Ugly American... no wait, Ugly Iranian-American

There have always been two Irans, or at least two types of Persians. I mean, this was the whole basis of the 1979 revolution, right? There were the super traditional Persians, and then there were the super materialistic Persians. When the revolution happened, most of the latter moved to L.A. Today, with the advent of websites like http://www.uglypersianhouses.com/ and now the upcoming reality TV show about Iranian-Americans living it up in L.A., "Shahs of Sunset", I guess it was inevitable that there would eventually be a backlash from within Iran against Iranian-Americans, all using the medium of the Great Satan himself: television.

Azadeh Moaveni (the author of "Lipstick Jihad") wrote an article about Iranians' TV obsession with a comedy show called "Satellite" about a family with 900 illegal channels (but really more about how much real Iranians should hate Iranian-Americans).

Iran has long had its highly publicized version of the Ugly American; now, it seems, the country is embracing something else entirely: the Ugly Iranian-American. . . Most of the clips focus on ordinary Iranian-Americans, portraying them as drug-addicted, promiscuous, amoral loons. The show is busy with flamboyant gay men who cause the family much alarm as they wiggle their hips and flap their hands on-screen, speaking in screeching tones.

I find this all hilarious, of course, especially because I'm one of those "drug-addicted, promiscuous, amoral loons." I'm also friends with lots of "flamboyant gay men" (although I admit that I haven't seen any of them wiggle their hips or flap their hands lately). To me, the bigger message here is that even Iranians are recognizing the existence of Iranian-Americans--us formerly non-existent beings. They may hate us and stereotype us (I certainly am not the L.A. type!), but they acknowledge that we are here at least. This is also what I tell people about "Shahs of Sunset": Yes, it's probably going to be awful, but I'm just glad this will be out in popular culture and that a dialogue can begin.

Anyway, here's a clip of the controversial show: