How it works

The bloodied swords

Each review will be summarised – or starred – with one to five bloodied savage swords. The more swords an entry has, the more offences it committed.

A bloodied sword is awarded for each of the following infractions:

Exoticism– for romanticising, sexualising or Orientalising people or countries.

Violence – for typecasting Arabs or Muslims, without nuance, as violent, angry, or terrorists.

One-dimensionality – for the erasure, or lack of complexity, of Arab or Muslim characters.

False complexity – for storylines that consider themselves to portray nuanced Arabs or Muslims but that actually perpetuate the above stereotypes.

Laziness – possibly the most shameful of all, for poorly researched language, culture or clothes, including the hijab.