Beautiful, attractive, rebellious, dreamy, exciting - these are some of the qualities of women as presented in the mass media, drama series, and satellite television channels. However, do these qualities represent the real female? How does this stereotypical image of the female affect the family? Is this really the society’s viewpoint or the viewpoint of the mass media that totally contradicts reality?
The answers to these questions are in the following reportage:
Exploitation
Dr. Manaal Abu Al-Hasan, professor of Media at Al-Azhar University and 6th October University and member of the International Islamic Committee for Women and Child (IICWC), says, Recent media studies showed that video clips and advertisements exploit the woman’s body for the benefit of commercial businesses and product advertising. The worst thing is that video clips exploit femininity in spreading adultery and immorality because it only focuses on the sexually-arousing parts of a woman’s body and mostly depicts her as the sweetheart who flirts with her lover.
With regard to drama series, many of them present the woman as a person who always suffers from problems because of being either a mother or a wife. In this way the two main roles of a woman in this life are presented as the causes of her misery. The solution for these problems, as presented in these drama series, is that a woman should rebel against these two roles and against her responsibilities. Additionally, it is noticed that many of the drama series urge women to be rebellious and belittle the effort and role of housewives.
She adds: It is the right of the audience to see in the mass media an example of a woman that is worthy of being followed. However, the female pattern presented by the mass media is difficult to be followed; it even leads to increasing the rate of family breakups. Always presenting women who look elegant and attractive in their full adornment and best clothes in the mass media is the cause of many husbands' losing interest in their wives. In reality, only 30% of women look like this and most wives can not attain the beauty of the women presented in the media. This is the cause of problems between the spouses as the husband starts feeling that he is dissatisfied with the beauty of his wife.
Rivalry and conflict-oriented approach
The image of women in the media was the theme of the First Intellectual Forum of the National Council for Woman. In this forum, the announcer Mr. Jamaal Ash-Shaa‘ir, head of the Nile Culture TV channel, asserted that the mass media speaks about women rather than allowing women to speak for themselves. The other shortcoming in the performance of mass media in solving women's issues is the negligence of religious culture and adopting a rivalry and conflict-oriented approach as if there is a battle going on between men and women with some people supporting women against men and vice versa. The media approach is not supposed to be provocative, as the whole family is in the same boat, that is to say, if it sinks it will drown both the man and the woman, and likewise if it is saved, it will save them both.
Dr. ‘Awaatif ‘Abdurrahman, professor of press and media at Cairo University, mentioned that the studies that covered women's magazines that are specialized in the Arab world showed that 75% of their pages are dedicated for beautification-related matters (fashion and makeup) and the romantic problems of the female readers. Of course, this consolidates the idea that the main issue that concerns the Arab woman is her femininity rather than her abilities as a human being or as a citizen.
Also, the mass media pay exaggerated attention to certain professions such as actresses, sportswomen and businesswomen at the expense of female teachers, researchers and scientists etc.
Absent strategy
Dr. Saamyah As-Sa‘aati, professor of sociology at ‘Ain Shams University, mentions that there are two different images for woman presented in the mass media. The first shows her as a helpless woman who lacks confidence in her husband and even in herself. The other image shows her as a woman who is capable of making decisions and providing for herself and is in no need of men.
This indicates that the mass media has no general strategy and proves that they are unable to present positive images of the different social classes and groups.
Slim despite being old
In the Doha international Conference for the Family, held in Qatar form 25 to 29 November 2004, Dr. Muhammad Al-‘Awadhi, the Islamic Kuwaiti intellectual and writer, presented a research paper in which he said: The results of studies conducted in different places and different times showed that the roles played by a person in drama are somewhat stereotyped according to his gender. These studies also showed that the physical characteristics of both men and women are also stereotyped.
There is a study in which a group of American soap operas were analyzed and researchers found that 69% of the female characters in these soap operas are slim, while only 17% of the male characters were physically fit.
It is also noticed that in drama series that continue playing over a long period, the men get older while the women remain young and attractive despite this contradicting the dramatic logic of the events.
Blonde blue-eyed women
Dr. Al-‘Awadhi mentioned that the women who appear in satellite television channels and advertisements have become the criteria that determines the standards of beauty in real life for women. Therefore, it is noticed that the majority of women in Arab television channels, whether announcers or advertisement models, have become blonde with light-colored eyes. Certainly, this is inconsistent with the features of Arab women (and women from other Muslim countries as well).
Magazine covers and video tapes
In 1980, a British study was conducted about female images that appeared on the covers of some British magazines. The female researcher, Ferguson, concluded that the image of females which is frequently published on magazine covers features a female face that gives an impression that the woman is available, with her features making a silent invitation to men to come closer.
It is not really strange that magazine covers in the United States, Britain or any other Eastern or Western non-Islamic county are so. What is really strange is what our Islamic media is doing; it treats our Muslim women as bodies without souls, minds or feelings.
Arab Information Centre