TED Problematics: the case-study of Maysoon Zayid

 

I have never been a fan of TED talks. Unless you know exactly who you want to listen to and have done your research about a particular individual, I have found it too time-consuming. Being aware that my view on TED had been simplistic, our class added to the negative connotations about its organizers and fund-providing entities that I thought I made a good choice. However, I recently visited my former supervisor in Amman and she pointed to a TED talk of an Arab-American woman with palsy who is happily married, content with her life and a successful comedian. So, I decided to give it a shot and see whether there can be acceptable shades of TED for me. As I was surprised by the result, I decided that my last blog should be about my changing attitudes to models and phenomena through our class discussion. I am made a better scholar and a more thorough researcher. This blogpost is dedicated to the problematics of TED as much as it is an ‘ode’ to my personal discoveries and wider horizons of world problems.

 

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Maysoon Zayid is an American actress and comedian. Of Palestinian descent, she known as one of America’s first Muslim women comedians and the first person ever to perform stand-up in Palestine and Jordan. The Palestinian-American Muslim actor-cum-comedian with cerebral palsy has been steadily making a name for herself, performing standup comedy nationwide as well as overseas. Along with Dean Obeidallah, she founded the first Arab-American Comedy Festival in 2003. When she is not touring solo or as a special guest on the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, or co-hosting the radio show Fen Mejnoon with Dean and Maysoon (Crazy Art), Zayid spends three months a year in Palestine running an arts program for disabled and orphaned children in refugee camps.

“It was fabulous being in Palestine,” Zayid says, “because I didn’t have to give a context for my jokes. The first time I did standup was during the height of the second Intifada. When they laughed, they were so relieved. They said how good it felt to laugh.”

I firmly believe that Maysoon Zayid portrays what TED ought to be about. She provides enough information to make the audience understand the larger context of her talk and, at the same time, entices the audience to inquire further and ask questions. Inspiring curiosity is the pinnacle of every successful talk.

The video below shows Maysoon Zayid’s talk on TED.

 

TED, as a complex body of talks and personal narratives, should act as a gate to further inquiry, be it academic or personal. Stories, such as the one on the youtuber woman ‘daring’ to drive in Saudi Arabia, carry certain political connotations with them that do not build bridges nor serve any positive purposes. To be more precise, the youtuber has been given a platform to tell her story in the West, as she has not been given such a chance back in Saudi Arabia. In other words, the same West that has a  quid pro quo relationship with Saudi Arabia is providing her with a platform to further confirm the stereotypes of the West on the ‘backwards’ Middle East. The continuous Orientisation of the East is alarming.

This rhetoric, therefore, reminds me of Orwell’s concept of saving the brown woman from the brown man. Is it the duty of the West to save anyone? Can they redeem themselves for their bloody past in the Middle East by assisting women such as the ‘daring’ youtuber? But, is this redemption if they continue to assist the very regime that makes the youtuber daring instead of a normal woman who drives?

Maysoon, on the other hand, uses different language to bridge the region she comes from with the region she resides in. Although she touches upon politically contested issues, she understands the lack of innocence of her words and arguments. She fully comprehends the widespread impact of her words and, therefore, chooses them carefully. I believe that being  a comedian assists her in conveying particular messages that are not nearly as politically dangerous and stereotyping as the youtuber’s speech at TED.

Furthermore, Maysoon provides background information to her speech. She educates, informs and compels at the same time. Her personal story caries heavy connotations about life with palsy, life as a female comedian, life as an Arab-American woman, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc., with it. She intertwines each thread carefully into a speech that portrays her as belonging in each sector equally. And humor is present too.

Perhaps the youtuber should learn from Maysoon. Or even better, perhaps TED should be aware of political connotations of particular speeches. Streamlining each speech with a larger context and better framing might help alleviate the political tensions that arise from talks such as the youtuber’s one. The only problem is the following: in whose interest would such a change be done? Does the audience that attends TED talk want to be educated on the contested bond between Saudi Arabia and the United States that produces stories such as the youtuber’s one? The answer, in my opinion, leans towards a clear NO.

With time, perhaps, things change.

 

 

Sources:

Zayid, Maysoon; TED talk (link)

Institute for Middle East Understanding (link)