- “My Best Friend Zaid”), and dating (Episode 15 - "Kiss and Tell"). The videos also show the consequences of war such as insecurity (Episode 14 - "Barbwire"), and poverty (Episode 26 - "Beggar At the Gate"). Additionally, the videos show the context in which some anti-American feelings start to grow in Iraq. In Episode 37 - "One of Thousands", an Iraqi family changes their attitudes toward Americans after an American soldier kills a family member. "Hometown Baghdad as an alternative media activism project humanizes Iraqi people, especially men, and it shows the roots and the context of war instead of repeating the dichotomous representation that echoes the simplistic dichotomous understating of mainstream media.


References
Abu-Lughod, L. (2002). Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others. American Anthropologist. 104(3):783-790.
Mohanty, Ch. (2004). Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Pp. 17-41 in Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
White, S. (1997). Men, masculinities, and the politics of development. Gender and Development. 5:14-22.

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