Everyone I know watches that show. hehe.

About the colonial complex: I'm on the fence on that. People are generally interested in what's uncommon, whether it be a blond blue eyed dude in the middle east or a black haired brown eyed middle eastern dude in europe / US. And plus, let's not overlook the fact that he is quite good-looking. Noor is more my type though.

I think I agree with M. Being a white guy with blond hair and blue eyes married to an Arab woman, it has been an issue with us.

I know when we had our two boys most of the first comments about the boys from Arabs was about "how white" they are, as that is some sort of gold standard. They both are very white, dark blond hair and hazel eyes, and that seems to be dwelled upon.

However, I think it is natural to like what is different from yourself. I am the blond American and I love dark skin, dark eyes and dark hair. I do not find myself attracted to white women, especially blondes.

If you look at Arabs married to whites, mostly men, you'll see that the women that they pick more often than not are lighter complected and light hair. I dont point this to any colonial issues, but the human quest for what is "exotic" and different.

My wife has gotten loads of questions from her female Arabs friends really interested in just what it is like to be with a white/American guy. Some are normal questions, some have crossed the line and even included questions about our sex life.

There is just a real interest in "the other" and I think it is normal.

I also think if there were not family/religious issues with Arab/Muslim women marrying outside of their race, nationality, tribe, you'd find A LOT more Arab women married to white guys.

It seems like every second female celeb/socialite in the Arab world has blonded herself up, and let's not even get into the popularity of eastern European women in certain markets, so it's clearly a fetish shared by Arab men as well as women. I don't see the point of the remark about Arab women never crossing mental teenager-dom.

There's definitely a greater fascination in cultures where very light skin is not common to see one of "ours" who looks "foreign" - those with half-white ancestry, e.g. Lots of ethnically ambiguous male and female models with a Western "look" used in ads for aspirational products, especially. It's easier to project fantasy on an "other" I guess, whether it's Arab men looking at blonde women in porn or Arab women with their fantasies of square-jawed blonde men from romance novels and soaps.

Well, I understand the idea of attraction to whatever is exotic. If memory serves though, The Lounsbury likened Arab society to Brazil once when it comes to color/race issues, and there might be a good point there.

I don't see the point of the remark about Arab women never crossing mental teenager-dom.

Without going into oversweeping generalizations, many Arab women seem to have a desire for a certain type of romance that is only seen among teenagers with Westerners. Those Latino soap operas (and now this Turkish one) seem to meet that demand, at least on the fantasy level.

Shaheen,

Any theories as to why that is?

Is it because of the lack of any real experience with romance on a personal basis so they tend to idealise it?

I have seen the way that some of my wife's Arab friends react to they way we are together. They seem so surprised with what we consider everyday things, ie flowers, me cooking, changing diapers, feeding the boys.

For me these are the natural things that a husband should do for his wife. It is our concept of what marriage is about, a partnership and friendship between the man and wife. To my wife's friends, they cannot really believe that I do these things.

As one close Jordanian friend said "an Arab man wouldnt do that. I was married for 15 years and my husband never did anything like that."

I'm not sure. I guess it must be related to the relationship starvation and/or the lack of emotional/rational development at teenage, which can be quite unhealthy in some conservative segments of society.

(not that I agree with you on what form a marriage *should* take, as opposed to just defining individually whatever makes one feel good in a relationship - but then, unrealistic concepts of romance are definitely not conductive to a healthy dose of satisfaction either).

I told my wife about this. She pointed out to me that the guy is actually on the cover of the latest issue of the Saudi magazine "Sayidaty".

She looked at him and wasnt too impressed. Maybe it is because she is used to seeing blonde haired blue eyed white guys every day here in the USA? She is married to one after all! lol

I pointed out to her that if she was living in the Middle East, had never been to the USA, that it would probably different for her. She agreed.

The problem I would point out with this cartoon, contrasted to the article, is that it seems that it actually is jealous men that divorce their wives, and not women that divorce their husbands over the series.

While I haven't seen the series myself, would it be too much to say that being on the wrong side of white privilege and patriarchy might be factors driving women to watch this show, in the hopes of more equal partnerships?

Ah, my dear innocents.

First, exotic has biases.

Certainly a certain exoticism, if not too exotic relative to reference point, seems to be a fundamental human driver.

But to ascribe the interest in Euro type looks merely to exoticism is to ignore fundamentally unexamined racialism (or light racism) in the Arab world, for similar historical reasons to the emergence of relatively similar attitudes in "the West."

This is not new, nor I think fundamentally colonially driven in the Machreq (the Maghreb is another issue, given the history of settler colonialism, and mass emigration, and the social dynamics are really fundamentally different, not terribly tribal as in Machreq and rather differently oriented in terms of mixed marriages).

But perhaps more interesting is why a Turkish soap opera is making such impact - as Shaheen can attest there are plenty of Brazilian, Venezuelan ,etc. soaps. I think the Turkish angle - not explicitly but via the visible cultural similarities (masjids now and again, etc) renders the experience ... more impactful.

I should say the women here adore this damned thing. Well, the Turk Chicks are hot at least.

Well, the Turk Chicks are hot at least

Well, I don't watch the culebrones, but from real life at least I'd say you can't complain about the Latinas either...

Lounsbury has a point. If this was just about being "exotic" there would be some sort of parity of interest in say, African American males and females, but I venture to say that this is not the case.

More and more Arab families would be willing to let their sons, even daughters, marry a white Westerners. That would not be the case with African American males and females, so race certainly plays into it big time.

Turkish chicks are good looking, but as the women I prefer tend to be "samra" I'd take the Latina women first.

Sure, culture plays an issue. I havent watched the soap in question, but the guy has a huge tattoo on his arm, which certainly isnt the norm in the Middle East, but is more common in Turkey.

I wonder what effect that has on his appeal,kind of a bad boy type image? The tattoo thing didnt bother my wife too much, I have a fair amount of them of a rather hooligan type nature from my teens/early twenties. Who wouldnt like my Celtic FC tattoo on my forearm?

The exotic/race issue is an interesting one to explore.

...or the Bolivian, Parisian or Numidian ladies.

Clearly none of you have lived in Turkey to get my highly obscure joke. Ah well.

I think the fact that there are a lot of blonds and blondes in the soap says rather more about Turkish aspirations and complexes than it does about the emotional maturity of Arab women!

Bou Sinan si right, exotic / race issue is under-discussed.

RE Blonds & Blondes on Turk Opera, well, that's partly Geo Bias. Most production is in the Stanboul area, which is chock full of fully native blondish types.

Well i am from turkey .. That guy is not an arab first and it is not so surprising to find a blonde blue eyed people here in anatolia and istanbul.

i love you realy kivanç !! i'm fan of you !! your are my best realy ! loooooooooove you!!
if you have an adress e-mail , pleaz , tell me , my adress is : NOUXA--X3@hotmail.fr
pleaz pleaz pleaz !!

i'm moroccan girl !!

i love you realy kivanç !! i'm fan of you !! your are my best realy ! loooooooooove you!!
if you have an adress e-mail , pleaz , tell me , my adress is : NOUXA--X3@hotmail.fr
pleaz pleaz pleaz !!

i'm moroccan girl !!

i love you realy kivanç !! i'm fan of you !! your are my best realy ! loooooooooove you!!
if you have an adress e-mail , pleaz , tell me , my adress is : NOUXA--X3@hotmail.fr
pleaz pleaz pleaz !!

i'm moroccan girl !!