ABSTRACT

In the UK Channel 4 documentary, My Week As a Muslim, an English, white woman named Katie donned a hijab, a prosthetic nose and copious amounts of brown foundation to disguise herself as a Pakistani Muslim so that she could spend a week experiencing Muslim culture and appreciate her position of white privilege. Although My Week as a Muslim was attempting to challenge many of the dominant stereotypes of Muslim women found in much of Western media, it was highly problematic in the way the entire experiment echoed the narrative conventions of cross-dressing comedy films. The documentary concluded with a final ‘reveal’ sequence where Katie removed her hijab, prosthetic nose and wiped off brown make-up to show her new Muslim friends that she merely had been performing Muslim-ness for the past week. Not only did this reinforce misconceptions that there are significant differences between British people and Islam (Katie could only pass as Muslim through the use of prosthetics and elaborate make-up) but the ‘hilarious’ reveal of the cross-dressing narrative also suggested the superiority of the Muslim-drag performer in comparison to the foolish people who were deceived by the act.

摘要

在英国第四频道的纪录片《我作为穆斯林的一周》中，一位名叫凯蒂（Katie）的英国白人白人穿着盖头，假肢和大量棕色粉底来掩饰自己是巴基斯坦穆斯林，这样她就可以花一个星期体验穆斯林文化并赞赏她的白人特权地位。虽然我作为穆斯林的一周在试图挑战西方许多媒体发现的许多穆斯林妇女的主要刻板印象时，整个实验与异装喜剧电影的叙事惯例相呼应，这是一个很大的问题。纪录片以最后的“揭露”序列作为结尾，凯蒂（Katie）去除了她的头巾，假鼻子并擦掉了棕色的化妆品，以向新的穆斯林朋友们表明，她过去一周只是在表现穆斯林。这不仅加剧了人们误解的观念，即英国人民与伊斯兰教之间存在重大差异（Katie只能通过使用假肢和精心制作的化妆作为穆斯林而流传），而且“热闹”的变装叙事揭示也表明了优越性。与被该行为欺骗的愚蠢人相比，穆斯林穆斯林的表演者更胜一筹。