Youth Culture Scrutinized at the Cairo Book Fair

The Cairo Book Fair presents the latest and greatest in Arabic literature and public debates on cutting-edge cultural, social, and political issues in the Arab world.

Sociologists, media pundits, professionals, and psychologists joined in an effort to discuss contemporary Egyptian youth culture, hoping to come to an understanding of the complexities underlying the youths' identities, conduct, and loyalties. The two main themes on the agenda were modern youth culture and youth and the media.

Street Lingo and the Craze for the "New Look"

One seminar focused on the motivations for and repercussions of the use of street lingo, the language used by the Egyptian youth. Yasser Hemaya, author of a dictionary of youth slang, said that he wanted to gather terminology used by youth as a starting point for researchers. "It's important to study the language used by the youth because language is alive and evolves out of our lives and relationships. The use of language is the result of a series of human experiences and by analyzing these we can analyze the Egyptian mindset," he said.

So why do the youth use terminology that only they can understand? The reason is inherent in the fact that they are youth, they have the natural desire to stand out, according to Amina Khairy, a journalist for the Egyptian Rose Al-Youssef magazine. "It has to do with wanting to have one's own secret language. Secrecy is part and parcel of being young," she said. However, there is more to it. According to Khairy, the barriers that exist between the youth and the older generation also inspire rebellion. "The educational system doesn't allow them to be expressive, nor do they have opportunities for political participation," she said.

Responding to claims that the language used by the youth plays a role in the distortion and erosion of the Arabic language, Nabeel Farouq, a famous Egyptian author of adventure stories for youth, said that this fear is baseless because, to begin with, Arabic is not being used on the Arab street. "We speak a colloquial form of the language that already includes many words that are not related to Arabic. In fact, different dialects are spoken in each part of Egypt. Society has always been changing and language has always adapted." If change is inherent to language, why the shock today? The answer, according to Farouq, is that while in the past change was gradual, today changes are frequent and fast and cover all aspects of life, not just language. "This is what we're unable to come to terms with," he said.

Another issue that triggered a heated debate among the participants was the popularity of the "new look," as it was termed by the participants — the desire to resemble celebrity icons that has resulted in the growing popularity of plastic surgery in Egypt. The topic has recently acquired a sudden urgency as a famous Egyptian film star has now been in a coma for several months after having undergone liposuction in a Cairo clinic.

Egyptian plastic surgeon Fathy Khodeir warned that many people don't realize the power of make-up, hairstyling, and computer technology in the creation of "beauty." "Most of what you see [in advertising] is the work of clever hairstylists and touching up with computer graphics software," he said. However, he insisted that there are many social reasons for the plastic surgery craze, such as the growing number of plastic surgery clinic advertisements in Egyptian newspapers.

"If you walk into the clinic of a plastic surgeon, you'll find girls that have been brought in by their parents because they felt that she needs to do something about her looks to get married," he said. Other social causes that have contributed to the popularity of plastic surgery include the high divorce rate and the presence of more older women on the marriage market, as well as the need to look presentable in a very competitive job market.

However, he fervently rejected the claim that those who resort to plastic surgery are doing so because they simply have the financial means to do so. "It's wrong to believe that. We explain to the patient that he or she will have to endure a lot of pain and may not be able to appear in public for sometimes up to six months. If they understand that and still want to go through with the surgery, they're definitely not doing it out of luxury," he said.

Khodeir also explained that plastic surgeons' main purpose is to perform corrective surgery. They study human anatomy and can advise patients on whether or not they need surgery. "At my clinic, only two out of ten consultations end up in the surgery room. I'm not a tailor!" he said, laughing.

Jokes aside, the social causes for the obsession with the latest "look" may be more complex, according to psychologist Mohamed Al-Rakhawy. While the popularity of plastic surgery may shock the older generation, the race for the latest "look" is not specific to this generation. "When I argue with my son about his strange hairstyles I remember arguing at length with my father about wearing jeans, a norm today but a 'new look' at the time," he said.

The problem these days, he argued, is that there is nothing tying the older and younger generations together. "I could sit with my dad and have a great time, and discuss things between us. I can't do the same with my son. Something's missing, and that goes to the heart of our worries."

Marketing, he said, plays an important role in the popularization of the "new look" industry. "There's a new culture of we'll-solve-all-your-problems. The belief in gadgets and quick fixes is part of what promotes plastic surgery as a solution to all problems."

Media Exposure and Eroding Identity

Many Egyptians despise the influence Western pop culture on Arab music videos and believe it is corrupting the Arab youth.

The use of the media by the youth was another theme discussed during the seminars. Although a plethora of research on various media-related topics was presented, the analyses were not completely free of the conspiratorial tendencies that mar the work of many Arab intellectuals. It was evident in many seminars that the sense of being at the receiving end of a cultural invasion is very strong among Egyptians. The West was frequently demonized and in some cases blamed for the  "dark sides" of youth culture.

In a seminar about the role of the Internet in today's youth culture, Gamal Gheitas, editor in chief of Al-Ahram newspaper's Internet supplement, said that information technology no longer merely plays the role of an intermediary, but that the actual knowledge of how to use it has become very widespread as well.

"Information technology has changed the social norm that the elderly teach the young. Now the youth know much more than their parents about how to use technology, and in many cases teach them," he said.

The Internet, according to Gheitas, positively enhanced the search for knowledge and the form in which knowledge is delivered through the use of virtual reality and interactivity, giving the audience the chance to take part in creating the content so that they are no longer a passive recipient of information.

However, the disadvantages of the Internet include the decline in the use of Arabic language because of the use of new Internet lingo, as well as the deterioration of social relations as the youth spend long hours chatting to virtual friends.

One of the most striking remarks made by Ghietas discussed the youth's tendency to chat with people from the West. "The youth will eventually feel more affinity with Western interests and will work towards goals opposed to their own national interests. People from the West tend to slip poison into honey!"

Another topic that stirred passionate emotions among audience members was the increasingly daring sexual representations in music videos. Again, the sense of being "targeted" surfaced, as expressed by Egyptian journalist Mohammad Al-Shafee. "We're not against art, but we as a region are being targeted politically, economically, militarily, and culturally. Military occupation is followed by cultural occupation," he said.

The youth, he insisted, should be encouraged to listen to classical musical icons such as Abdul Haleem, Warda, Fayrouz, Shadya, and Umm Kulthoum. "They need to appreciate refined lyrics. Even the dancing in many music videos today appears closer to exorcism rituals," he said.

To counteract the American "take-away" culture, national television stations must broadcast respectable concerts and offer viewers an alternative, he commented.

Ashraf Galal, a media professor and researcher at Cairo University, presented his content analysis of 364 music videos aired on Arab satellite channels and noted that the women and the environment depicted in the songs do not resemble the reality of the Arab world.

He further argued that the appearance of these videos has led to the increased popularity of a consumerist lifestyle in the Gulf and has turned women into commodities. "The Western lifestyle is strongly advocated in 70 percent of these videos. I choose to call them nudity clips rather than video clips," said Galal, as he showed his audience a recent music video, pausing frequently to ask provocatively, "What does this look like to you, a music video or porn?"

The attempts at analyzing youth culture at the Cairo Book Fair should be considered in the context of ongoing debate between various Arab platforms to decipher youth culture and its links to the wider social trends.

Yet the analyses presented here must be taken with a pinch of salt, as they clearly reflect the analysts' own backgrounds, ideologies, and personal interpretations. While this is self-evident, finger pointing and pompous rhetoric about the "wicked witch of the West" and the need to preserve our culture may bring about a standing ovation, but they hardly begin to tackle, in depth, the perceived social illnesses that are afflicting our youth.

Lamya Tawfik is a freelance journalist and a journalism instructor based in Cairo, Egypt. She's currently pursuing a doctorate degree at the Institute for Postgraduate Studies in Childhood, Ain Shams University. She can be reached at lamyatawfik@islamonline.net