In article <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] (Tania

Kamal-Eldin) wrote:

 

> I am doing research on how Middle Easter/Arab women are depicted in

> Hollywood films....

> Can anyone make suggestions....

 

One obvious area would be Biblical Epics (for example, Ben Hur, where

Jewish women struggle with Roman men for the possession of Charlton

Heston's body).

 

Another would be political thrillers, where Arab women occasionally crop

up as terrorists. An image springs to mind, but I can't match it with a

film. But certainly the Chuck Norris vehicle "Delta Force" was set in the

Middle East. And there were a couple of Raid on Entebbe movies, as I

recall.

 

These rather vague recollections prompt a broad generalisation, that

Hollywood's depiction of contemporary Middle Eastern women (like its

depiction of women in general) is probably pathologically stereotyped and

fiercely dichotomised. The only difference being that for the 2nd term of

the traditional Madonna/whore opposition, Hollywood tends to substitute a

(probably sexually voracious) terrorist, dressed in black, with cropped

hair and waving a submachine gun. Of course, I may just letting my

prejudices show...

 

(You might also check out the fringes of Raiders of the Lost Ark; and

didn't one of the Tom Clancy adaptations spend some time wandering around

a Saharan terrorist training camp?)

 

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