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We See What We Believe:Orientalism and Queer Narratives

+What I’m not talking about

The best gay bars in the Middle East

What it means to be gay and in the Middle East

What it means to be gay and from the Middle East

+What I am talking about

Orientalism

Stories

What we believe

+What is Orientalism?Orientalism, Edward Said

Approach to or representation of Asia, esp. the Middle East

“Orient” is a cohesive entity

Inherently different from “the West”

Described in terms that relate to “the West”

Orientalists describe “Orient” as inferior to “West”

Orientalists find what they are looking for

+Orientalism and Fiction

Stories about queer people in the Middle East that become famous in the West match “typically Western” notions of what it means to be queer in the Middle East. No knowledge Repression

The popularity of certain stories in the West can be explained in part because a Western audience is able to feel superior while hearing these stories.

+Circumstance vs. Facing Mirrors:Passivity vs. Agency Comparison originates with Shima Houshyar, Ajam

Media Collective

+“Look, we’re better than them!”

+Yacoubian Building vs. Case of Passion

+Yacoubian vs. PassionPassivity vs. Agency

Yacoubian Building: “A sense of being truly unlucky possessed him. He had spent many years in misery and suffering before finding a biddable and sensitive companion… He would have to cruise the streets of Downtown every night to pick up a Central Security recruit who might turn out to be a thief or a criminal who would beat him up or rob him, as had happened many times before.”

Case of Passion: “wedding halls would fill to the brim with women who had come to hear her sing — and behave — like a man. They would clamber up on stage with her as she sang to the newlyweds, dancing and writhing around her.”

+A Few Final Caveats

None of these stories are “wrong”

Wider implications of Orientalism

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