“Sex sells — but can it sell a bloody Middle Eastern revolution pitting disparate armed factions against an entrenched autocrat?” asks Cara Parks over at Foreign Policy. The above photo accompanies the article.

It should be noted that the author is not responsible for the images, but she surely doesn’t offer any critical commentary on the sexualization and objectification of a violent struggle against a brutal regime. She argues towards the end that this meme could potentially bring the Syrian uprising to mainstream media headlines, drawing more needed attention to the conflict. But I struggle to understand how this sort of attention will do anything but turn the uprising into something it’s quickly evolving into: a spectacle.

Let’s set aside the implication of political interests from some of the world’s most powerful and corrupt regimes. The author perpetuates the idea that the Middle East is a region inhabited by two kinds of humans: the sexualized object that needs to be tamed, and the violent object that needs to be tamed. In this case, this image and article embodies both these kinds of humans in one well-packaged meme. I say object because the author effectively hijacked his identity, imposing her own definitions strictly limited to physical identifiers, such as “his nonchalant stride, close-cropped dark hair, chiseled chin, and steely-eyed intensity, this freedom fighter’s sculpted physique…” No mention of his struggle, his cause, his goals, his experiences, no mention of even his fucking name. 

Great work FP. Awesome job Cara Parks.