Kamala Khan makes an unexpected heroine in the new Marvel TV show, Ms. Marvel. She is a 16-year-old Pakistani American from Jersey City who spends her free time making online videos about the Avengers, and soon discovers her own superpowers and join the team. Her background is—surprisingly—normal compared to other Avengers such as Captain America or the Incredible Hulk. In the beginning, Kamala is just an average teen who is praying to get her driver’s license, adores comics and movies, and loves to party. Unlike the stereotypical American teen, Kamala is Muslim.
Muslims and people from South Asia are often stereotyped negatively by the media. Kamala is here to represent Muslims in a positive light. Our heroine does everything a Muslim and ordinary child does rather than falling into typical stereotypes such as rebelling against conservative parents. Ms. Marvel depicts the Khans as a regular family where speaking in a mix of Urdu and English to each other and greeting each other by saying salaam is normal.
Also, Kamala doesn’t wear a hijab, or a headscarf traditionally worn by Muslim women. Out of the 1 million Muslim woman in America, 48 percent don’t cover their hair. Muslim women have the freedom to choose whether to wear a hijab or not. Wearing a hijab isn’t the sole and absolute way to identify Muslim women. In many TV shows and films, Muslim women are always wearing hijabs. That isn’t accurate. The new Marvel show respects this freedom of choice. This representation has earned the applause of people all over the globe.
Muslim Americans were satisfied with this new film. “For too long Hollywood and the media have relied on reductive, one-dimensional monolithic characters, as well as lazy sign-posting,” said Rifat Malik, who runs American Muslim Today, a non-profit news outlet that challenges the media’s negative stereotypes about Muslims. She also stated, “It was so heartening to see the humor and familial love that pervades so many Pakistani Muslim households being depicted with such warmth and levity.”
The successful new Marvel show reminds people of the stereotypes they have been tending to impose on Muslims, unfairly associating them with the terms “Muslim” and “terrorist.” The film showed that Muslims and South Asians shouldn’t be discriminated against or isolated from society. Instead, we embrace them and accept them as a part of our society.
Resources: Ms. Marvel treats being Muslim as ordinary — and that makes it extraordinary _ NPR.pdf
Muslims and people from South Asia are often stereotyped negatively by the media. Kamala is here to represent Muslims in a positive light. Our heroine does everything a Muslim and ordinary child does rather than falling into typical stereotypes such as rebelling against conservative parents. Ms. Marvel depicts the Khans as a regular family where speaking in a mix of Urdu and English to each other and greeting each other by saying salaam is normal.
Also, Kamala doesn’t wear a hijab, or a headscarf traditionally worn by Muslim women. Out of the 1 million Muslim woman in America, 48 percent don’t cover their hair. Muslim women have the freedom to choose whether to wear a hijab or not. Wearing a hijab isn’t the sole and absolute way to identify Muslim women. In many TV shows and films, Muslim women are always wearing hijabs. That isn’t accurate. The new Marvel show respects this freedom of choice. This representation has earned the applause of people all over the globe.
Muslim Americans were satisfied with this new film. “For too long Hollywood and the media have relied on reductive, one-dimensional monolithic characters, as well as lazy sign-posting,” said Rifat Malik, who runs American Muslim Today, a non-profit news outlet that challenges the media’s negative stereotypes about Muslims. She also stated, “It was so heartening to see the humor and familial love that pervades so many Pakistani Muslim households being depicted with such warmth and levity.”
The successful new Marvel show reminds people of the stereotypes they have been tending to impose on Muslims, unfairly associating them with the terms “Muslim” and “terrorist.” The film showed that Muslims and South Asians shouldn’t be discriminated against or isolated from society. Instead, we embrace them and accept them as a part of our society.
Resources: Ms. Marvel treats being Muslim as ordinary — and that makes it extraordinary _ NPR.pdf
