Females During a Time of Change: A Closer Look at Beauty in the Lebanese October 2019 Revolution
Author’s note: I initially wanted to
write about my aging self and the attitude people in Lebanon have towards my
reluctance to follow the social norms of body and facial maintenance, but as I
began to write my piece for the blog, the Lebanese people took to the streets
in revolt against a corrupt government which has made life in Lebanon
unbearable. The revolution began October 17th 2019, and as of yet
seems to be non-ending. I have spent all this time watching the females of my
country (all ages) take to the streets and challenge norms; thus, I was
motivated to change the direction of my piece.
Beauty. A word that has layers of meanings.
It is a word that has been used for centuries denoting the expectations of a
female’s physical appearance. Even in some cases it has been used to imply the
actions of a female as in the adage “beauty is as beauty does”. But what does
any of this actually mean? I am a 56-year-old woman. I am a university
professor and my area of study is dance. Sometimes I have to remind myself that
it does not get any more physical than the statement ‘my area of study is dance’.
Today, more than any other time in the
past, visuals surround us on a daily basis. We are bombarded with advertisements
and photos that represent what beauty is and should be. Not only on the streets
and magazines (as in the past) but also on smartphones which we all possess
and look at hundreds of times a day. Some people argue that as females we are
supposed to attend to these beauty requirements as if they are law and when we
do not, we do not fit in. However, I argue that as females, it falls upon us to
make the changes we want to see in the world.
Feminine Power: Taking It to the Streets
A female protester who was interviewed by
one of the Lebanese TV stations said that when the people see females on the
ground during the protests they feel safe and believe that coming to the
protest is not something life threatening (Fawad, 2019) .
This was considered by many as a positive issue, but is it? I question why females
are viewed as ‘nonthreatening’ and I believe it is because of one of the
predominate views of beauty and femininity in the Middle Eastern: be seen and
not heard. As an aging female body living in the Middle East, I do not feel
secure knowing that society views me as nonthreatening. I am absolutely sure of
this because I was one of the hundreds of people who had to walk to the airport
to leave Lebanon on Oct 18th 2019. I was due to attend a convention
in London and the revolution had begun the night before. Due to all the
roadblocks and fires along the roads, I had to leave the taxi and walk the
final stretch to the airport. For the first 27 minutes of 45-minute walk, I was
a lone female on the road. I did not feel safe. I did not feel secure. I felt scared
and vulnerable. I expected at any moment to be attacked by the males on the
streets who were not a part of the revolution. The males on the street were a
part of a Moped/Scooter gang who were riding up and down the street offering
rides to those people who were walking to the airport and charging them
exorbitant fees to do so.
Malak Herz is a Lebanese female who some
now call the face of the revolution. On the first day of the eruption, Malak
managed to kick one of the minister’s armed bodyguards when said bodyguard
threatened to shoot at the protestors. Malak was later interviewed on MTV (a
local Lebanese TV station) and said that she did so without thinking. She was
very emotional when she spoke and at one point ceased to talk and motioned with
her hand for the camera to stop filming her. Malak said she did not know from
where her strength came. Both the video and photo of her kicking the armed man
in the groin managed to go viral on social media. Cartoonists made sketches of
her and these cartoons were used to further the movement and place females at
the forefront (see Fig 1 below). This may seem like a wonderful move forward
for females in Lebanon. It might also seem like a step towards a more equal
view of females and males, but I wonder if it is.
 |
| Fig 1: A cartoon made out of the infamous Kick. Some call it the Kick that started a revolution |
Lebanese Females Breaking Taboos:
Standing Ground
Females took to the streets in
unprecedented numbers. This made me feel very proud because I felt that we
(females) were finally getting the recognition we deserve. However, as I have
been able to see more and more of the media’s visual representations of us, I am
not happy.
According to Elbasnaly and Knipp (2019) the
presence of females in Tripoli helped in minimizing some of the Taboos about females
in leadership and the freedom of females in Islam. The vast amount of female
presence in Al-Nour Square, a square in Tripoli known for its religious
significance, supposedly made a statement about Lebanese females and their
freedom. Females in the square were referring to themselves as enablers of the
revolution through creating a secure environment (Rose, 2019) . We might think of females building walls of
protection or females taking care of people in need, but the fact is that they
considered themselves to be ‘security’ based on the fact that they are females
and the weaker sex.
And, according to interviews that were
broadcast live on all the TV and radio stations, females on the streets
believed that their presence in numbers reflected strength and helped to
maintain security and stability. “Females are on the front lines of protests in
Lebanon — and they are inspiring feminists in other Arab countries to stand up,
too” (Rose, 2019) . Fig 2 is a photo
that was circulating on social media and shows females standing at the front
line. During those first few days the army did not know what to do with the
females who were valiantly standing in front of them. A video of an army
soldier who was brought to tears at having to face off with the people of his
country went viral.
 |
| Fig 2: Women in the Face of the Army |
In the photo (fig 2) you can see the women
are dressed in everyday attire, next to no make-up, disheveled hair, they even
look a bit weary because this was their 5th or 6th day on
the street. But this photo was not one that was shared a lot on social media.
Nor was it properly used in the media.
However, if you take a look at figures 3a
and 3b, you will see the photos that were more commonly shared. Why? Maybe it
was because in those photos the women are more made up, less tired, more smiley
and (as one male who I interviewed told me) they are “just more beautiful”.
 |
| Fig 3a: The Happy Smiling Women of the Revolution |
 |
| Fig 3b: The Front Line Posed |
As the days
went on, the army decided to be less intimidated by the females and the ploy
was not going to work anymore. Several women were hurt the day the army decided
to stop seeing them as fragile females (fig 4).
 |
| Fig 4: The Army Fights Back |
The Middle East’s View of Lebanese Females
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a newspaper
titled Okaz. This newspaper decided to write an article covering the
revolution that has been happening in Lebanon and of course what does the
headline read? "Lebanese Beauties: All of These Wonderful Females Are
Revolutionaries." Who would consider beauty the main headline in a
revolution? And I rhetorically ask, if there had been no females on the ground
would the headline still have been about beauty? Below are some of the photos posted.
I guess that could be one way to wave a flag.
The Right to Fight vs The Need to Be
Seen
The first night of the revolution saw the
most violence on the streets. It was the beginning and it started almost
spontaneously. I do not want to go into too much detail since the revolution
itself is not the purpose behind this piece of writing. Thus, along the lines
of what I am attempting to highlight, take a look at the two photos below (Fig
5a and Fig 5b). No prior preparation was taken on the first night and day of
the revolution. See the female in the lower right-hand side of the photo.
Spontaneously, she raised her hands in a motion of surrender, a motion of peace
and walked towards the barrier of male bodies. Those male bodies were
attempting to stop the protesters. This female’s motion also became a visual of
the protest. It was also turned into cartoons and used to represent peaceful
intentions with the hashtag #bilsimiyi (which means in peace).
These were photos I was proud to see. I was
so moved by this young woman (she asked to remain unnamed) and had the
opportunity to interview her. She told me that even though she appears to be
strong and confident, she was so scared she was shivering all through her walk.
When I asked what motivated her to do what she did, she told me that it was
simply a spontaneous thing. She looked around and saw the army and police
approaching. She looked around her and saw her fellow protesters and she
believed that by raising her hands she could make her peaceful intentions
known. This is beauty.
 |
| Fig 5a: Female protester the first night of the revolution (Photo Credit Jad Melki) |
 |
Fig 5b: Same
female protester walking through the fiery streets in attempt to stop the
violence (Photo Credit Jad Melki)
|
Days 5-6: The Fashionistas Appeared
As the revolution evolved into days 5 and
6, a new faction of females began to appear on the ground and thus the social
media switch. I call this faction the fashionistas of the revolution. It was
their appearance that caused the media headlines to switch to (as previously
mentioned) using terms such as ‘beautiful rebels, glamor queens’ etc. This
switch also caused strife as the feminists in the country did not like the
change and the misogynists had a field day with them. More and more as the
country was fighting to unite, the females were standing on opposite sides: one
side wanted to be taken seriously and the other wanted to look good in a
selfie. The following photos are ones that were circulated in social media and
printed media and they epitomize the term fashionista.
Day 13: The Gangs Appeared
On the 13th day of the protests
supporting the revolution, the government resigned.
On the 13th day of the protests, the anti-revolution gangs appeared. They entered the space with a vengeance not
before seen in the days preceding. They attacked person and material items
without any regard. The following photos are from the media, both social and printed.
Where are the fashionistas now? Seems the
media deems it fine to use photos of females of the revolution when they are
not posed, perfect and the most beautiful. BUT they deem it fine only in cases
of violence, anger and danger. Why? I ask that question to many of my
colleagues in the field. They agree that this is unacceptable but as one of
them saw fit to say, “Beauty and Sex sell”. When will this change? Rhetorical
again.
To draw my somewhat lengthy blog to an end,
I would remind the readers that I am a female and I understand the issues a
female physique has to deal with but not all females have the same issues or
are at the same level of freedom. Even though I can totally understand the
struggles faced by females in the West, I know that these same issues are not always
the prominent ones in the Middle East. That being said, I also know that we do
have a collective point of view. As Heather Widdows says in her January 2019
piece for Psychology Today; “To focus on what we each do divides us, makes
us ashamed and does not work. Collective action, collective protest—yes—go
girls, fantastic. But it must always be collective.”
Collective action is a must and I am in
total agreement with Widdows. For me, the females in the Lebanese October 2019
revolution were of more than one face of the collective, some I could relate to
and others not so much. The media called some of them “Lara Crofts of the
Middle East” (Fawad, 2019) . I object to that
analogy because the females that stood in physical opposition did not look
anything like the glamor of Angelina Jolie. On the contrary, those females with
their hands and heads held high, those females with their strong legs that can
kick, those females are anything but Lara Crofts and their beauty needs to be respected.
I will end with a final image from the protesters. They carry a sign that
reads: The devil is in your head and not in the female bodies.
Nadra
Assaf is associate
chair of the Communication Arts Department at the Lebanese American University.
She describes herself as an informed aging body living, dancing, and creating
in the Middle East since 1991. In 2016 she began working with US
dancer/educator Heather Harrington and their escapades involving the situation
of females in the world today, have taken them to: Lebanon, USA, Sweden, Malta
and next in Ireland, June 2020.
Links:
Works
Cited
Anonymous. (2019, October 18). Lebanon 'kick queen' hits
government where it hurts. Retrieved from France24: https://www.france24.com/en/20191018-lebanon-kick-queen-hits-government-where-it-hurts
Elbasnaly, D., & Knipp, K. (2019,
October 24). Women-led protests in Lebanon inspire Middle East feminists.
Retrieved from DW:
https://amp.dw.com/en/women-led-protests-in-lebanon-inspire-middle-east-feminists/a-50957926
Fawad, M. (2019, October 22). Lebanese
Revolution . (M. Presenter, Interviewer)
Rose, S. (2019, October 24). Lebanese
women are breaking taboos to be face of protests. Retrieved from N World:
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/lebanese-women-are-breaking-taboos-to-be-face-of-protests-1.927728?fbclid=IwAR0nIkEUjxBy_ofRBii3Vh1yN1DalyumDp_SPYi7ZnDSsOSfYAfUwUHZGj0
Widdows, H. (2019, January 31). Januhairy:
Liberation Within Limits. Retrieved from Psychology Today:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/perfect-me/201901/januhairy-liberation-within-limits
Thank you so much for this post Professor Assaf. It's so interesting. After seeing some of the social media pictures of the revolutionary fashionistas I had wondered, cynically, how massive fake eyelashes, blue contact lenses and perfect makeup would last in a confrontation with soldiers. I'd love for you to interview some of the fashionistas about their motivations and intentions.
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ReplyDeleteAmazing post! Women should stand for herself. Thanks for posting.
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