Precarious Exceptions: Representations of Visibly Muslim Women in Western Media

Abstract

The trope of the oppressed Muslim woman has been preeminent in Western visual and literary representations of Muslims. Its ubiquity made the proliferation of Muslim women boasted in media headlines as “empowered” and “stereotype-breaking” in the mid-2010s so striking. Suddenly, there were more visibly Muslim women showcased in mainstream media, and more products catered to Muslim women by mainstream brands. Alongside this new media inclusion, Muslims were also experiencing more violence and exclusion by Western states through Donald Trump’s “Muslim Ban” and European veil/burqa bans. Precarious Exceptions: Representations of Visibly Muslim Women in Western Media assesses this paradox and seeks to understand: Why are Muslim women being incorporated into the media in this way, and why now? Why this shift in representation in this political moment? I turn a critical eye to this sudden inclusion, noting that these media headlines often also involved the naming of a Muslim woman in a hijab who was celebrated as “the first” to do something—a phenomenon I call “Muslim firsts.” Reading widely circulated visual representations of Muslim women alongside the political moment in which they are produced, I utilize the framework of exception to argue that Muslim firsts were mobilized to reaffirm US exceptionalism and multiculturalism as these purported values were challenged by rising tides of white supremacist violence that left Muslims particularly vulnerable. Further, I show how they are mobilized in the global market through neoliberal multiculturalism as subjects who can sell (and buy) commodities, regardless of the precarity of citizenship. In Precarious Exceptions, I evaluate visual representations of journalist Noor Tagouri in Playboy magazine to understand how Muslim firsts function in the media; the Shepard Fairey poster of Munira Ahmed in We The People Are Greater Than Fear and the memoir of political activist Linda Sarsour who was a co-chair for the 2017 Women’s March on Washington to understand patriotic Muslim icons; the Nike Pro Hijab and its Middle Eastern and US advertisements to understand how Muslims are marketed and marketed to; and Iman Meskini, Norway’s first hijabi actress, in the Norwegian teen drama Skam to understand how Muslim fans are understanding “authentic” representation and grappling with feelings of belonging through media. I argue that Muslim firsts are a gendered visual formation, focusing not only on Muslim women but specifically those Muslim women who are visually identifiable as Muslim in public through wearing a hijab or headscarf. Importantly, I argue that the incorporation of Muslim firsts into Western media does not fully destabilize hegemonic assumptions or beliefs about Muslims being foreign threats and does not undermine the oppressed Muslim woman trope; indeed, these Muslim firsts, through being rendered exceptional and distinct, affirm these tropes. Using discourse analysis, I further unpack the ways Muslims are talking about such representations, revealing how these communities are understanding this new, massive platforming of Muslim women and how they are consequently reproducing and perpetuating a burden of representation onto Muslim women—a burden I name as “representational responsibility.”