“this is the face”
by zunguzungu
From an interview with the white American dude who pretended to be “A Gay Girl in Damascus”:
“I had an idea of what my character should look like and one day I was flipping through something and I saw a picture of her and said ‘that is the face’. I didn’t think anyone would notice.”
and in his extended apology:
I grabbed photos of a woman whom I have never met who looked exactly like what Amina should look like.
Except Tom MacMaster didn’t pick one of those faces, which are, you know, actually Syrian women protesters. He picked this face:
If you want to read analysis, I’ll recommend responses from Sami Hamwi and Daniel Nassar (two actual Syrian LGBT activists), Zeynep Tufekci, Mircea, Liz Henry, Ethan Zuckerman, Sappho, Maya Mikdashi, Jillian York, Amira Al Hussaini, and Helen de Cruz.
I don’t have their patience to spend my energy on this asshole, so I won’t add much to the discussion. But I think we would be remiss if we didn’t think a little bit about why MacMaster chose the particular face he did, why it was so important that this light-skinned, close-mouthed, downcast image of a Croatian woman be his face of the gay Syrian revolution. And it’s also worth noting the endgame he had planned:
I was going to end the story with having her be free, and get out of country — end of story.
Tom MacMaster’s “Freedom” is not a group of brown women shouting in solidarity with signs and heads covered, demanding that Syria is their country. Freedom is a single white face, a delicate femininity performing innocent submission for the camera, an “out” blogger who appears to have no community to be out to, a Syrian who is really an American, and the “ultimate outsider” who ends the story when she escapes from the Middle East, presumably, to return to the USA.
zunguzungu 
I think these are really strong points. Thanks
It was an elaborate sexual fantasy for him that he let get out of hand. The only reason he chose that woman is because she was titillating to him for some reason. It had nothing to do with politics. It does, however, speak a lot about what he finds sexy (light skinned, downcast, etc.).
what an insult to those who are actually struggling in syria.
As Suzie wishes for her mom, so I wish also.Seems there’s a geneitc disdain for Nova Scotia? 😉 Sending your mom healing thoughts and wishes…may she be feeling well again very soon!!adorable pic!!
Great point. A straight man who is out as an ally is alsmot a more powerful vocal piece, just because it challenges all the dominant notions of what hetero-men are supposed to be doing. This, on the other hand, seems like a sociopathic exercise in lord-knows-what. I do think it’s funny that both men were tricking the other, though.
On y voit les soldates dune unite deilte de larmee sadonner devant le president Hafez El Assad a un rituel militaire singulier pour celebrer la force du regime contre ses ennemis elles tuent un serpent avec les dents et le devorent tout chaud alors quil se debat encore.
While we are all rightly outraged at this buffoon, let’s remind ourselves that this young woman in the photo is a real person and perhaps not a “delicate femininity performing innocent submission for the camera” at all.
It’s a good point, one I hadn’t really taken fully into consideration.
For what it’s worth, the photo I used is the one that MacMasters has been foregrounding, and which is always the first one shown in media accounts, and of all the photos of her that he stole, it’s the one that’s most affected, most posed, and most easily caricatured (the one which has the clearest visual vocabulary). Which is to say, I think it’s worth pointing out that he didn’t so much grab onto *her* as he grabbed on to a particular version of her, the pose she struck in that particular picture. But yeah, you’re right; I guess I wasn’t really thinking of her as a person either, just the photographic image that he took from her; even, in a sense, I participated in the thing that he did in the first place. Yuck.
I probably wouldn’t look past the image myself, but I’m lucky to have a friend who looks very much like her and she can be both very gentle and as hard as nails when necessary (she’s a judge).
This interview with Jelena Lecic is certainly something:
Why not just write a work of fiction and submit it somewhere to see if they will publish it? He wanted this extra little bit special attention on him so he could come out with the “heartfelt” apology to everybody. He’s a dick. I hope Scotland throws him out.
this fellow played a dangerous game just to make a point.
Anonymous blog turns out to be unreliable source of information. Oh man guys, my world view is so shattered right now!
Honestly, the only thing surprising about this is that anyone cares.
Totally agree with this post. BUT I think it’s also worth pointing out how this illustrates that there is no dividing line between the so-called “whites” of Europe and the “brown” Middle East. Those familiar with the Middle East, particularly those who have lived or traveled there are well aware that no such line exists. MacMaster would never have considered using a Nigerian or Japanese girl to model Amina. But he could convincingly use Lecic–a Croatian–because so many people in Southern Europe and the Levant are physically indistinguishable from one another. Having said that, I think there’s no question he chose an unveiled, Westernized, lighter skinned woman because these are all markers of modernity and moral goodness which operate in the Western mind, however subconsciously.
But in point of fact, the racial dimension of this story could only emerge at all because it ended up being a fraud. If MacMaster had created an Italian blogger using photographs of some blonde, blue-eyed Swedish girl, nobody would have said “This is definitely fake, Italians don’t look like that!” Most don’t, but some do. There are plenty of Jelena Lecic look-alikes roaming the streets of Damascus—and the world of Arabic pop music, for that matter. While MacMaster’s motives in choosing Lecic are suspect for the reasons I already stated, the fact remains that if Amina Abdullah was a real person who had Jelena Lecic’s face, nobody would have protested, “But, this makes no sense—she’s white!”
That’s really nicely put.
[…] Mike Daisey wasn’t the first person to make up a false personal story as a way of raising the kind of “awareness” that will necessitate change, nor was #StopKony the first hyper-successful campaign to take a massively complicated political-economic-military problem and reduce it to the narrative of a great white savior. See, for example, Greg Mortensen, who is similar to both, in the way that both are similar to each, or to a Tom MacMaster, the hoaxter behind “Gay Girl in Damascus.” […]
[…] A must-read for anyone writing about Daisey, Truth and the American Way. From “The Jimmy McNulty Gambit,” in the New Enquiry, by AARON BADY Mike Daisey wasn’t the first person to make up a false personal story as a way of raising the kind of “awareness” that will necessitate change, nor was #StopKony the first hyper-successful campaign to take a massively complicated political-economic-military problem and reduce it to the narrative of a great white savior. See, for example, Greg Mortensen, who is similar to both, in the way that both are similar to each, or to a Tom MacMaster, the hoaxter behind“Gay Girl in Damascus.”…. […]
As Suzie wishes for helesrf and her mom, so I wish for her also.That you may both feel well and get on with delicious summer road trips!!What a wondeful picture!! Your lovely and your Mama what a sweet face!! Namaste, Sarah
What a great website! I just want to make sure I’m readnig the chart correctly so I sign up for the right color. I am in Greenville/Spartanburg area of SC. I believe I am in the Green which would be May 6th??