It’s set to hit newsstands in Jordon, Lebanon and Morocco this Friday.
I’ll admit it, I like Elle, especially since the edition where they put my girl-crush Shakira on the cover and wrote about Caitlin “Hypocrisy” Flanagan in the feature section. They have great writers and solid editorial content. And yes, the fashion/beauty stuff is silly, but I still like it. And I love how they style their cover models: The big hair, the black eyeliner, the light lips — they’re my style icons.
But beyond my own personal taste for Elle, I’m happy to see a women’s magazine that isn’t ignoring the Middle Eastern demographic. Too often, Middle Eastern women are imaged as uninterested in culture, beauty or politics; they’re passive, hiding under the burqa, invisible. By extending its reach into the Middle East, Elle sends the message that these women are worth paying attention to. And, yes, it’s more about business than anything else — Elle is reaching out to Middle Eastern women because it thinks it can sell them shit. But that’s capitalism, baby, and while many will argue that it’s dehumanizing for anyone to be looked at as a consumer rather than as an individual, given the system we’re operating in I’d rather see magazines like Elle reaching out to this demographic than continuing to ignore them.
There are also plenty of feminist critiques that can be leveled at Elle, especially with regard to their advertisements and their reinstatement of Westernized beauty myth ideals. And those critiques should certainly be flushed out. But, beauty myth and all, Elle is apparently willing to shift some of its content to better suit the needs of a Middle Eastern audience. And, yeah, they’re shifting it primarily so that they can sell stuff, but it does demonstrate a flexibility to meet the various demands of women world-wide.
Further, the construction and performance of beauty isn’t as simplistic as, “Women beautify themselves for men, and that’s no good.” Beauty culture is problematic on a lot of levels. Pick up The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf for some background. But moving beyond her thesis — which I do think is largely correct — is the simple fact that women in certain areas of the Middle East partake in beauty rituals completely absent the presence of men. The WSJ article mentions this, but unfortunately (and not surprisingly) shifts it into a comment on women’s beauty performance for men.
Women in most Muslim countries cover their heads and bodies in public in keeping with religious tradition. But underneath, a growing number of them are wearing elegant, fashionable and often-revealing attire. In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, social calendars are filled with women-only parties in lavish homes, featuring buffets, music, dancing and karaoke. Camera phones click madly, and photos of women in slinky dresses and glimmering tube tops are zapped to boyfriends and suitors.
The woman-only party is, at least according to my limited research on international beauty standards, fairly commonplace in the Middle East. And usually, these parties aren’t held so that the women can take pictures for their boyfriends. They’re a chance for women to get together in a safe space and feel beautiful for a night. All kinds of preparations and beauty rituals go into getting ready for these parties, and they’re held by and for the women themselves. Beauty is a performance, yes, but it’s one that many women derive a good deal of pleasure from. My point, then, is while we rightly criticize Westernized beauty standards and magazines which attempt to sell an idealized womanhood rather than simple goods, it’s worth keeping in mind that beauty, the human admiration for the aesthetic, and the desire to “feel beautiful” is complicated, especially cross-culturally.
And Elle offers women more than fashion and beauty secrets.
Created by a 20-person team, the first issue includes articles that range from protecting the skin from sun damage to Muslim women who are fighting for custody of their children. Though the Middle East is extremely diverse, experts say, the issue of women’s rights has gained traction in recent years. The issue also profiles Elie Saab, the Lebanese designer who has dressed celebrities like Teri Hatcher and Salma Hayek.
These are all good things, and wide-ranging. Does a profile of a fashion designer sound like fluff? Maybe, but when she shares your cultural background and has been highly successful in her own right, it can be inspirational.
Elle, like other Middle East media, must tread carefully to avoid government censorship, which varies from country to country. The magazine has an article on the play “The Vagina Monologues,” but even in liberal Lebanon it had to choose different words to describe the female anatomy.
It it unfortunate that they can’t use the word “vagina”? Yeah, and it’s pretty stupid (as Gawker says, Is there a direct Arabic translation for “hoo-hoo?”). But even if they have to use a euphemism, at least it’s getting the word out that people world-wide are working to end the epidemic of violence against women and girls. It’s not a perfectly feminist presentation, but it’s sure as hell a step in the right direction.
Even the Middle Eastern edition of Elle is likely to be heavily censored, at least in countries like Saudi Arabia which don’t allow any pictures of unveiled women. This is problematic and troubling for all of the obvious reaons. But just getting it out there, I think, is a positive thing. And with any luck, it might lead to these rules being challenged.
I also think it’s important to keep in mind that, while consumerism certainly sucks on a lot of levels, it can be a major motivator for human behavior. The Soviet Union collapsed for a lot of reaons, one of which was because people there wanted their Levis Jeans. Is wanting to show off your new Marc Jacobs blouse the best reason to agitate for the loosening of restrictive laws about what women can and cannot wear in public? No. But if it’s a motivator, hey, I’ll take it.
My little sister will be in Morocco all summer, so I’ll have her pick me up a copy and I’ll report back in September (Chrissy, are you reading this? Do that. Thanks).
I have a feeling that there will be a wide range of feminist perspectives on this one, and a lot of you aren’t going to agree with me. Thoughts?