Abu Aardvark

TBS: Reality is not enough

I'm on the road and am not able to blog, but I wanted to let everyone know that the new issue of the Transnational Broadcasing Studies Journal is now on-line.   It's got some great stuff, including essays by Walter Armbrust, Marwan Kraidy, Nick Cull, Lindsey Wise, Bill Rugh, Larry Pintak, Adel Iskander, Phillip Seib, Abdullah Schlieffer, and many more.   This issue once again proves why TBS Journal has become the most important source of analysis of the Arab media - must reading. 

The issue also has an article by me: "Reality is not enough:  the politics of Arab reality TV."   Some excerpts:

The neo-conservative Weekly Standard has called it “the best hope of little Americas developing in the Middle East.”(1)  New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman enthused that it was the closest thing to democracy the Arab world has ever seen.(2) Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Suadais, imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, has denounced them as “weapons of mass destruction that kill values and virtue.” Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the main Islamist face of Al Jazeera and one of the most popular Islamist clerics today, has complained that they “are instruments of cultural and intellectual invasion of the Ummah.”(3) What could possibly produce such an unlikely consensus? Only one thing: the threat posed by reality television to the Arab status quo. The first two commentators, of course, view such a threat as a good thing. Hotly contested elections and the casual portrayal of men and women living together—along with the demand for what the Weekly Standard jokingly called “the unalienable right to watch bad TV”—posed a serious challenge to the conservative, repressive Arab status quo. For the latter two, the challenge of reality TV lay in its affront to conservative morality, as well as its seduction of Muslim youth away from politics and prayer.

                                                                         

Sexy signer Haifa Wehbe gets her manicured                       hands dirty on the popular LBC reality TV                       show Al Wadi (The Farm).

               

Whenever such a consensus appears, it is probably wrong. Reality TV poses less of a threat to Islamism than the rhetoric of Islamist leaders might suggest, and its contributions to Arab democratization are rather more ambivalent than its enthusiasts might hope. But reality TV, and the extraordinary amount of political commentary it has generated, offers a window into the cultural politics of an Arab world in ferment. A June episode of Al Jazeera’s most popular political talk show, The Opposite Direction, asked whether reality TV and music video clips should be seen as an American-Saudi conspiracy to destroy Arab and Islamic political unity. An LBC talk show debated the choice between Star Academy and Bin Laden. Dozens of op-eds have filled the pages of the elite press, with virtually every leading national and Pan-Arab pundit offering views on the meaning of Star Academy. Voting results on shows such as Al Wadi (The Farm) are routinely reported as straight news stories. The liberal Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm took time out of a contentious domestic political scene to complain bitterly about the selection process for Star Academy 3 (not even its outcome, or any show which had aired!) with stories claiming “inside information” that the producers did not want an Egyptian to win again after the victory of Mohammed Attiyah.(4) Even the eminent political columnist Fahmy Howeidy, not usually known for attention to televised popular culture, found that the intensity of the arguments on the op-ed pages about these shows compelled him to comment.(5) Why so muchfuss over what at first glance would appear to be trashy television programs? Partly because like sexy music video clips, reality television has sparked a powerful backlash: Islamists and cultural conservatives have made it an issue by virtue of their own outrage.(6)

...

Cultural destruction and democratic salvation are rather weighty burdens to place on televised variety shows. Arab reality TV represents an important and fascinating political and cultural phenomenon, but expectations that these programs are hothouses of democracy training a new generation of Arabs in the delights of voting are wildly overblown. Voting on reality TV does nothing to actually teach Arabs the hard work of democracy—organizing, defining interests, cooperating. It is “democracy lite,” offering the formalities of democracy without the substance:Democracy is just voting, among pre-selected candidates, with little really at stake and with none of the discursive will-formation essential to meaningful participation. The real impact of reality television lies in exploring the possibilities of new media technologies, and normalizing their use among a wide swathe of Arab youth. Reality TV nurtures an already powerful urge for participatory cultural forms, while indirectly—but significantly—challenging the Islamist claim to offer the only viable model for society.

There's a lot more, so go read it and the rest of the TBS Journal's offerings!

Culture wars snapshots

Some quick hits on the sadly neglected Nancy-Haifa culture wars:

Praktike picks up the baton:

As Marc Lynch has painstakingly documented (against his will, no doubt, but someone has to do it), video clips of sultry Lebanese singers (many of them produced in Cairo, I should note) are now ubiquitious across the Middle East and have led to what Lynch calls the "Nancy-Haifa Culture Wars." The fierce, sometimes violent debate over these video clips resemble American cultural battles about the portrayal of sex in various forms of media, and probably shouldn't be understood as a uniquely Arab phenomenon (a similar reactive process has taken place in India, for instance, though the conservatives seem to be losing).

Clearly, the fact that such a debate is taking place is indicative of the commercial pull that the, um, oldest form of entertainment has for young people in the Arab world. Yes, Arabs, too, enjoy sex!

But there are opposing trends at work here. While Nancy, Haifa, Ruby, and the rest shake their asses to great popular acclaim, it is Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood who are asendant politically. It's clear where they stand on racy video clips; they want to outlaw them. The hijab, an imperfect indicator but an easy one to spot, is more prevalent than ever on Cairo streets. Perhaps the MB is fighting a losing battle for the hearts and minds of Arab youth, but the power of Nancy doesn't seem to spill over into the political realm quite yet. This is not to say that it can't or won't, but rather that it's premature to say that it is, in fact, spilling over.

And the Independent writes about Amr Khaled (thanks to Asaad for the tip):

It is a powerful metaphor for the work of a religious and marketing phenomenon called Amr Khaled, who is trying to pump oxygen into the arid lives of Muslim youth. Amr (rhymes with "charmer") Khaled is the Arab world's first Islamic tele-evangelist, a digital age Billy Graham who has fashioned himself into the anti-Bin Laden, using the barrier-breaking power of satellite TV and the internet to turn around a generation of lost Muslim youth.

Meanwhile, al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that the Bahraini parliament has passed the first law of its kind in the Gulf outlawing the use of Bluetooth wireless technology - evidently aimed at men sending unsolicited emails or text messages to women on their mobile phones.   Islamists don't think the penalties are harsh enough (100 dinar, or about $266).   I'm sure that this governmental ban will stop it, just like the Saudi government's ban on voting for Star Academy succeeded (a Saudi guy won last year's competition despite the ban, for those who don't get the joke).   But maybe it will help distract attention from the very real political problems that Bahrainis seem more interested in.... always a good use of culture wars, don't you think?

It's amazing, really - a culture war keeps happening even if I don't have time to write about it!  Go figure.

Saudis v Star Academy, Year 2

I see that the Saudis have banned voting for contestants on Star Academy for the second year running.  Good to see that the N-H wars are still raging, even if they've taken a back seat the last few months.  What the world needs now, I do believe, is an essay called "Reality is not enough:  the politics of Arab reality television", coming soon to a Transnational Broadcasting Studies Journal near you!

Facing the music

Iran's erratic President Ahmedinajad has taken decisive action against the real threats facing his country.  Yep, you guessed it:

Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran's radio and TV stations, reviving one of the harshest cultural decrees from the early days of 1979 Islamic Revolution....

"Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is required," according to a statement on the council's official Web site.

No word yet on whether he would also object to the musical stylings of a good Shia lady such as Haifa Wehbi...

The Saudis and Fox

Accuracy in the Media has just released an entertainingly hysterical reaction to the news that Saudi Arabia's Prince Waleed bin Talal has bought a 5.46% stake in Rubert Murdoch's Fox Corporation.  And Waleed claims that it's already paid off - he told an audience at a recent Arab Thought Forum conference in Dubai (*) that he got Fox News to change a news ticker!   The future of Western civilization hangs in the balance!   Waleed might be playing golf with Rupert, you see, and next thing you know Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity will be spreading "Islamofascist propaganda" and the Weekly Standard and New York Post will be calling for the destruction of Israel.

My favorite part by far, and the only way to sign off for the weekend, is this: 

"Part of the Saudi/NewsCorp investment arrangement will allow Rotana to broadcast directly into the U.S. market on DirecTV, which is a subsidiary of NewsCorp. That means "fanatical [radical Islamist] propaganda" may be broadcast into American homes, says RFC's Murray..... Most of its material is "entertainment," but of course, we need look no further than our own Hollywood to understand that entertainment can carry a powerful political or geopolitical message." 

Yes.... if we are not careful, Rotana might be broadcasting fanatical radical Islamist propaganda into our homes.  AIM has done some very useful and careful research here - it's about time somebody over here recognized the dangers posed by the radical Islamist propaganda broadcast on Rotana.  As someone who has written fairly often about the political significance of Rotana's broadcasting, I'm here to help.(**)  Here's some of Rotana's secret weapons, often rotated through the ominously named "top twenty":

Code name:  "Elissa."   

 

Code name:  "Haifa"

Code name:  "Nancy"

Be on the lookout if you see anything like this on your television screen in the coming months - it's probably part of the Saudi conspiracy to convert you to radical Islam!  (***)

(*)  the section of the AIM report on the Dubai Arab media conference is worth reading for its own sake.   I was supposed to be at that conference, but couldn't make it.  Had I known how sinister the whole thing was, I might have been forced to find a way out there!  Darn conspiracies always starting without me....  as if you could have any kind of halfway decent conspiracy without an aardvark.

(**)  note to the prurient commentariat:  Haifa is 35.  She ain't "nubile."  Likely to convert someone to radical Islam, maybe (though I'm still working on the causal mechanisms), but not "nubile." 

(***)  and no, I am not going to make any jokes here about "precious bodily fluids," though the temptation is overwhelming.

FT Girl Power

Nice piece in the Financial Times about the Nancy-Haifa culture wars (thanks, Lamont) under the title "Girl Power."  It's about Arab music video clips, of course. 

While music videos are ubiquitous from London to Bollywood, only since the 1990s have they emerged in the Arab world as a new art form - and industry - that provides an alternative to this type of traditional act. The stars of these video clips are mostly attractive young women whose narrative-heavy videos are like mini-movies demonstrating the latest trends in fashion, cars and interiors. It is rumoured that these singers secretly compete to see who can produce the sexiest, most provocative videos; some even admit that they have had cosmetic surgery, a trend that would have been quite alien to the likes of the homely Kalthoum. These new stars are trendsetters in Arab society; their videos act as handbooks for young Arab women unsure of what to wear, which make-up to buy, which colour to dye their hair. And they have proved so popular that even older, more traditional performers in their forties are following suit.

Mellor explores the question of whether these videos actually lead to liberation.  She quotes one expert who she (accurately) describes as one of the harshest critics of the clips as, shall we say, skeptical.  But she also says this:

One may ask whether these music videos could be a positive influence on the young in some way. Why should the popular necessarily be debased and vulgar? For many, videos are a window on to an exciting new world. And perhaps provocative female behaviour can challenge male domination, rather than confirm it - or at least, that is the professed hope of Nadine Labaki, director of some of Nancy Ajram’s most controversial videos. Labaki defends her video of Ajram dancing for a group of men in a public cafe: “As Arab women, we used to live in fear of the Other’s gaze; we were imprisoned in our own bodies. So I wanted to create a new female character that is not afraid and has no problem with her body. She can dance in front of many men freely and spontaneously.”

Certainly the lyrics of many of these new stars’ songs openly challenge the idea of male dominance - hardly radical to the west but a marked change from the submissive message of more traditional song-writing in the Arab world, which typically depicted weak, passive women waiting loyally for the man of their dreams to notice their desire and shower them with attention. For instance, “You Are the Love”, sung by Um Kalthoum, expresses a woman’s total surrender and dedication to her lover even as he ignores her: “So many hearts are flying around you wishing to reach happiness... My heart belongs to you, and you make me happy. Deprive me as you wish.”

This is in stark contrast to many new female video stars, whose challenging style is more along the lines of “be a good boy, or get lost”. The Egyptian star Shereen rose to fame a couple of years ago with a song about gaining confidence: “And so what that your love ended? And so what that you went away? Why do you think life after you is meaningless? With or without you, I am still here, and, as you can see, I am still singing.”

She notes that currently the clips are dominated by Lebanese and Egyptians (correctly noting that "the thirty-five-year-old Haifa Wehbi" is considered "the ultimate sex symbol"), but that Gulf singers are becoming more prominent and will probably continue to do so in response to market forces.

Anyway, a very interesting piece on a topic I've sadly neglected of late. 

Kraidy Arab Reality TV

Marwan Kraidy has a short piece on Arab reality TV here.

The Arab world’s major news network, Al-Jazeera, tends to examine and report on macro political issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Iraq. But Arab men and women are eager to discuss social issues, those that impact their daily lives, and they are finding an outlet for such dialogue through entertainment programming.

Today, reality television and talk shows—-and even music videos and commercials-—have sparked heated political debates on Arab-Western relations, political reform, personal freedom, women’s rights, and sexuality. Though controversial, their ratings have soared.

One reality TV show causing a stir is Star Academy, featuring young men and women living together under one roof, all involved in a singing competition. The show, which airs on satellite television on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) channel, touches sometimes provocatively upon sensitive social issues from personal freedom, relations between men and women, to singing and dancing in public.

Much more coming in December's issue of Transnational Broadcasting Studies Journal, including (I believe) something from Kraidy.

Watching Arab music videos

Someone in comments asked where he could watch these Haifa Wehbi and Nancy Ajram music videos of which I speak.  It's always been hard to answer that - if you don't actually subscribe to Arabic channels, it's not so easy.  You could buy video CDs or DVDSs on eBay, or scour the internet - both pretty hit or miss.  But now, I've just discovered that the ever-delightful Bawaba.com has launched a music service:  the top 40 songs and top 40 videos free on line.  Right now, Nancy has the #1 video, and Haifa has #2 and #4 (including, at #2, "Bint al-Wadi", a compilation of clips from the reality TV show al-Wadi).    The quality isn't great, but at least you can get an idea.  So there you go -  ain't the internet grand? 

Middle East Conflict Resolution

Middle East conflicts have a reputation for being particularly insoluble... rooted as they are in deep emotion, identity, culture, hot and cold war, and history.  So it is with great pleasure that I can report (with help from Elaph) on an almost unbelievably successful initiative which seems to have resolved one of the more intense conflicts on the scene today:  Haifa vs. Elissa.   

Eliss and Haifa, two of the hottest Lebanese pop tarts, have a bit of history.  They have been publicly feuding for years, and their cold war turned hot a little while ago over some unfortunate developments at the World Music Awards.  Unpleasant things were said, disparaging remarks uttered, cold shoulders turned... it wasn't pretty.

Elissa and The Maestro

Enter New TV's show The Maestro.    Elissa was the featured guest, and the host tried to provoke her into expressing her real feelings about Haifa.  Elissa instead offered praise, describing Haifa as a "star of the first order" who succeeded due to her real "charisma" not only her "beauty."   The host then announced that he was going to call Haifa - who  had been notified in advance to watch the show - to see if she would accept Elissa's apology.  But the phone rang... and rang... was this a calculated snub on Haifa's part?  Was she purposely not answering the phone in order to humiliate Elissa on live TV?   The tension was... well, tense. 

And then... a producer's cell phone rings.  It's Haifa!  She wants to talk to Elissa directly!  "Good evening Elissa"  "Good evening Haifa"... Elissa repeated her praise directly to Haifa, and Haifa responded that she quite liked one of Elissa's songs.  Everyone laughed and smiled, and wondered what all the trouble had been about and why they hadn't talked before [hint:  ratings!   good TV!  Ramadan audiences!   breathless magazine stories!] 

And so, they turned over a new page, as Rula Nasir of Elaph put it, and ended the two year old conflict.   Reconciliation achieved - they might not love each other, but they can co-exist in peace.   They agreed that no artist can dominate 100% of the public's adoration.   A giddy Elissa then told the host that she could also co-exist with Diana Haddad, Carol Saqr, Shirin, and a few others (not Nancy, though). 

Then they sang. 

Perhaps we could all learn something from Elissa and Haifa?  Something about peace, reconciliation, co-existence... and shameless ratings grubbing?   

Reality TV news

Al-Wadi:  Elaph reports that Saudis are furious that their national champion lost the final round of al-Wadi to his Kuwaiti rival.  They are complaining that the vote was fixed and they was robbed, because Saudis aren't supposed to lose such things..... oh, the pains of democracy.    Meanwhile, LBC is happy because both finalists came from rich Gulf countries, meaning that they made huge profits on the show.   And, not least, everyone is still wondering why Haifa left the show in tears after getting all pissy and depressed (in an interview with For Her magazine, she admitted that "life on the farm was really hard") but give thanks that she returned for the grand finale.    

Green Light:  FotA Eric Weiner reports for NPR on the launch of an Islamic reality TV show, which "features four young Arabs who attempt to do good deeds, one of the cornerstones of the Islamic faith, with no money and a limited amount of time." 

And last, but not least, the third edition of Super Star has finally launched.  Future TV postponed it for quite a while after the assassination of Hariri, but now apparently things have sufficiently returned to normal for the grand-daddy of Arab reality TV to return to the air.  Much bad singing ensues!