Op-ed: Ramez Galal Strikes Again & This Time Rania Youssef Is Caught in the Crossfire
It is the Holy Month of Ramadan and with it comes the season of TV shows; all types of shows for all ages and backgrounds. One of the most famous shows that became a staple of Ramadan fun is a celebrity prank show hosted by Actor Ramez Galal. The show is notorious for showing the other side of celebrities, the human side that reacts out of fear and anger, which is the main element that pushes the public to keep coming back each year and see their favorite celebrities react like the rest of us. However, yesterday’s episode was a tad bit much more than silly pranks, fun and games, and profanities! All thanks to the guest of the episode Rania Youssef, who was trending at number one on Twitter immediately after the episode. Let’s find out why?
The Episode
The episode, aired on 8 April, goes on as usual with the same one-punch lines introduction for the celebrity guest Rania Youssef and a special guest appearance from non-other than Hollywood’s biggest star Van Dam!
The prank this year is tricking the celebrities into thinking they’re actually filming an action sequence. However, it turns out, to no one’s surprise, that the practical effects are there to terrorize the guest. All fun and games, no harm no foul. Just good old TV entertainment.
With that being said, the intro for the episode relied solely upon the controversy of Rania dressing in almost every place she goes whether it’s a red carpet event or just a picture on her Instagram which evidently reduces this talented actress with a long legacy into a z-list film performer. Granted this might’ve been done with no bad intention to reach this level of defaming but objectively, it was the end result that made the star the number 1 trend on Twitter that day.
The Trend
Right after the episode aired Egyptian viewers immediately took to Twitter to express their feelings about, you guessed it, Rania Youssef, not the show, not the host nothing but the movie star and what she was wearing, the general reaction from every tweet is mostly the same: that Rania knew that the episode is going to air during the Holy Month of Ramadan, and she deliberately chose to wear a “revealing” outfit to provoke the audience in the holiest Islamic month
All the while she was wearing simple sportswear, green leggings and a yellow top then wore the mandatory costume that every celebrity wears on each episode for “filming” which is a simple bodysuit.
The Controversy
It seems like everywhere Rania goes controversy follows, and yes it comes with the job and it’s in the territory of celebrity culture, but one thing is also as clear as that. The public quickness and eagerness to paint women as the villain, especially when it comes to how they dress. The predisposed judgment of the public eye precedes the actual assessment of the situation or what a woman is wearing even if it’s not that revealing, even if it’s worn for a couple of minutes on screen.
So far as it comes to the two Egyptian celebrities involved, Rania has not commented on the incident in any shape or form. Ramez however took it as a win tweeting about how the star trended immediately after the episode on Twitter and Google.
Finally, at a glance, this might seem like everyday celebrity life, but a longer gaze at the quick trend and controversy might reveal a bigger underlying issue, that obviously connects to the misogynistic public view of women in general.
