#gets to rebel against the colonial gender binary

[lunaescribe]

The anti-colonial power of Jim! What a gift to have a non-binary Latine rebel.

[aflamethatneverdies]

@coelenterata replied to your post “oh I wanna do any of those fandom asks things if...”:

I've also been fairly absent hi I'm glad to see (?) you!! Don't know what's happening either except the 2023 LM emails readalong thing. I do not have asks posts at hand but you have been reblogging blorbos I don't know and now I'm Curious, so that is my asks post unaffiliated ask

​*waves* Hi!! Good to see (?) you too!!! I hope you'll be around for a while at least now? Ahh! I forgot the Les Mis emails were starting. I might sign up--I need to get back to reading fiction again-- I miss reading books. ;_;

ohhh-- where to even begin about blorbos lol!! I've been having a lot of discussions about the space pirate blorbos with @midautumnnightdream and working on a fic for them-- because what else do you do with feels, but I still don't really know how to describe them lol.

They're from a Super Sentai show called Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, and they're space pirates with an 18th Century Galleon in space (I don't know how it works and I have a lot of questions, but also I love it) and they are in opposition to the Empire called Zangyack, with a really spoiled aristocrat as well as his dad leading the Empire. Our story starts when the space pirates come to Earth to look for the greatest treasure in the Universe, and face the Zangyack who are also invading this backwater planet, lol, after having invaded most of the Universe.

From left to right: Luka, Ahim, Gai, Marvelous, Joe and Doc (and also Navi who is very much not a bird)

(Minor spoilers as well some of my general headcanons for them below)

The blorbos themselves all come from different planets that have been destroyed or colonised by the Zangyack Empire (except for Gai who is from Earth). We get traumatic backstories for all of them which made me love them even more. They have lived through so much before we meet them, but they get to be heroes and finally they accept the magicalness of the barricades in their final fight and become larger than life themselves, part of the Super Sentai-- while rejecting the label of heroes for themselves. As a result, they come across as very mature and understanding of what it takes to be a resistance group against a colonial Empire, and how difficult it is to promise anything like they can win.

Marvelous is the captain of the Gokaigers and also dresses extremely in an pirate aesthetic which I love and want so badly-- Autumn and I talk about pirate!gender to refer to whatever gender shenanigans are happening, because so much of all of them and especially Marvelous' entire aesthetic feels personally to me, like not fully fitting in gender binaries, someone once made art of a girl!Marvelous dressed exactly the same and it worked so well.

Since they are aliens and also outside society, there is no reason why they should follow the binary construct. Pirates do what they want. And they also reject gender roles to a great extent, Doc and Gai love to cook, so they cook but it's their thing, and no one is made fun of for that or belittled. Ahim has a cute feminine fashion sense but she everyone respects her as an important member of the team and a rebel/fighter in her own right, and this is especially true when her family's and her planet's murderer/destroyer appears in front of them-- she gets to go apeshit feral and seek revenge.

And so much of, because none of them have planets or families to go back to, they are all each other's most important people as well as a found family with really close bonds and it shows, they give each other space to do things, they know when something is wrong with one of them. They also don't seem to have any hierarchy on the ship as such that I can see in the series, and rely on consensus based decisions and listening to each other-- very anarchist pirates, lol!

I ship them in a polycule because they work so well in it, but they work so well as capital R Romantic friends too, especially because their whole deal is to make everything really showy and over the top.

Also, Marvelous and Joe get extremely flirty lines in the series as well as the ten year after film and even the actors in interviews were going, yeah, they are like that. And Ahim and Luka feel so close in ways that well, it's not not shippy. I like when the series gives us something but leaves a lot of it unspoken, so there are all these different ways that they can work if you want to ship them but they very much feel queer even without the shipping aspect. They constantly reject social norms and conventions.

They are all rebels who have come together to fight a colonising Empire, which also gives me soo many feels and the Empire is bad, and no one gives justifications for it, which feels soo cathartic honestly. It's also such prime material for worldbuilding of their home planets and to attach worlds I am already familiar with and give blorbos all of that to deal with. I have a lot of headcanons about their worlds too but this is already super long, lol.

I'm always willing to talk more about them though. Thank you so much for asking!! <3

[jessicakehoe]

Vancouver-based Writer Lydia Okello on the Future of Fashion They Would Like to See

“Oh. I guess I wear pants now….” It’s a seemingly unremarkable statement for someone to have made in 2016. But the notion was a major turning point that year for both my wardrobe choices and my gender identity. As an AFAB (assigned female at birth) person who grew up adoring frills, floofs and fanciful garments, I would never have been seen in a pair of pants, let alone jeans.

Looking back, it’s easy to see how my history shaped a narrowed view of how to clothe myself. I’m a first-generation Canadian-Ugandan who was raised in a conservative evangelical Christian home. Gender roles were rigid and in plain sight, and my penchant for frocks played right into my assignment as a young woman.

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Week 19. Hi! It’s been a busy week(s) — finally feeling like summer consistently here. Which doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it this year BUT trying to remind myself that I don’t need to stay in full recluse mode.⠀ ⠀ One of my favourite months, August always feels a touch restless but full of promise. I loved the feeling of *new school year, new Lydia* as a kid, and since I have a September birthday it always felt like more of New Year to me. I find myself pondering a lot of future things right now… so many seem like huge questions. Admittedly, this does make me a bit anxious as we are still in a pandemic. But, it also reminds me that hope is never far away. I had so plans for this year — even though they have changed course, I’m holding on to daydreams and future, far flung getaways. One day! Let’s get to the outfits shall we?⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Monday — buzz buzz! Sometimes, extra is exactly what’s called for. • @sotelaco Papaya shorts and Pomelo shirt (gifted), @shoparq bralette (gifted), @puntopigro_official sandals, old Cheap Monday sunglasses. ⠀ ⠀ Tuesday — literally a walk (and sit) in the park. • @powerofmypeople shirt (gifted), @nettlestudios pants (gifted), @sevillasmith Lydia sandals (gifted).⠀ ⠀ Thursday — kiss me hard before you go… a little classic summertime serve. • Jungmaven tee from @selltradeplus , Forever21 shorts (old), @sevillasmith mules (gifted).⠀ ⠀ Friday — errands were run! This tank top is one of my faves; I always fall for bright blue print on crinkly vintage jersey. • @communitythriftandvintage tank top, ES Florence shorts (gifted, not available currently), Vagabond mules.⠀ ⠀ Reminder: you can tip me in my bio. All tips help me continue to bring Style is Style’s delicious content to you. I appreciate everyone who has contributed — thank you for seeing the value in my work!⠀ ⠀ Black Lives Still Matter.⠀ ⠀ How are you planning on spending the first week of August? #nonbinaryfashion #psootd #tombabe

A post shared by LYDIA OKELLO | they/them (@styleisstyle) on Aug 1, 2020 at 5:27am PDT

I often looked to 1990s pop culture for fashion inspiration. Utterly infatuated with sitcom protagonists, I pined after the clothes I saw on Family Matters, Saved by the Bell and Full House. D.J. Tanner’s tiered skirts always caught my eye; I also admired Uncle Jesse’s wardrobe but didn’t think too much of it. Watching Grease in the second grade, I was as much in love with Danny’s iconic greaser looks as I was with Sandy’s sock hop attire—two sides of expression, but at that time, I only consciously tended to one.

I awkwardly navigated my teen years in lace-trimmed tank tops and vintage skirts, questionably styled. I still held tightly to the perception that I needed to sustain “femininity”—though what feminine meant was a moving target.

As an adolescent bibliophile with lots of spare time in the summer, I pored over books about the golden age of Hollywood and the fashion industry’s heady past. I spent hours thumbing through reference size tomes of Christian Dior’s New Look and the history of Vogue and was entranced by Ken Russell’s images of postwar Teddy Girls; it was a foray into the fundamentals of fashion. I didn’t realize it then, but I was building a knowledge base that would eventually inform my career and my style.

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peep the boots — this was a just-before-quarantine #OOTD. I remember feeling apprehensive but in a “what will the next two weeks be like” way. WELL. If I could go back, I’d tell pre-pandemic me “You have enough chickpeas. Remember that the couch turns into a bed and breath deeply once in a while.” What is past you saying to the present?

A post shared by LYDIA OKELLO | they/them (@styleisstyle) on Jul 21, 2020 at 9:16pm PDT

I didn’t come out as a queer person until I was 25. I was scared, nervous and trepidatious. I wasn’t sure if I was even allowed to be queer. My limited perceptions of LGBTQ+ folks—who weren’t gay men—were based on gruff stereotypes, caricatures of people. As I came to accept my pansexuality, I loosened my grip on my high-femme personhood—for me, the two were intertwined. My internalized homophobia and transphobia meant that I had a very specific script of who I was permitted to be. Coming out allotted some breathing room in ways I didn’t expect. There was self-exploration of what it meant to be me: to be queer, to be Black. My plus size body no longer meant I had to be femme—it was something I could choose instead of be assigned to.

As I became more explorative in my identity, including being non-binary, I found myself seeking new inspirations and icons. Writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon, whose style is composed of a mix of saturated hues and who rebels against gender “norms” in an unapologetic and fully realized vision of selfhood, and Héloïse Letissier, who fronts the band Christine and The Queens, are just a few of the folks who helped me unpack what I had previously considered to be limitations.

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These days I’m often planning outfits for little getaways and adventures. The new @rothys Lace Up are virtually effortless (not to mention sustainable). These kicks are light and easy — the 3-D knit texture is exactly what a park hang calls for. Comfy, cozy and excellent for taking things one day at a time. #ad #RothysPartner

A post shared by LYDIA OKELLO | they/them (@styleisstyle) on Jul 30, 2020 at 7:53am PDT

Vaid-Menon (and other nonconforming and non-binary people) has taught me to continually search outside the white gaze of gender expression as Black people, Indigenous people and other people of colour have pre-colonial histories of varied genders; I come back to that often. And Letissier reminds me that style—even extravagant or ostentatious style—is not limited to traditional concepts of femininity. She sports puff sleeves and ostentatious trousers, but neither fall into the territory of “feminine wiles.” Vintage infused and never demure, Letissier’s clothing choices hold space for frivolity—a fanciful nature that isn’t just reserved for ball gowns.

Today, I often tag my outfits on social media with #tombabe—a designation somewhere between “tomboy” and “babely.” I do it to make a statement that androgyny doesn’t have to be monochrome baggy pieces; it can mean a boldly hued sundress and badass boots. It can mean anything you damn well please. And that’s the future of fashion I want to see.

This story originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of FASHION Canada. Pick up your copy on newsstands now, via Apple News + or the FASHION app. 

The post Vancouver-based Writer Lydia Okello on the Future of Fashion They Would Like to See appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Vancouver-based Writer Lydia Okello on the Future of Fashion They Would Like to See published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

[salmanadergalal]

Identifying with the “Other”: Visual Analysis of Fellahin Stereotypes in El Beh El Bawab Film by Salma Nader Galal.

Introduction: Fellahin in Egyptian Cinema

The fellahin have been mostly stereotyped in Egyptian cinema while comprising the majority of Egypt’s population (CAPMAS, 2014). Before the 1952 revolution, fellahin were almost never represented, except on the sideline of aristocratic life. During the 50s and 60s, the newly shaped government policies influenced films to portray fellahin as victims of the feudal system imposed by the former ruling class. As a result, there was a significant hike in the percentage of films casting them as main characters. Peasants’ cinematic depiction then dropped down in the past 30 years, while going back to embodying superficial and stereotypical roles.

This retrospective is an occasion to analyze the rural Egyptian life beyond what is on TV and in film. Most of the inhabitants of Cairo and large cities hold certain prejudices towards fellahin, specifically how they look like and how they expect them to act. Are these preconceptions due to media representations or does the media reinforce already existing racial bias that urban Egyptians have toward what they consider, a lesser class?

This paper will examine the film, “The Prestigious Gatekeeper” or “El Beh El Bawab”, an Egyptian Comedy-Drama that came out in cinemas in 1987, which coincided with significant changes in the social class within Egypt.

Literature Review: Beyond Edward Said’s Orientalism

“Orientalism” is a visual and cultural theory that is based on the writings of Edward Said. Said proposed that his theory sprang from postcolonialism and defined it extensively in his well-known publication “Orientalism” (1978). Said argued that Orientalism -as a product of colonialism- is not only a political project, it also involves ideological construction of different modes of representation (Mambrol, 2016). Thus, he defined Orientalism as the construction of the East through the lens of the West, which consistently portrayed the East to be primitive, undeveloped, exotic and a backwards culture (Said, 1987).

In his postcolonial literary criticism, Said adopted a contrapuntal reading of texts where he identified the ideological frameworks of literary texts to find imperialized discourses. This reading will conceptually differ when developed in a different historical narrative and context. It’s difficult to precisely trace back the origin of the distinction between the West and the East. However, according to Said Orientalism as a system of ideas to remain perpetual in academics from late 1840s until present, indicates that this is a systemic issue and not a collection of lies (Said, 1987). It would also be too limiting to argue that Said’s findings are strictly the result of a Western gaze only. Orientalist subjects have received, contributed, challenged, and modified Orientalism.

Hassan Ibrahim, the director of the movie under study presented a social critique of the Egyptian society during the late 1980s, a historical period known for economic and cultural openness in Egypt. Most movies of the time were reflecting the Egyptian society as being highly westernized, especially the elites who were heavily exposed to Western cultures. Ibrahim in “El Beh El Bawab”, introduced the protagonist in the role of an Egyptian fellah serving as the gatekeeper of a building having most of its residents of the Egyptian elite. In this film the director reflected the Orientalist lens through which the wider society perceives fellahin to be e.g. gatekeepers, dark-skinned, belittled, illiterate, have an exaggerated rural accent, wear Jalabiyas and are always made fun of- because they are different. In his attempt to show the cruelty of the higher class towards lower classes, Ibrahim stereotyped the fellah character in all the previously mentioned features and instead of sympathizing with the poor peasant, the fellah became a subject of humor to the viewers. Most of Hassan Ibrahim’s movies were concerned with how lower classes in Egypt rebel against the obstacles they face, but in that he notably stereotyped his main characters. One example is “The Lady’s Driver” or “ Sawaa’ El Hanem” (1994) in which Ibrahim presented a love story between an upper-class girl having Western features and her driver who was played by Ahmed Zaki.

Theoretical Framework: Orientalism and Subcultural Diversity

Said’s Orientalism was debated and criticized for its treatment of the Orient as a homogenous structure. It ignored gender differences and class dimension and did not take into account how the colonial took in, endured and/or endorsed the Orientalist discourses projected on them. 

Homi K. Bhabha suggested that colonial discourses cannot work as smoothly as Orientalism might seem to suggest. Instead, Bhabha contends that, “Orientalism is diluted and hybridized, and therefore, the identities of the colonizer as well as the colonized are unstable, shifting and fragmentary” (Moosavinia, Niazi, Ghaforian, 2011). Globalism is one of the processes of cultural hybridization, which results in diluting and removing pure or authentic culture. That’s why Bhabha's reading of the colonial discourse presented a shift to understanding the subjectification of Orientalism that was there through its stereotypical discourse.

In conclusion, Orientalism lies at the core of understanding the world in the framework of binary oppositions, in which the Occident/West is the (unmarked) primary category, whereas the Orient/East is the (marked) Other. Understanding the world in terms of what is normal and what is different, is encoded with values and concepts of superiority. In dealing with issues of ethnic and cultural diversity, ideologized media messages present subcultures according to the institutional criteria for what gets to count as knowledge in a given society. Said’s Orientalism functions to help the West define itself by constructing an Other. Otherness in cultural studies refers to a culture image that establish its own value in order to identity itself, while to shape a confrontation with itself and less than its own (Éigeartaigh, 2011). Orientalism is intertwined with complex social and cultural psychologies. Similarly in Egypt, we understand our identity by comparing ourselves to Other rural cultures like fellahin, Nubians, Bedouins...etc. We perceive those Others to be interesting, eternal and static and ourselves to be the dynamic, innovative inhabitants of the city.

Contextual Analysis: The Other Fellah

Orientalism as a way of seeing, exaggerates differences between people. The movie director depended on the same strategy starting with casting Ahmed Zaki who is naturally Asmarani or dark-skinned in the role of Abdel Sameaa the fellah, to emphasize on the Oriental image that Egyptian guards are either villagers, nubians and/ or Sudanese. The naivety of Abdel Sameaa was focused upon from the opening scene where he kept all of his savings of money underneath his hat, which he then lost while getting on the train to Cairo. This was the beginning of a series of misfortunate events that he encountered because he is simply a goofy fellah. It symbolized the fact that city life wouldn’t not be as simple as his life used to be. 

The scene in which Abdel Sameaa gets invited to a party by the female protagonist needs to be contextually analyzed. She got him drunk and as a naive fellah he did not realize that he had been drinking. He then started to drunkenly sing, with the camera showing him at a low angle, sitting on the floor, symbolizing the social difference between him and the party guests. He then became the subject of entertainment as the party attendees started cheering him instead of being surprised that the building’s guard was at their aristocratic party. The camera followed him as he swirled around not willingly, instead the guests kept passing him off to one another. Abdel Sameaa here was represented under the camera or the Orientalist gaze of both the party attendees and the viewers. The director used Otherness as a mode of representation in this scene. The camera was moving with him, but they were the ones in power and control of moving him around. The same applies to the viewers who are in power to perceive him as different from them, even if they don’t want for him to be treated in such a demeaning way.  

The camera then captured the scene in a bird’s eye view in which Abdel Sameaa appeared to be very small among the rest. In this high angle, the camera represented and emphasized the viewers’ Orientalist gaze of the fellah who is lower than them. Abdel Sameaa started to sing saying “where is my hat, where is my hat, my hat got lost, and I got trapped in Egypt the mother of the world”, and he then fell down and again was shown at a low angle. Abdel Sameaa then sang “I swore to be a Pasha in Egypt” and stood up and kept singing “I am a Pasha I am a Pasha” and the guests sang along jokingly “You are a Pasha, You are a Pasha” and by the end of the party they kicked him off. 

Abdel Sameaa’s hat symbolized his naivety and decent villager principles from the beginning of the film. It was used to exemplify Abdel Sameaa’s comfort zone, he used it as a safe for his money to imply its value to him. After he was faced by the harshness of the city life, he had to lose the hat and set himself free from its restrictions and become someone who is respected in the city no matter what it took and that is exactly what happened in the film.

Conclusion: Internalized Orientalism

“The Prestigious Gatekeeper or “ El Beh El Bawab” reflects upon the milestones of the 1980s in Egypt. It subtly referred to a postcolonial predicament in which the formerly colonized have internalized colonial epistemes. Generally, Egypt was colonized by several Western civilizations throughout history. Colonization colonizes perception in addition to countries and it helps alter their cultural priority (Nandy, 1983). In this process the West generalize concepts of Western superiority from a geographical perspective to a psychological level in which colonial subjects internalize and absorb Orientalist colonial understandings.  As a result,  a double consciousness is constructed; a consciousness of the self and a consciousness of the colonizing Other. Hence, in the decolonization process, a reflection of this internalized Orientalism remains. These remnants were reflected in Egypt through cinema. Similarly in “El Beh El Bawab”, the elites had the tendency to think in Orientalist terms of the fellah whom they considered as the Other. 

In sum this have became a standard basis for how urban Egyptians understand themselves. Therefore, Orientalizing fellahin both in movies and in real life, shows how cultural hierarchy helps provide an understanding of the self against the Other as an underground self. Film makers may cultivate stereotypical images about villagers, Sa’idi people, Nubians and Bedouins, but they mostly portray what they understand and what the audience would like to see.

El Beh El Bawab:

Abdel Sameaa flees to Cairo with his wife and children looking for a better lifestyle. He then becomes a gatekeeper of a building and then a broker. He manages to gain a fair amount of money, but one of the building residents tries to set him up to steal it away, will he fall in such a trap?

Director: Hassan Ibrahim

Crew: Ahmed Zaki, Safia El Emary, Fouad El Mohandes and more.