Representation of Muslim Women in the OTT Industry

Media are expected to inform and facilitate connections between people around the world and serve as a normalizing forum for social construction of realities. Because society values the media so much, the media currently has the power to direct attention to and from issues, and mold public perceptions. However, media representation of Muslim women has been that of the Other, relegating these women to stereotypes that are harmful. Oftentimes, Muslim women are portrayed as the entire opposite of the White woman who, in turn, is often depicted as progressive, modern, liberated, free, educated, and autonomous. When Muslim women are not represented by media accurately, stereotypes about them flourish in a society where many already dislike or even hate them. Although there are already many studies on media representation of Muslim women in various settings, there is a death of knowledge about how they are represented in the OTT media, particularly, Netflix. To address this gap on literature, a qualitative study was undertaken to determine the reception of two shows streamed on Netflix. The first is “Elite,” a series telling the story of three working-class adolescents who enroll in an exclusive private school in Spain, but who experienced clashes with wealthy students that eventually leads to murder. The second one is Jilbab Traveler (Perjalaman Musliman), which tells the story of a Muslim woman who falls in love with a Korean photographer. In the case of Netflix, the negative representation of Muslim women is showed in Elite, a series not produced and written by Muslims. Positive representation of Muslim women is found in Jilbab Traveler, written and produced by Muslims.