Jag kommer att föreläsa om mitt arbete som kulturkorrespondent i Mellanöstern för Konstnärsnämden på Tisdag. Det kommer att ske på Spiritus Mundi i Malmö.
Det första brev som publiceras skrevs för ett år sen och min resa i att försöka förstå började med detta. Nu ett år senare har mycket hänt men ni kommer rullande att kunna ta del av min "utveckling" i att veja för vinklad media och godtycklig kunskapsproduktion.
Ni som är i Malmö kom kom kom!!!!!!! Konstnärsnämnden
fredag 7 maj 2010
tisdag 27 april 2010
Interruptions Noise Edition will be out by Tuesday 27th in Amman!
A of Arabia is writing a piece about the fantastic activist electronica group Checkpoint 303. Read all about it.
Noise Edition will be released at Art Lounge Beirut 1st May!
Noise Edition will be released at Art Lounge Beirut 1st May!
torsdag 22 april 2010
Pink money Pink capitalism Pink colonialism
After 41 years of civilization (after Stonewall)) I think It’s time to stop and think about what the LGBTQ community is doing internationally to spread its fight for “freedom”. I will off and on write about here what I call Pink Colonialism. Part of the gay community has started a liberation campaign towards the Middle East with the aim of liberate those “poor” Arabs.
With no further knowledge about the culture, except what is told to us in the biased media, do they believe that what we have done can be done in the same way in the Middle East.
Stop the pink colonialism and get some unbiased knowledge of a culture that is so rich and full of liberated sexuality at least until we came in the nineteenth century and fucked it up like so many other things.
With no further knowledge about the culture, except what is told to us in the biased media, do they believe that what we have done can be done in the same way in the Middle East.
Stop the pink colonialism and get some unbiased knowledge of a culture that is so rich and full of liberated sexuality at least until we came in the nineteenth century and fucked it up like so many other things.
onsdag 21 april 2010
Long Time no see
I haven’t been here for a while but I haven’t been lazy. I have working around the subject arbitrary LGBTQ colonialism. I’m back and there will be some changes in this blog. This blog will handle anything contemporary, in the moment, old, old school, too cool for school kind of subjects around the Middle East and we and them. Am I we? Who created them? How we is we? And how them is them?
See yaa
See yaa
Press release about my mission!!!!!!!!!
A of Arabia wants to dismantle the power structure that is around the Middle East, where middle-aged white heterosexual men sit with their head in deep folds and want to explain the Middle East for us. He wants to challenge the colonial discourse that has put the Middle East in a hostage crisis and give people a voice.
A of Arabia is studying Arabic and was in Syria and the surrounding area last year. Meanwhile in Syria, he made including a mini documentary of P3's program "Verkligheten" in which he was called “ A of Arabia with a mission to penetrate Syria's "secret" gay society”. The program experienced instead of explaining to the listener and Apollo quickly realized that this was something that had never been done before. He not only experiences an LGBTQ community but began to question the self-image displayed by the "unfortunate" Arabs in the Swedish media.
He will kick off with this mini-documentary and his travels around the Levant (Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) among gay activists and people who do not choose to label themselves with the Western sexual labels. There he criticizes the production of knowledge that we are taught in the West. He attacked the unfortunate existence of Islamophobia in Swedish LGBTQ society and plays with the sexual Orientalism that exist around the 'Arab'.
A of Arabia is studying Arabic and was in Syria and the surrounding area last year. Meanwhile in Syria, he made including a mini documentary of P3's program "Verkligheten" in which he was called “ A of Arabia with a mission to penetrate Syria's "secret" gay society”. The program experienced instead of explaining to the listener and Apollo quickly realized that this was something that had never been done before. He not only experiences an LGBTQ community but began to question the self-image displayed by the "unfortunate" Arabs in the Swedish media.
He will kick off with this mini-documentary and his travels around the Levant (Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) among gay activists and people who do not choose to label themselves with the Western sexual labels. There he criticizes the production of knowledge that we are taught in the West. He attacked the unfortunate existence of Islamophobia in Swedish LGBTQ society and plays with the sexual Orientalism that exist around the 'Arab'.
fredag 11 december 2009
Dear Joseph Massad.
As a Westerner studying Arabic and researching about LGBTQ societies in the Middle East makes Joseph A Massad’s book ” Desiring Arabs” a very important tool.
”With this scholarly, intellectual history, Columbia professor Massad critiques how Arabs have narrated their sexual desires in scholarship and literature and attempts to explain recent changes in such narratives as a response to, and to some degree an internalization of, pervasive and pejorative Western views of Arab sexual desire.”
When you read, it absorbs you and every step that could be considered Western biased gives you a Massad slap, the Massad effect
After I read it, I came back with a lot of ideas. Thoughts where planted in my head that makes my work wider and richer. But the same criticism Edward Said’s book Orientalism got, is given to MR. Massad. In his attempts to point out the ”pure” Arab sexuality he create a state of Orientalism in Reverse.
I’m happy to have read it as a Westerner studying and researching in the Middle East. But there is a lot MR. Massad chooses not to take in to his story. And his critic for the Lebanese gay organization HELEM to minimize and makes them” agents” of the west is Orientalism in Reverse.
HELEM have replyed to Massads critic on Dialoges on Civilazation read it here
http://www.resetdoc.org/EN/Helem-replies-Massad.php
The quote is from a review on Amazon.com
”With this scholarly, intellectual history, Columbia professor Massad critiques how Arabs have narrated their sexual desires in scholarship and literature and attempts to explain recent changes in such narratives as a response to, and to some degree an internalization of, pervasive and pejorative Western views of Arab sexual desire.”
When you read, it absorbs you and every step that could be considered Western biased gives you a Massad slap, the Massad effect
After I read it, I came back with a lot of ideas. Thoughts where planted in my head that makes my work wider and richer. But the same criticism Edward Said’s book Orientalism got, is given to MR. Massad. In his attempts to point out the ”pure” Arab sexuality he create a state of Orientalism in Reverse.
I’m happy to have read it as a Westerner studying and researching in the Middle East. But there is a lot MR. Massad chooses not to take in to his story. And his critic for the Lebanese gay organization HELEM to minimize and makes them” agents” of the west is Orientalism in Reverse.
HELEM have replyed to Massads critic on Dialoges on Civilazation read it here
http://www.resetdoc.org/EN/Helem-replies-Massad.php
The quote is from a review on Amazon.com
fredag 4 december 2009
Stop the moral code now!
It has been an intense Eid Kabir Holiday in Damascus. Intense partying from Friday to Sunday, that felt like a hedonistic Midsummer weekend in Sweden. The pressure from the moral code has made the town explode, especially when the door is closed. And me, the “undercover, superlover spy”, was invited behind the locked doors this past weekend.
The first day of Eid started with Hussam, a guy I met on one of the gay forums on the internet. We went to my place and locked the door. He came from a village outside Damascus and wanted a job as an electrician, unmarried and labeled himself straight.
With my stay here I don’t give a shit about sexual identity anymore. Straight is gay is bi is curious and back again. You’re married with kids; you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend on the side, forget the wife or husband. Behind locked doors, Syria is the most gender bender versatile hedonistic country I have ever been to. It makes Berlin look like a moral outpost.
We chat, drank, and had sex- the holiday season could finally begin! Next day he called me and asked me if I had any western girls for him to have sex with. And he really sounded sincere. I felt that the label he put on himself was actually true. I felt kind of sad for him. For instance, if a man is what I want a man is what I want to get. I wouldn’t like a moral code to prevent me for having what I want. And it’s never nice to be the second best. When the moral code is condemning same sex relations as well it all get a little bit confusing.
It doesn’t stop here.
I went to Damascus’ unofficial official gay bar the next day. As always, the Damascene bear elite were strutting their stuff next to the long table. The big men were bitching and every man was given a female name, as bitchy and lovely as only a gay bar can be. After the bar closed, I was asked to follow my friends to a nightclub. I haven’t been out dancing since Amman, so I decided to join them.
The car started to drive from the city center and after a while I fell asleep. I woke up and found myself in the middle of nowhere. Literally nowhere. We stood in front of a building, loud folk music pumping from behind closed doors. Inside there was a room with a stage, upon which women were lined up, seemingly for display. Surrounding the women were tables of young men, energetically sipping glasses with arraq. As we sat down I tried to figure out what was going on. The women appeared to be for sale, at least for a dance. The hostess walked around the table singing love songs into a microphone to get the guests in the right mood. One of the guys from the gay bar, escorted by a rent-a-boy, knew the girls. Consequently, I kept on getting invited to the stage to perform my little Justin Timberlake performance.
I tried to figure out where these girls came from- the villages of Syria, Iraq or the refugee camps? One of them was even wearing a veil. I kept on wondering what symbol the veil played in this place. Was it for her own personal integrity or was it to indulge in the fantasies of the men? Onstage the guys mostly danced with each other, but when a boy dared to go to a girl with the right price, the most puzzling moment occurred. The scene in front of me was the most innocent dance ever. They held hands- standing an arms-length distance from each other, with looks that could match The Lady And The Tramp. This innocence made the place look like a pre-teen school disco dressed up like a whore house.
When I looked at the guests present, they were not the average sex/escort etc consumers. It actually felt like; that all they wanted to do, was to knock out the hole in the wall that keeps the sexes segregated in their society.
The moral code is preventing teenagers to build up healthy relationships in the hetero normative society. It’s more okay to have same sex relations as long as nobody watches it. The moral code is pitched so high, it is unreachable. The moral code is so extreme that it stands side by side with what the society would call the immoral.
I think Hussam should have a woman, if that is what he wants. I know that there is enough gay men here for all of us, let’s not be greedy. I think the young men in the club should be able to dance with a girl without paying for it. The sad thing is that customers will always exist for these girls, but I promise; if these boys had a choice they were choose a non priced relationship.
The Eid weekend ended with a Gay Bear Party in the suburbs of Damascus. The spirit was high, the Lebanese sugar pop music made us jump. Every man from the gay forum bearwww.com was there. Big men were belly dancing- it was sort of a drag show without the wigs and makeup but with the dress. Shirts went off, nobody got paid to dance and a man was what everybody wanted. This ending party felt like the most moral moment in this hectic Eid weekend.
I am inspired by Desiring Arabs, a book by Joseph Massad, that explain the sexual orientalism that goes deep into West’s projection of the Middle East. I’m aware of how the Westerners branded “Arabs as decadent” in the past. But with our sexual revolution the brand changed to backward.
But approaching situations such as these without a west-centric bias is hard. I know sexuality is dressed differently within every society and that there isn’t only one way to express your sexuality.
But maybe, if a little bit of what is going on inside the locked door could unveil itself and exist on the outside; this would neutralize the acidity of the moral code, and stop corroding society.
The first day of Eid started with Hussam, a guy I met on one of the gay forums on the internet. We went to my place and locked the door. He came from a village outside Damascus and wanted a job as an electrician, unmarried and labeled himself straight.
With my stay here I don’t give a shit about sexual identity anymore. Straight is gay is bi is curious and back again. You’re married with kids; you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend on the side, forget the wife or husband. Behind locked doors, Syria is the most gender bender versatile hedonistic country I have ever been to. It makes Berlin look like a moral outpost.
We chat, drank, and had sex- the holiday season could finally begin! Next day he called me and asked me if I had any western girls for him to have sex with. And he really sounded sincere. I felt that the label he put on himself was actually true. I felt kind of sad for him. For instance, if a man is what I want a man is what I want to get. I wouldn’t like a moral code to prevent me for having what I want. And it’s never nice to be the second best. When the moral code is condemning same sex relations as well it all get a little bit confusing.
It doesn’t stop here.
I went to Damascus’ unofficial official gay bar the next day. As always, the Damascene bear elite were strutting their stuff next to the long table. The big men were bitching and every man was given a female name, as bitchy and lovely as only a gay bar can be. After the bar closed, I was asked to follow my friends to a nightclub. I haven’t been out dancing since Amman, so I decided to join them.
The car started to drive from the city center and after a while I fell asleep. I woke up and found myself in the middle of nowhere. Literally nowhere. We stood in front of a building, loud folk music pumping from behind closed doors. Inside there was a room with a stage, upon which women were lined up, seemingly for display. Surrounding the women were tables of young men, energetically sipping glasses with arraq. As we sat down I tried to figure out what was going on. The women appeared to be for sale, at least for a dance. The hostess walked around the table singing love songs into a microphone to get the guests in the right mood. One of the guys from the gay bar, escorted by a rent-a-boy, knew the girls. Consequently, I kept on getting invited to the stage to perform my little Justin Timberlake performance.
I tried to figure out where these girls came from- the villages of Syria, Iraq or the refugee camps? One of them was even wearing a veil. I kept on wondering what symbol the veil played in this place. Was it for her own personal integrity or was it to indulge in the fantasies of the men? Onstage the guys mostly danced with each other, but when a boy dared to go to a girl with the right price, the most puzzling moment occurred. The scene in front of me was the most innocent dance ever. They held hands- standing an arms-length distance from each other, with looks that could match The Lady And The Tramp. This innocence made the place look like a pre-teen school disco dressed up like a whore house.
When I looked at the guests present, they were not the average sex/escort etc consumers. It actually felt like; that all they wanted to do, was to knock out the hole in the wall that keeps the sexes segregated in their society.
The moral code is preventing teenagers to build up healthy relationships in the hetero normative society. It’s more okay to have same sex relations as long as nobody watches it. The moral code is pitched so high, it is unreachable. The moral code is so extreme that it stands side by side with what the society would call the immoral.
I think Hussam should have a woman, if that is what he wants. I know that there is enough gay men here for all of us, let’s not be greedy. I think the young men in the club should be able to dance with a girl without paying for it. The sad thing is that customers will always exist for these girls, but I promise; if these boys had a choice they were choose a non priced relationship.
The Eid weekend ended with a Gay Bear Party in the suburbs of Damascus. The spirit was high, the Lebanese sugar pop music made us jump. Every man from the gay forum bearwww.com was there. Big men were belly dancing- it was sort of a drag show without the wigs and makeup but with the dress. Shirts went off, nobody got paid to dance and a man was what everybody wanted. This ending party felt like the most moral moment in this hectic Eid weekend.
I am inspired by Desiring Arabs, a book by Joseph Massad, that explain the sexual orientalism that goes deep into West’s projection of the Middle East. I’m aware of how the Westerners branded “Arabs as decadent” in the past. But with our sexual revolution the brand changed to backward.
But approaching situations such as these without a west-centric bias is hard. I know sexuality is dressed differently within every society and that there isn’t only one way to express your sexuality.
But maybe, if a little bit of what is going on inside the locked door could unveil itself and exist on the outside; this would neutralize the acidity of the moral code, and stop corroding society.
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