The Arab myth of western women
Unflattering as some western stereotypes are of Arab men, western women also get a bad press in conservative Arab circlles
by Khaled Diab
Unflattering as some western stereotypes are of Arab men, western women also get a bad press in conservative Arab circlles
by Khaled Diab
- When I wrote last month about western stereotypes of Arab men, several commenters, including WeAreTheWorld, suggested that Arab stereotypes of western women would also be worth exploring.
Just as Arab men are stereotyped and pigeonholed in the west, western women hover somewhere between myth and fantasy in the Arab world. "We're loose, obsessed with sex, batter our men, are bad mothers, and can't cook," my wife joked, summing up pithily some common Arab prejudices.
Like the traditional orientalist image of the harem, Arab views of the contemporary western woman are also highly sexualised. In fact, many Arab men, particularly those with little contact with the west, have this fantasy of western women that comes straight out of Playboy magazine or the grainy images of pirate pornos.
In this view, western women are oversexed, promiscuous and have revolving doors in their knickers. "A typical Egyptian male is a firm believer that any western woman is an easy catch and would not mind at all having sex with complete strangers," observes Ahmed, an old college friend.
Read on.................
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/10/arab-myth-of-western-women
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