CBC Egypt's Saturday Night Live Bl Arabi (SNL Bl Arabi) recently shared a sketch featuring a female Lebanese character, and the Lebanese aren't happy about it.
The comedy show is under fire for sharing a video that reinforces negative stereotypes surrounding Lebanese men and women, depicting Lebanese women as nothing but eye candy and Lebanese men as irrationally patriarchal and controlling.
Though SNL received the bulk of the backlash, the video is, in fact, an excerpt from the Egyptian Ramadan comedy series Raya7 ElMadam ("Comfort the Lady").
The 2-minute sketch titled, "Watch the most beautiful cab driver in Lebanon," stars a blonde woman speaking in Lebanese dialect and driving a cab with two Egyptian male passengers. In an outdated, stereotypical fashion, the passengers stare at the attractive woman in awe, acting as if they had never seen a woman before.
"We were supposed to go to the mountains," one of the guys tells the cab driver when she asks where they are heading. He then slips a degrading innuendo by saying, "But after seeing you ... Can we go behind the mountain?"
The woman then receives a call from her jealous significant other, "Elie," who starts a feud.
It turns out that Elie is not mad that she shamelessly cheated on him with his friend and uploaded indecent pictures with the latter online; all that did not faze him one bit.
Instead, Elie is fuming at the fact that she works as a cab driver and drives men around.
Here is a round-up of people's reactions to the video:
What a shame!
Why does the media insist on sticking to stereotypical characters?
"This doesn't represent Lebanese people in any way"
There's a fine line between comedy and insult
Where's the joke?
Egyptians agree that the video does not do the Lebanese justice
"Lebanese people are among the most sophisticated Arab populations. From an Egyptian who loves Lebanon: We apologize for this scene because it does not represent Lebanese woman."
Some blamed the Lebanese media's self-deprecating content
Regrettably, from newscasts to comedy shows to blog posts, local media has played a significant role in asserting stereotypes surrounding Lebanese women.
For instance, on international women's day, Lebanese blog The961 published a post titled "7 Reasons Why You Should Date A Lebanese Woman," in which the author advertised Lebanese women as dateable service providers whose best qualities include being beautiful, dressing well and taking care of their looks.
Stepfeed has responded to that post with its own list that you can read here.