Wajahat Ali
By Wajahat Ali
It’s hard to overstate the offensiveness of the fabulous four’s exquisitely tone-deaf trip to Abu Dhabi
I’m a heterosexual, Muslim dude who until recently thought pleated khakis and loafers were “hip” and mistook Bergdorf Goodman for an expensive Swiss chocolate. So it is not surprising that 40 minutes into “Sex and the City 2,” a 150-minute cotton candy fantasy accessorized with materialism and fashion porn, I was comatose with boredom.
But I was defibrillated by the film’s detour into Abu Dhabi (really Morocco and studio sets) and what can only be described as an Orientalist’s wet dream. After discovering they will visit the Middle East, the ladies whip out hall-of-fame Ali Baba clichés: References to “magic carpet” (a double entendre, naturally), Scheherazade and Jasmine from “Aladdin” come in rapid succession. Upon hearing a stewardess give routine flight instructions in Arabic, Samantha behaves like a wild-eyed child hearing a foreign language for the first time. “I wonder what she’s saying. It sounds so exotic!”
Michael Patrick King’s exquisitely tone-deaf movie is cinematic Viagra for Western cultural imperialists who still ignorantly and inaccurately paint the entire Middle East (and Iran) as a Kubla Khan in desperate need of liberation from ignorant, backward natives. Historian Bernard Lewis, the 93-year-old Hall of Fame Orientalist and author of such nuanced gems as “The Arabs in History” and “Islam and the West,” would probably die of priapism if he saw this movie. It’s like the cinematic progeny of “Not Without My Daughter” and “Arabian Nights” with a makeover by Valentino. Forget the oppressed women of Abu Dhabi. Let’s buy more bling for the burqa!
Our four female cultural avatars, like imperialistic Barbies, milk Abu Dhabi for leisure and hedonism without making any discernible, concrete efforts to learn about her people and their daily lives. An exception is Miranda, whose IQ drops about 100 points as she dilutes the vast complexities of a diverse culture into sound bites like this: “‘Hanh Gee’ means ‘yes’ in Arabic!”
Only it doesn’t — it’s Punjabi, which is spoken by South Asians.
She also incorrectly tells the audience that all women in the Middle East have to cover themselves. And, yes, nearly every single Middle Eastern female character in “SATC 2′s” imaginative rendition of “Abu Dhabi,” is veiled, silent or subdued by aggressive men.
Like curious visitors staring at an exotic animal in the zoo with equal doses of horror and fascination, the four “girls” observe a niqabi female eating French fries by carefully lifting her veil for each consumed fry. After witnessing this “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” event, Samantha declares, “It’s like they don’t want [women] to have a voice.”
If our cultural ambassadors truly cared about saving Muslim women, they surely would try to help them during the film’s interminable two and half hour running time, no? Sadly, instead, these incredibly shallow mock-feminists can’t even bother to have one decent conversation with a Muslim woman, because they’re too immersed in picnics on the desert and singing Arab disco karaoke renditions of “I Am Woman.” In fact, Abu Dhabi is just peachy when it’s a fantasy land where they ride around in limos and get comped an extravagantly vulgar $22,000 hotel suite. However, only when that materialism is taken away do they worry, in only the most superficial way, about sexual hypocrisy and women’s oppression.
Meanwhile, the perpetually self-absorbed Carrie finds enlightenment in the simple, wise words of her Indian manservant Gaurav, who functions as the movie’s life-changing, magical minority. And Samantha, our “Western” avatar of freedom and liberation, offers a juxtaposition to the silent, oppressed Muslim women by making immature puns like “Lawrence of my Labia” and performing fellatio on a sheesha pipe in public.
The movie uses only two broad colors to paint the Middle East: One depicting an opulent Eden for our blissfully ignorant protagonists to selfishly use as a temporary escape, and the other showing an oppressive dungeon populated by intolerant men that cannot comprehend cleavage or bare shoulders.
Consider the film’s painful climax, in which Samantha, now wearing shorts and a low-cut top, spills dozens of condoms from her purse in the middle of a crowded market. Right before the condom explosion, the Islamic call to prayer, the Adhan, is conveniently heard for no discernible reason. The angry, hairy men, overwhelmed by anger and shock, decide to abandon their daily activities and busy life to encircle Samantha and condemn her as a harlot and slut, but not before Samantha proudly holds the condoms up high and dry humps the air telling the men she uses them to have sex. Because they cannot tolerate a sassy, back-talking, condom-using female baring her legs, they decide en masse to spontaneously chase all four women. Appearing like an oasis in the desert, two mysterious women in a burqa silently nod to the four girls, who subsequently follow the women into a secret room revealing the existence of a secret book club attended by a dozen niqabi women, who disrobe to reveal their hidden designer clothes, fashionable shoes and makeup.
OK, a bubble gum approach to reality is to be expected from “SATC2.” And one could imagine a scenario in which the frothy light comedy could be used to erase mutual misunderstandings. After all, Muslim women around the world, who religiously watched the show, would love a strong, empowered Muslim female “SATC” character who could enlighten Western audiences about the complex, and at times oppressive, reality of Middle Eastern women while simultaneously rocking Ferragamos. Instead, the film exists in a wacky cultural vacuum blissfully unaware of its own arrogance and prejudices.
Apparently, we’re meant to believe Muslim women in the Middle East are equally self-absorbed, vain and materialistic. After completely dissing the Middle East, its people, its religion and its culture, it’s “Sex and the City” that truly insults the Muslim women, by silencing them entirely.
Wajahat Ali is the author of “The Domestic Crusaders,” a play about Muslim Pakistani Americans that will be published by McSweeney’s in the Fall 2010. He blogs at Goatmilk.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Damn damn damn….Wajahat took a torch blaze to this movie. Awesome review, sad thing is it makes me want to watch it more to laugh at these shallow characters.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
“Appearing like an oasis in the desert, two mysterious women in a burqa silently nod to the four girls, who subsequently follow the women into a secret room revealing the existence of a secret book club attended by a dozen niqabi women, who disrobe to reveal their hidden designer clothes, fashionable shoes and makeup.”
Oh man I cannot imagine how corny/cliche that part of the movie is.
May 26th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Excellent review.
I can’t believe they call this liberation. When a woman has to reduce herself to a sex object to get anywhere in this world. Also the idea that women in the Middle East secretly want to be/behave like these four women – hardly! I’d like to think I have some self-respect! Not only a horrid portrayal of women from the east, but also from the west. I happen to switch between the two. I wear a Burqa overseas (not because I have to, but because I choose to – and I think that’s liberal) and I’ll wear jeans in the west. I choose.
May 26th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
That is one of the most scathing reviews I have read. It confirms what I thought about the movie from the commercials. When my parents visited egypt years ago, my mother would always wear modest clothing in the mosques, and was annoyed at a french group who did not know modesty
May 27th, 2010 at 2:24 am
Thank you for this review. You have managed to put my feelings about this film into coherent sentences. I was left sputtering in frustration and anger. I spent six months living and studying with a wide variety of Muslim women in Morocco. Some who chose to veil, some who didn’t, some who wore more scandalous clothes than I own. I was so sorely disappointed by this film’s failure to even attempt to portray Muslim women in any real kind of way.
May 27th, 2010 at 2:30 am
…”Samantha declares, “It’s like they don’t want [women] to have a voice.””
Wasn’t she referring to the men in the states, like Miranda’s boss?
I would say women everywhere are just as “self-absorbed, vain and materialistic” as women are in general. Just because we want to be modest to strangers, doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy high fashion when in private, with our friends.
Just like with the wedding in the beginning, (and how gay men are portrayed-stereotypes) I think the film IS fantasy. It’s hard to believe, though it seems to be popular opinion around here, that many people will have this SATC 2 movie as the sole portal for info into the middle east.
May 27th, 2010 at 2:33 am
oh my! I can’t believe they have this movie out with the info that “‘Hanh Gee’ means ‘yes.’
I’m baffled. Really, why?!
Does anyone think it might have been done purposefully or is there an urdu speaker who did the Arabic translations and wanted to F*** with the audience.
May 27th, 2010 at 7:58 am
@ Lenora
Maybe it was meant to be a joke, about how dumb that character is that she can’t even tell a Punjabi from an Arab?
I haven’t seen the series or the movies, so I don’t know the tone its said in. But for its obviously absurdity, I assume that line is meant to be a joke.
May 27th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Great review, but you’ve made a false assumption thinking there are Muslim women around the world who watched the show “religiously.” These kind of movies actually promote the stereotype that white western women as idiotic, promiscuous bimbos without a clue, but then again, that’s the crowd it primarily panders to.
May 28th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
A lot of people living in the east not specifically muslims actually think women in the west go out naked showing their boobs and have intercourse in the streets just like animals do. They do it with every man on the street like prostitutes. This is what a lot of easterners think and this kind of view is taken by every body there(Christians,Hindus,Muslims etc), more specifically by kids. I think porn has a big role to play with this image.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Agreed that satc2 is a sorry excuse for movie but to say that islam and the middle east is bizzare to say the least.
May 30th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Wow. Defensive much. This was not a PBS documentary on the state of female rights around the world. It’s a movie. I for one was happy that the movie addressed issues like the covering of womens’ faces in Muslim countries. The girls from Sex and the City are women whose financial success and national freedoms have allowed them to be as sexual, outlandish and provocative as they choose. The burqua and niquab are physical manifestations of cultural misogyny. If God wanted women to walk around without identities they would have been born faceless. God wants all of his children to live free. I’ve heard every excuse from my more devout muslim friends: “Women are like precious diamonds that must be protected, women are so revered that they must be shielded from the sexual advances of strange men, etc” What it essentially boils down to is that the more devout muslim cultures have systematically robbed women of their personal freedoms for generations. No one would choose to walk around in scorching heat wearing a black sac with a strip cut out to see, unless they feared that not wearing it would put them in danger. I don’t think that the western model is ideal, but women are given every freedom by law that men are. That is something that no matter how much you may disagree with my point of view, you can not say is untrue. God bless the Sex and The City girls for being loud, brash and making you uncomfortable. A woman, like a man, should be able to live her life any way she chooses. You might be able to control your women in Saudi Arabia, but in North America, a woman is not a diamond or a possession. She is a human being. That is freedom.
May 31st, 2010 at 8:17 am
Your review is insane. How are these cliches?? Is it not true that couples are charged for kissing in public in UAE? Yup, it is.
Isn’t it true that most 5 year old girls in NYC, when thinking of the desert of the middle east, think of Jasmine? If you’d watched the show, you’d know that the little girl was obsessed with princesses – how is this offensive?
And how are these women mock feminists? They’re powerful, independent, sexually-liberated. How is this mock feminism? As opposed to covering their entire bodies up? Living in a country where rape victims are jailed? Living in a country where SATC has been banned? You say, “nearly every single Middle Eastern female character in “SATC 2’s” imaginative rendition of “Abu Dhabi,” is veiled, silent or subdued by aggressive men”…how is this NOT the reality?
Furthermore, the movie is for women and gay men. We loved the tv show – yes, it has very serious moments but it’s silly, funny and light. That’s why we love it. Your reading far too deeply into this. Chill out, man.
May 31st, 2010 at 11:42 am
Tyler:If God wanted women to walk around without identities they would have been born faceless. God wants all of his children to live free.
Does God want women to promiscuous?
Tyler:You might be able to control your women in Saudi Arabia, but in North America, a woman is not a diamond or a possession. She is a human being.
Yeah, women are considered human beings in North America all right! Stuff like Girls Gone Wild, Playboy, etc. represent a celebration of their humanity, right? In North America, the objectification of women is non-existent.
http://www.avemarialaw.edu/conference/assets/documents/Helen%20Alvare%20-%20Objectification%20of%20Women.pdf
May 31st, 2010 at 1:27 pm
““nearly every single Middle Eastern female character in “SATC 2’s” imaginative rendition of “Abu Dhabi,” is veiled, silent or subdued by aggressive men”…how is this NOT the reality?”
This statement shows how clueless you are.
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I think the ignorance of the writing was evident, it seemed to me they had sat down, looked at an overview of women in the world and said – oh, lets tackle this!! women in veils!!
In no way did they show any understanding, or any interaction, with women in the middle east.
But I admit, I enjoyed the series. Granted, I saw its shallow undertones, but there are some good stories about relationships and the struggles women go through when dealing with ageing/the expectance to ‘marry and have children’/the longing for independence and a career. But this film! it was so lost, waay out of its depth and was tackling ‘issues’ it really had no right to deal with. Not only that, but the acting was poor!! humour terrible.. I was not impressed.
The objectification of women happens all over the world, and their sickening consumerist attitude to showing their ‘independence’ shows how selfish they are, and how little they care for anything or anyone else. what about the environmental impact of constantly longing for more and more? Yes, its just a film, but a film that will be watched by millions of people. Media should never be underestimated.
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Tyler and “get a grip” obviously don’t get out much. Their “understanding” of women rights is based on primitive western views(mainly that men and women are the same) which are both destructive and discredited in the real world.
Oh but don’t say anything about bad their pathetic and retarded show about near and post menopausal women running around like 13 year old boys who just hit puberty.
@FXG,
I agree with your assessment.
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:24 am
I’m so glad I didn’t watch this Islamophobic movie.
I think things will start to change now.
Zionism has been using radical Islam for display so they can keep people busy condemning radical Islam and they can just get busy behind the scenes, but now this is going to change Inshallah.