While it is hard for a lot people to imagine a genderless human being – which exist -, it is as hard for Arabs to imagine a genderless objects due to the nature of the Arabic language that genderlizes objects. There is no “it” in Arabic, we only have a he and a she. Nearly everything can be defined as either to be masculine or feminine depending usually on the ending of the word: those with ‘ah’ at the end are defaulted to be feminine, and those without it tend to be masculine!
With such a language heritage, it comes to no surprise the strong emphasize on gender roles in the Arab societies, and while it is impossible to attach every single object to females or males based on its own gender, sometimes people subconsciously do the attachmenet and build on it. For instance a spoon in arabic (mel3akah) is feminine but it cannot be explicit for females usage only! In the other hand, a flower (wardah) which has other feminine attributes such as being delicate and soft is strongly attached to females.
The rigid apply of gender roles on both sexes where masculinity and femininity come as a based for classification usually triggers some awkward situations that limit the behaviour of both men and women in our society. The other day, and while reading the daily Al Ra’ee newspaper, an article about horror movies caught my attention.
The article highlights how Jordanian women are getting more interested in horror movies. It is written in a way that shows the issue as a strange phenomena in Jordan where women are behaving in a way that should be limited to men! The writer comes with a mentality that can’t see how *fragile delicate feminine* creatures like women can betray their own gender and watch films that are full of violence and horror. Ofcourse different absurd reasons came up in the article such as that Jordanian women are forced to watch these movies because it is usually their brothers who take control of the remote control and they are who decide upon what to watch and what not! and so helpless Jordanian girls just sit down and watch their brothers choices of violent horror films!
To make it worse, it follows the guidlines of researched articles we are used to from such a newspaer, it goes further into consulting a social professional in the matter whom with his so called expertise condemn the phenomena and warns Jordanian women of losing their femininity by watching such films! (bullshit!)
The article even shows statistics! It claims that 14% of women who watch horror films on a regular basis suffer from lack of femininity! I wonder who is the genious behind those numbers! Really? How do *science* people conduct their research in this country?
It is not uncommon to read such articles who claim a scientific credibility by caughting a so called professional in our newspapers. I wonder whether the problem lies in the writers of those articles or in the professionals in this country who seem to be detached from what real science has achieved around the globe.
Isn’t it time for people to come up and complain when they catch a lie in a newspaper? We have an arabic saying: El saket 3an el 7a2 shitan akhras (The one who doesn’t stand up for justice is a silent devil). Newspaper writers should start hold accountability for what they write and take responsiblity for it.
Fadi Zaghmout فادي زغموت 
tab where’s the article? can you link it?
LikeLike
I must be a freak of nature – I watch horror movies AND have a DD cup size AND a brain 😉
Flor
LikeLike
Thats the freedom of the press, and the freedom of speech Jordanian style! Newspapers have every right to tell lies everybody loves to hear! Everybody wins…
LikeLike
I’m a woman who loves makeup and fashion, and I have seen a few film’s, I especially like “Child’s Play” LOL. I think thats the one where the doll comes to life. If this is the case,that horror films make one less feminine than one might say that all the violence in Iraq has made women there less feminine. Whats the difference, you would think that seeing it in real life would be worse! This reporter and the professional is an idiot!
LikeLike
I take special care with my hair, so in that way I am a girly girl but I grew up with mostly men. I didn’t have any sisters but I have two older brothers. I always liked playing with my brothers’ toys more than my own. I also have quite the temper and the mouth to go with it.
I think that people, whether they be women or men, gravitate towards movies and activities rather than women taking on masculine traits because these movies or activities are forced upon them.
LikeLike
good for you for recognising junk science. there is so much of it.
LikeLike
Farah, I am afraid that I can’t provide you with the link. I read it in Al Ra’ee newspaper two weeks ago in their social section.
Anon, you can’t be a woman then 😛
DM, hehehe, sadly that is so true! Everyone is happy for such news!
San Antonio Cicily, ditto! They are idiots! Unfortunatly we have many of those!
Tina, women can be as violent as men sometimes, no? 😛 It is sure not a horror movie that triggers violence!
Anon2, yes there is!
LikeLike
Arabic women are soft and delicate as flowers? Really? Fat and vulgar is more like it!
LikeLike
Well, with all of these comments agreeing with your article, I find it a little bit difficult for me to disagree :P. Perhaps also because I don’t totally disagree.
First of all, I can’t really find a relation between genders in Arabic language and the fact that we in the Arab societies associate roles according to gender. I believe it’s rather a matter of culture. French has genders too, but obviously their culture is different.
By the way, what many people think is exclusive for Arab is also applicable for other societies. Dolls for girls and guns for boys. Pink for girls and blue for boys. Piano for girls and football for boys. These are stereotypes that are not necessarily true. However, you can’t neglect the fact that they exist everywhere.
Actually, this is the first time that I learn about a measurement for femininity. Is there something like this? Any way, if we want to classify people according to their interests and social and psychological needs, I think we’ll get two groups that one of them consists of mostly men and the other of mostly women. However, this doesn’t mean that those minorities in both groups are less masculine or less feminine.
I guess you agree with me that the way we get raised up, our daily habits, our circumstances and many other things affect our psychology and therefore our interests and behavior, if you don’t believe at all that horror films has at least minor affect on us, then what do you think might affect our personalities?
LikeLike
WOMEN SHOULD BE BANNED FROM CINEMA THEATERS IF A HORROR FILM IS PLAYING!
lol
This is the funniest thing I read today. Wrong on so many levels.
It’s funny you should talk about Arabic, because I always think how hard it would be to be politically correct in Arabic! Although I do agree with Kharabish on it being the culture that affects the language and not the other way around.
LikeLike
well this is so strange… sometimes I just start laughing about how dump religious opininions are.
LikeLike
Hi, enjoyed reading this post. It has always been something on my mind. In an increasingly divided world, and this is not geography specific, free marketeers in an aim to sell more products have genderized colors and smells that we have in the world. (Blue for boys, Pink for girls) (Musk for men, Floral for women) and it is this type of social conditioning that implicitly becomes part of mainstream and there is no questioning it. And if you, you are 'weird' and you have to sync in or fall out and I think this needs to be increasingly challenged.
LikeLike
noooo i don´t think so…can you link the article???
LikeLike
i lokking for the article but i´va not still found
Can you share it with us????????
thanks
LikeLike