The Rescue Discourse: Representations of Saudi Women in the Western Media

Abstract

It is important to observe that the media has a significant effect on how people form perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes towards issues in society. Generally, the western media views Saudi women as oppressed, unprivileged, and unable to participate and integrate with society due to Saudi culture, which the western media claims are ultra-conservative. In addition, the western media shows that Saudi women are in desperate need of western intervention to rescue them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the representation of Saudi women in four articles published pre and post the lifting of the driving ban; to investigate the processes in discourse through which such a representation is formed, and to investigate the underlying power relations and ideology that enable and motivate such a representation. Implementing Fairclough’s (1995b) three-dimensional model of CDA, the researchers find that there is a positive shift in the way Saudi women are represented in the media from a submissive image to a more affluent and independent woman.

Use of Vectors to Explore Visual Meaning Making

“…As noted, presentations of Saudi society in the Western media are complex (Bajri & Alqurayqiri, 2022;Le Renard, 2019;Racman & Hadji, 2022). In the main, this is critical of the restrictions placed on women, in particular, in what is seen as a religiously dominated society.…”

“…In particular, there has been a tendency towards either portrayal of backwardness and repression or an exoticism (slipping into eroticism) of gender and social relations (Said, 1997(Said, , 2003. In the Saudi context, the focus has been on the substantial restrictions facing women in public life (Bajri & Alqurayqiri, 2022) but with little note taken of how women have always been able to run their businesses (Al-Asfour et al, 2017) or access higher education. In effect by focusing on the severe restrictions, the net effect has been to overlook or downplay any agency of Saudi women (Karolak & Guta, 2020;Satiti, 2017).…”

“…In this particular case, the goal of the wider video is important to any interpretation of this particular still. It suggests female agency, even within the then restrictions (Bajri & Alqurayqiri, 2022;Le Renard, 2019), suggesting both a clear desire for fewer restrictions but also a degree of social agency missed by some Western commentaries (Boghani, 2019).…”

“…In many analyses, Saudi Women are often assigned to one of two very distinct roles, as oppressed and excluded from social life or as a source of male entertainment. The implications of this have been studied from the perspectives of political science (Karolak & Guta, 2020), sociology and media studies (Bajri & Alqurayqiri, 2022;Le Renard, 2019;Racman & Hadji, 2022).The ongoing shift from media in the form of print newspapers to something more visual, especially online (Hameleers et al, 2020) with a strong emphasis on visual images, clear framing (to attract passing interest) and less on text. In addition, the emerging role of carefully constructed fake images (Grothaus, 2021) makes the ability to interpret just how the media works to present images all the more important (Hameleers et al, 2020;Racman & Hadji, 2022).…”

“…In many analyses, Saudi Women are often assigned to one of two very distinct roles, as oppressed and excluded from social life or as a source of male entertainment. The implications of this have been studied from the perspectives of political science (Karolak & Guta, 2020), sociology and media studies (Bajri & Alqurayqiri, 2022;Le Renard, 2019;Racman & Hadji, 2022).…”