Friday, July 25, 2008
Queen Rania of Jordan
An inspiring article from BBC News led me to Queen Rania's YouTube page this morning where she has shared a series of videos, encouraging dialogue with viewers, in an attempt to increase awareness of Arab culture and dispel stereotypes. She is an amazingly accomplished and beautiful woman and I feel certain her efforts have and will make an impact. The videos are pretty short, so check them out if you have a chance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
wow! what an amazing and powerful way to engage the world community! from watching just a few of the videos and reading some of the comments, it seems like her efforts are already making a huge impact. it is also so refreshing to see a stunningly beautiful woman speaking out in an international forum in such an intelligent and provocative way. i realize that by drawing attention to her beauty, i am perhaps raising stereotypes of my own. but the beautiful people that at least western society seems to worship are not this kind of a role model. i find it hard, for example, to take angelina jolie seriously because i see her face plastered on the tabloids for the gossip-y news in her life, not for the incredible work she is doing to improve the world. i am not faulting angelina jolie, of course, that's another discussion altogether. but queen rania is obviously taking her image into her own hands and using it for a very positive message. and, stereotype that it may be, people cherish beauty and seek to emulate the people they find beautiful, however they may define it. very impressive. thanks for sharing.
thanks for your comment, anna. i found myself questioning why i felt it necessary to point out her physical beauty, am i falling prey to some sort of sexism? maybe i am, but maybe it is a reality/natural that we pay more attention to beauty. all the more power she can put behind her message—if you got it, use it! i checked out her resume on wikipedia and was floored, pretty amazing...
i think we find her beautiful not simply for her physical beauty but for her spirit, too. just as some might find miss america or (insert young hollywood partier actress here) beautiful. to me, they don't possess what i see as quintessentially beautiful, because for me beauty transcends the physical characteristics, but i understand that they may for others.
Thank you for posting this, H Belle. I love youtube for giving us access to ideas and personalities in a forum which isn't filtered through the interests of big media and let's individuals put forward their personal stories and engage each other through video. Hopefully it will encourage more travel too!
Post a Comment