Pop Culture and Tropes.

 

“Hollywood had turned to casting Arabs in the roles of villains after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War”. Richard Schickel wrote this when Time Magazine was a glossy publication printed, distributed and sold on newsstands. Now take a step back and think of Muslim characters in most (if not all) blockbusters, TV series, Netflix dramas or even comedy shows. Muslims rarely appear on screen and when they do, they are often negatively stereotyped. Attitudes towards Muslims may be formed by a variety of factors. However, mass media is a component within the control of storytellers and content creators. Research led by Stacy L Smith, the founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, highlights that it is important to understand how often, and in what context Muslim characters appear in entertainment which we ingest on a daily basis. It has a direct impact on our inherent biases, preconceived notions and subliminal visual imagery of an entire people, simply based on their set of beliefs.Hollywood has exploited age-old stereotypes about Arabs instead of addressing them. Jack Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs, writes that Arabs are made to appear backward and dangerous when you look at them through the distorted lens of Hollywood. He’s documented the rise in hate crimes after September 11 due to the spread of stereotypes in Western cinema. In his lectures, Shaheen cites the history of the Nazis’ distortion of Jews, which was delivered to the masses through films and other propaganda; which in turn paved the way for the Holocaust.

The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative carried out an investigation to examine the frequency and nature of Muslim portrayals across 200 popular episodic scripted series from four countries. It found a vast majority or 87 percent of scripted series erased Muslim speaking characters all together. Of the tiny 1.1 percent of Muslim characters depicted in the 200 series, a disproportionate 30.6 percent perpetrated violent actions against another character. They were also shown to use firearms, bombs or vests with explosive devices and attacking and physically harming others. The study also found there were no Muslim children 0-5 years of age across the entire sample. Most of the Muslims were shown as foreigners, and apart from the setting where characters appeared, language was also a way that stories stereotyped Muslim characters. As a journalist, these findings, or the extent of demonization, might surprise you. And that’s why it is important to have this knowledge, to empower media professionals to tell stories which are fair and balanced.