Elle’s Sex in the City Guide
I recently read, and ranted, about a ridiculous article that appeared in the first edition of Elle Arab World. I was surprised, to say the least.
As you can see below, the provoking piece encourages misconduct by highlighting where people can have public sex in Dubai. See if it were a blog, it would have been less of an issue, but this is a magazine, in its first issue, mind you, that is printed and published regionally and one which targets readers in the Middle East in general and the UAE in specific.
1- At a hotel: 6 to 3 months
2- As we wake up: (depends where, but 2 months at least)
3- In the forest or a desert: refer to sex on the beach case
4- In a car: one month (refer to newly-wed couple car sex case)
5- 6 months and deportation
Catch the drift here?
In their next issue, however, the magazine apologized to the UAE authorities and the readers “a 1001 times” and even went as far as to announce that it has subsequently sacked the author of the above-mentioned piece.
Now I don’t think blaming it all on the scapegoat, i.e. the ignorant reporter, is fair. I mean for sure a magazine such as Elle, especially in its first issue, would have assigned stories to each of its staff members.
Even if they didn’t do that and gave their writers absolute freedom to choose which topics they want to cover, does that mean their stories get filed and printed without going through some sort of an approval process?
Surely, someone else agreed on the idea and context of the story, then reviewed it, and then edited it, then proofread it, then approved it, then laid it out, and then finally granted permission for it to go to press. So clearly it’s not just the sole mistake of the reporter here, yet he was the only one to be blamed and fired.
I’m sure in his mind, the writer thought well. Perhaps he thought he was doing Dubai residents a favor by spicing up their lives, but alas, you can’t always get what you want.
Having said all that, and for the sake of boosting my testosterone, that has dramatically decreased in my attempts to write this post, back to its normal levels, I feel a pressing need to highlight that I don’t really read Elle and the entire issue was pointed out to me by one of my colleagues.
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July 6th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Hey hey Who-Sane?!!! Welcome back to blogging…I can see why this one set you off.
I recently read in Saudi Jeans that Maureen O’Dowd was in Saudi interviewing for a similar story. Ya lateef!
As one who has written for these type of magazines, I can affirm that sensationalism is the modus operendi of the genre. One editor said “We want controversy, we want sexy”.
surely, as you said: editors comb every word, have long discussions about what may push the envelope too far, and know very well that bored housewives want titillation. Firing the writer was pretty lame.
I hope you aren’t going to get an Arab Cosmopolitan next. @@
July 6th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Thank you, Kinzi!
Absolutely!
What they failed to realize is what works great somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work anywhere.
It’s the modus operendi you mentioned and lack of cultural sensitivities which got them into trouble in the first place, but it makes me feel sorry for the scapegoat that had to get fired.
June 23rd, 2011 at 4:39 am
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