IMAGES OF CONSUMPTION: The Architecture of Gender in Post 9/11 Dubai

Abstract

After 9/11, the Muslim world became subject to heightened international scrutiny. The UAE was already on the rise in the 90s as a transportation and trade center, but the Western divestment of Arab capital and redirection of regional wealth gave Dubai the spark it needed to develop into the “city of spectacle” we know it as today. Rapid development, architectural competitions, and masterplan proposals engendered an image-obsessed Dubai that seeks to be noticed. Through various media, Dubai was carefully created and neatly narrated to be a utopia with luxurious shopping opportunities, packaged experiences, and must-see artificial and man-made structures. Specifically, for women, Dubai has branded itself to be a welcoming, tolerant sanctuary that liberates and publicizes women who, in large numbers, come from countries with strict gender segregation and clothing rules. Specifically, mega-malls started to become more prominent and numerous in the UAE; its scale and spectacular nature render the mall as one of the few public spaces in the Muslim Arab world urban typology, making women more public as well. With many more men than women in its population, Dubai actually disproportionately displays more women in its visual media and in its framed narrative than men. With all eyes on the Muslim world on its financial transactions, political policies, and social treatment of women (with the veil and Islamic treatment of women frequently weaponized by the West in a post-9/11 epoch), Dubai’s liberal image and publicization of the woman is hardly a coincidence. Dubai’s consumer culture via retail and tour packages reflect a new movement in a globalizing world in which spaces become spectacles that are to be consumed as images.