Growing up I was always curious about the different issues of the day-to-day Egyptian life and tried to dig for logical explanations for the often illogical, hence I became and observer of our society.
I must admit that we truly are the most interesting, complicated, contradicting and suppressed society on earth, but I am still proud of my Egyptian heritage.
What triggered this article is Aiten Amer’s character in the Ramadan’s series “The Fourth Wife” and the social media hit of her “A7eboooosh” scene, which made me dig behind all the fuss.
What interested me the most, was not that this cheap drama was one of the best viewed shows nor the fact that there are people who find this crap funny, no. What triggered my attention were the weird comments on the Youtube link finding this scene “erotic” and “sexy”.
The scene comprised of the typical oriental – supposedly “erotic” – background music with Aiten Amer facing the camera with lots of lip biting and weird facial expressions as if she is retarded or something and Mustafa Shaaban standing behind her being all horny and omelet fulfilling the silly cliché of the “Egyptian Male”. The “Egyptian Super Male” that is, the one that is genetically enhanced to be a sex machine and that is why one woman is just not enough.
Apart from the fact that it is a clear disgrace that the highest viewed series in Ramadan portrays Egyptian women like four maids trying to satisfy their husband’s needs at the expense of their dignity, in times where Egyptians are fighting for equality and women’s rights.
Another point is how on earth do people find this scene sexy? Where do our beauty ideals come from? Why aren’t we consistent with the global beauty ideals? How on earth in the peak of globalization, satellite channels and the Internet, Egyptians are so resilient to change when it comes to beauty ideals?
While growing up we had a babysitter or nanny, one of those ladies who are named after their sons, ‘Om Hamdy’ was her name. Om Hamdy had a body that no evolution theory, natural selection, adaptation, genetic engineering, gravitational force, or any of that crap they sold me at school could help explain how her body took that shape. Om Hamdy had a “rectangular rack” as her behind; she could literally put me on it for a nap until she’d be done with the dishes.
A couple of years later I was shocked with our so-called Egyptian sex icons, and since my friends would not be representative samples of the majority, so I decided to ask cab drivers before writing the article what they think of those icons, and here are the findings:
Nadia EL Guindy: Malikit El Gens
Hayatim: Midamlika wa 2eshta
Somaya El Khashab: Wataka iskandarany, sidr we dera3at we a7la dala3
FiFi Abdou: A7la ra2s we a7lafekhad
I have to say I personally think that any of the comments mentioned above should be considered as sexual harassment, why would anyone see women as dancing thighs? How degrading is that?
And surprisingly one of the cab drivers actually knew who Jennifer Lopez was, which means that they see those global ideals of beauty, yet they still prefer the Egyptian Mahalabiya.
I really wish I’d live to see the day were the majority of Egyptian girls become more health conscious and stop ordering KFC at 3am in the morning, coming to work all puffy, hiding it with a layer of make up. I’m sure once these habits stop we will stop seeing those unidentified body shapes that some women develop in Egypt and we’ll be less deviated from the global ideals.
Also, please someone ban Nada Bassiouny’s “bye samna, hi zebda” commercial, it’s effin horrible!