Posted on February 5th, 2010 at 5:57 am by stephaniie24 and
‘I think Eastenders will be doing the programme a disservice if they didn’t give a voice to various communities.’
To what extent does the representation of Syed give a voice to marginalised communities or is it just controversy for entertainment sake?
Marc Elliot is known for his role as Syed Masood on the British soap opera Eastenders he made this quote to mail online saying ‘I think Eastenders will be doing a disservice if they didn’t give a voice to various communities.’ He is trying to say that if Eastenders did not speak out about other ethnic groups and raise awareness to their audience, they will be harming the show as London is a multicultural place and their audience should be educated about other cultures and their beliefs. The BBC has the job to reflect what goes on in everyday life of other cultures into their storylines. Marc Elliot is referring to the storyline of Syed (Indian Muslim man) and Christian’s homosexual relationship, a storyline which has significantly increased audience interest in the show and led to TV appearances by Elliot on news shows and media magazines. In other words, the screen kiss has become what we might understand as a media event.
Eastenders is a popular British television soap opera which was first broadcasted on the BBC One on the 19th February 1985. Eastenders is currently ranked one of the most watched shows in the United Kingdom and regularly attracts 7 to 12 million viewers. Eastenders storylines are meant to show the working and social lives of people who live in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End. The screen kiss between Syed and Christian was watched by 8 million viewers. However, this was not as much as the audience who tuned in to watch the first ever gay kiss in 1987 by Collin Russell and Barry Clark to whom was viewed by 17 million people.
The story leading up to the homosexual affair and the kiss is that Syed Masood is the long lost son of the Masood family; Syed is the oldest son of the family and a much loved son especially by his mum Zainab who is very proud of her son and his achievements in life. He came into the Square as the smooth talking, sophisticated ladies man. He is engaged to a woman named Amira. He meets Christian an open homosexual in the square he battles his emotions about being homosexual and starts to fall for Christian. Although he starts to fall in love with Christian he still continues his wedding plans. Christian is so deeply in love with him he is secretly willing for Syed to leave Amira and run away with him. Although he wants to be a good son Syed is afraid to reveal his true feelings about being gay to his parents as it would break up the family, hurt Amira and go against his Muslim religious beliefs.
The screen kiss of Syed and Christian is significant in that it was broadcast on the BBC. The BBC is a public service, paid for by TV license. As a public service it has a responsibility to its audience. Part of its charter specifies that it must take some responsibility for “Promoting education and learning”, “Representing the UK, its nations, religion and communities”, and to be challenging and to be engaging”. The significance of this for us is in whether the screen kiss relates to any of these specific regulations. It could be seen to relate to Promoting education and learning as the kiss between Syed and Christian is very rare. Audiences rarely witness homosexual affection on their TV screens, let alone a kiss on the mouth between a Muslim and a non Muslim of the same sex. Muslim men are often portrayed as very devout and homosexuality is frowned upon in the Quran. The show portrays Muslims as part of the community. It does not highlight their beliefs. However, the mother character, Zainab, is very clear in the episode that it is Christian who has corrupted her son. She is very clear about how she and so, her faith, regards acts of homosexuality. This can be seen as educational as an audience may not realise how unacceptable homosexuality is among the Muslim community. It could also be seen as educational as it informs its audience about issues surrounding the difficulty of being homosexual and the tendency of homosexuals to hide their sexual identity. Also, it shows how men from Muslim communities find any expression of their sexuality that is not ‘manly’ as going against their gender identity. However, using a Muslim male character can also be seen as pure sensationalism as they are merely choosing a contemporary iconic figure – the Muslim man – and using his attributes to gain an audience for their show. This does not seem to be about educating but about manipulating.
Eastenders could be seen to benefit other nations, religions and communities as they have very diverse characters and they try to incorporate other religious backgrounds and people from different countries and ethnic groups into their storylines. For example The Johnson/ Fox family they are the Black British family in the square and the Mitchell’s who are the White English family in the square. This attracts a similar audience, one which is also multi racial and diverse. It offers an opportunity for them to learn what other people from different ethnic groups and religions go through and learn new things about them. In which case the BBC is supplying us with TV that we will find useful, that we want to watch and that will actually educate and entertain us at the same time.
This may have more credibility if Eastenders had not seen enormous viewing figures for the first screen kiss shown in 1987. The first screening of a homosexual TV kiss was between Collin Russell (Michael Cashman) and Barry Clark (Gary Hailes) in 1987.
Michael Cashman (Collin Russell – Eastenders)
Gary Hailes (Barry Clark – Eastenders)
Michael Cashman was best known for his role as Collin Russell a character famous for being the first gay man to kiss another man in a soap opera in the UK. He was Walfords first on screen gay resident and when his sexuality was eventually revealed it caused shockwaves around the square and around the country. Colin was one of the most controversial characters of his time mainly because gay orientated content was still rare on prime time television during the mid 1980’s. Colin and Barry’s relationship quickly developed and in 1987 Eastenders screened the first ever gay kiss on national television which was a kiss on the forehead which Colin gave to Russell. This received a large number of complaints from angry viewers which lead to the press reacting with great anger at the situation. However, the kiss between Michael and Barry was watched by 17 million viewers
This is the same reaction, in which Syed and Christian are getting from the members of public; Ofcom received over 150 complaints about their kiss.
Marc Elliot (Syed Masood – Eastenders) John Partridge (Christian Clarke –
Eastenders)
This is when you start to question why Eastenders have actually made up this storyline. Is it to stir up controversy for a great storyline to bring in more audience? Or is it to educate us about homosexuality in diverse countries, religions and ethnic groups?
In an article called ‘Eastenders’ Muslim character Syed set for controversial gay storyline’ written May 29th 2009 on Mail online; Asghar Bokhari from the Muslim Public Affairs Committee who critised the plotline. He told the BBC: “The Muslim community deserves a character that represents them to the wider public because Islamophobia (which is the prejudice or discrimination against Islam or Muslims) is so great right now.
“There’s a lack of understanding of Muslims already and I think Eastenders really lost an opportunity to present a normal friendly Muslim character to the British public.”
Judith Butler is a philosopher who has studied the fields of feminism and queer theory. Queer theory concerns the representation of homosexual and gay characters. Judith Butler says ‘In other words, rather than being a fixed attribute in a person, gender should be seen as a fluid variable which shifts and changes in different contexts and at different times.’ Butlers approach to gender and sex makes it in a way that it is made more flexible because she believes that a man should not have to be with a woman because it is common in society or a woman with a man; but they should be with what ever sex they feel is appropriate for them. She says that homosexual characters are represented in a negative light. In the case of Syed however, the audience are lead to admire his bravery for ‘coming out’ under such difficult opposition. Also, although he marries Amira, this might show how hard it is to overcome ones cultural background, rather than be seen as a negative character trait of his. Syed is portrayed in a negative light to some viewers as in the Muslim faith it goes against the Quran to be a homosexual. People have been complaining that Syed has been portrayed in a negative light. Some say that Eastenders should of or had the opportunity to portray Syed and his family as a regular Muslim Indian family who live on the square as good citizens of the community but failed to do so.
Judith Butler believes that homosexuality should be seen as a norm in film and television and that sexuality is fluid. Sexual preference is a choice and you can choose to be with whatever gender you want. Syed at the end was lead to be with Amira by his mother after he told her that he was gay. She told him that it is just a phase that he is going through and at the end of the day he will grow to love Amira and his lust for Christian will soon be memories. Zainab could hardly look Christian in the eyes she was so hurt that not only did he have a beautiful fiancée and wanted to give everything up for Christian, the fact that he admitted he was gay made her so furious because it goes against their religious view as Muslims.
I think that Eastenders is both trying to educate the viewers about homosexuality and give a voice to marginalised communities. However, when bringing in different religions and ethic groups into these storylines they have to be careful of what they say and make their characters do as they might go into places which could seem offensive. But if Eastenders do not stir up controversy with their characters, the Masood family would be like any other family in the Walford residence and they would be no point of introducing Syed and the Masood family would not have been one of the highly known and popular families of the Eastenders family and would not be very interesting. This storyline is a story that happens in day to day life in the community but people struggle to come out about being homosexual because of the slating they may get by other people and will not be accepted in society. In Syed’s case he is just struggling with the conflict between his faith and his feelings and does not know what path to choose. If he chooses one will it be the right one for him or will he do it to make other people happy. We only see Syed and Christian kiss and nothing else beyond that, this is more of a deeper inner feeling he gets by falling in love with Christian and knows he wants to be with him. He cannot help his emotions and starts to question what his real sexuality is and also wants to remain true to his Muslim faith and does not want to disappoint his family.
Nina Wadia who plays Syed’s mother Zainab on Eastenders said to mail online ‘The soap needs to challenge stereotypes and misinterpretations of Muslims in Britain.’ This statement to me is very true yes sometimes to some people it can come of as offensive but people need to know what goes on in society in the modern day. Reading all the statements and by doing deeper research into this Eastenders case study I believe that Eastenders is trying to inform their audience about what happens in society today and they are trying to give a voice to marginalized communities and but doing this they need to come up with storyline that are challenging.
