I just cannot believe the self-centredness of this gay girl in damascus hoaxer

[HerBeX]

story here

When I heard it on PM, I assumed he was about 18 or 19 because obviously, only a child would be that self-obsessed that he would do something as irresponsible and egotistical as this, use someone else's photo without her permission, put other people's lives at risk... But no, he is a grown up 40 ish man with a wife, if you please.

I felt it deserved a feminist respons...

LRD, I'm not sure.

I think it was a weird thing to do, and he probably shouldn't have done it. But I also think authorial intent is irrelevant - if people found comfort or inspiration from the piece, the mere fact that the author isn't technically a Syrian lesbian activist doesn't invalidate that. Art is subjective, I think this could be.

So are the trolls on here, who make up dead babies and create a character that people relate to, creating art then? Or are they just exploiting people's desire to reach out to other human beings in apparent pain, and getting some sleazy thrill from having their attention and hearing their personal stories?

Surely art that has any integrity at least lets you know that you are actually experiencing art, rather than simply having the wool pulled over your eyes?

He didn't pull the wool over anyone's eyes, they willingly pulled the wool right down over their own eyes. The guy definitely is in the wrong, but it seems to me that a lot of the vitriol being directed at him is due to people being annoyed that they were 'duped'. A valuable lesson not to believe everything on the internet without a second source.

I disagree. Nowhere did he say that the blog was fictional.

Unless you think that anybody who gets ripped off or duped only has themselves to blame?

It is always over entitled (white) men, who attempt these self indulgent stunts. The saddest sentence in there for me was from an (actual) Syrian Blogger who talked about , if someone came for me now it may be ignored as people would think she was another Amina'. And if the Syrian forces didn't have a notion to kidnap lesbians for speaking out, before,they certainly do now.

So what he has actually done, is dissipated some of the power of social media for the marginalised in war zones for the sake of a self indulgent wank, by fetishising the 'other'. Any notion that it is potentially an artistic endeavour is missing several points ( and reflects a hugely privileged view point), are you saying it makes it ok to overwrite the experience others and also make them more vulnerable because there is an interesting 'discussion' about 'art' to be had by us, whilst we live our comfortable, conflict-free lives in the west?

thanks for posting this thread HerBeX, wasn't aware of this story.

The 'is it art?' debate simply doesn't apply here because, while there are some fictional blogs, the clear expectation and the default assumption is that a blog is real and, if written by an individual (rather than an organisation), autobiographical. So hooey to all this nonsense about it possibly being art. He set out to deceive people, plain and simple.

As far as authenticity goes, reading some bits of the blog shown in screen in Newsnight, it looked slightly off to me anyway. Now it's easy to say that with hindsight, of course, but I haven't met any actual women who make references to 'my sex' for their genitals - that sounds like something straight out of soft porn or a Black Lace novel. Mr McMaster shouldn't get carried away thinking that because lots of people read the blog, it was therefore authentic or beautifully-crafted prose (ah, we're back to the art debate) simply that it provided entertainment value. The Daily Star also does this for some people.

And, I agree totally with snowmama above. Self indulgent idiot.

Apparently his is studying for a PhD on some aspect of Syrian social conditions and he got a lot of his background info that way. Goodness knows how she feels now.

'At risk of sounding like a postmodernist, I do think this is a very clear-cut case where this guy wants to write a little story pretending he's a lesbian, because in the real world he has no control over lesbians and feels their sexuality excludes him, so he's chosen instead to make himself into the narrator because that feels much more powerful. '

good analysis.

snowmama, exactly!

I find it disturbing, though, that when something like this happens posters like MrsR rally round to find defenses (which are so ingenious/far-fetched even the blogger hasn't made them!) and the Guardian happily twists his words to make him sound that bit nicer ... are we really so programmed to make excuses for men like this?

Especially odd when you compare this to the reactions to trolls on here - who're mostly women.

What a wanker - however, I do find it absolutely unbelievable that news organisations around the world were using his 'information' without doing any basic checks on the validity of his claims! It seems to have been easily confirmed that there was no such person as Amina Arraf after the guy came forward and admitted it

LRD I think it's partly because of the halo around blogging and social media at the moment - many people are determined to see them as wonderful liberating forces for good and don't want to have that undermined. This can be seen in the Guardian's editorial on the subject here - they clearly didn't want to entertain the notion that the blogger might be false - much easier to think that a woman ringing them claiming it was her photo was lying.

Yes, how arrogant this guy was. And he's not the only one.

I feel that there's an element of theft/colonialism in this. It belittles the experiences of the real women out there who have to live with being gay in a culture that is not accepting thereof day after day.

I haven't read the original blog, but I find it hard to believe a straight man could write in a credible lesbian 'voice' accepted by lesbians of the same cultural background. Westerners could put the 'off' signals down to cultural differences. Have any real Syrian origin lesbians commented?

alice - it certainly seems some Syrians believed him:

'Despite MacMaster's assertion "I do not believe that I have harmed anyone", activists were furious. Sami Hamwi, the pseudonym for the Damascus editor of GayMiddleEast.com, wrote: "To Mr MacMaster, I say shame on you!!! There are bloggers in Syria who are trying as hard as they can to report news and stories from the country. We have to deal with too many difficulties than you can imagine. What you have done has harmed many, put us all in danger, and made us worry about our LGBT activism. Add to that, that it might have caused doubts about the authenticity of our blogs, stories, and us.

"Your apology is not accepted, since I have myself started to investigate Amina's arrest. I could have put myself in a grave danger inquiring about a fictitious figure. Really ? Shame on you!!!"

That's from the Guardian article - sounds as if Hamwi, at least, believed it all.

Alice - wasn't the fictitious character half American? So Syrian lesbians could put 'off signals' down to that.

Oooh, that's a silver lining SGM ... I hadn't thought, but he will look like a right lying knob after this.

Sorry OP - didn;t see this thread when I started my own - some really good comments on here, will have to read through them this pm.

will ask MN to delete mine, just will post this link to the related story of one of his lesbian blogger correspondents - who is also a straight male

probably right missmary - i think that was one of the arguments used by one of the men concerned - no-one was listening to my opinions on this so I pretended to be someone who actually knew something!

I think the whole thing is really depressing. Even if you accepted that he was doing it with good intentions to get the issue discussed (which I don't think he was) it was sheer arrogance for him to assume that he - as a white male heterosexual - could post a better blog than an authentic voice.

I've never understood mens obsession with lesbians, I don't fantasies about gay men banging each other and I don't see what makes Bi's special, just because they swing both ways doesn't mean they would want to get another girl involved for a threesome and I'm sure the men who fantasies about such things would find the idea of an orgy disgusting.

I'm shocked the guy is married actually, I wasn't aware of any of it until Newsnight I hope that woman who's picture he nicked sues the hell out of the sad fuck, and from what I've heard from the blogs it was clearly written by a man, as a wet dream blog, to tittilate other males,someone will make a porno of it.