Reading this title, you probably won’t think this is surprising, right? Since we’re all in the middle of a purging-all-the-bad-out period right now, some of us have directed our focuses to our cinema industry and how it could improve.
So, how could it improve? Well, there’s a lot that the Egyptian cinema industry has to stop doing. And we mean a lot. For time’s sake, though, we’re only going into these 4 things.
Normalizing literal harassment
Not too long ago, actor Asser Yassin chipped in to say that a lot of directors and actors shoulder a lot of responsibility for normalizing harassment and rape culture. And if you think about it, he’s not wrong.
Actually, you don’t even need to think about it. Go and watch a comedy film — just pick one at random and chances are there’s a Hot Girl character who the lead (or others) will keep sexually-objectifying or even harassing. And whether this is played for laughs or not, it should stop, period.
Making jokes solely based on how a person looks
Ah, yes, comedy of the age-old Masrah Masr variety and the like. Well, we can’t really blame that show for all jokes of this kind because literally every single comedian in Egypt uses jokes like these to the death.
Sometimes, the comedians in question even use this to mock themselves!
And, sure, they have a right to do what they want and yes, freedom of speech exists and all but when you joke about someone being overweight or being dark-skinned or having a gap-tooth, what are you telling to the people watching who look exactly like that?
Harmful moral preaching
Before you accuse us of now wanting stories to not showcase any morals or point to the whole thing, this is not what we’re asking at all. What we need to stop is using moral-preaching to push forward harmful ideals.
You know, things like “family matters most…even if they’re abusive” and “you should stay in a relationship even if you’re not happy”. Things that will end up doing more harm than good.
Harmful portrayals of mental illnesses
This is where Egyptian entertainment flip-flops between the good and the bad, just to be perfectly honest. Sometimes, we’ve had somewhat accurate representations of mental illnesses that do not actually demonize those who have them.
Other times, well, we get things like Soqot 7or (not cinema but the point stands) and El-Feel El-Azraq.
And sure, Soqot 7or did one disorder justice but El-Feel El-Azraq mixes in the archaic ideas of “all mentally-ill people being possessed” or “being one strike away from murder”. And no one needs a comprehensive essay on why that’s actually harmful and literally demonizes a marginalized group even more.
