The Image

6- The Image:

This is the final component in the factors shaping the Middle Eastern male personality.
Personal Image is important for every human being; people market themselves through their image. How one is perceived and how one is portrayed and how one likes other to see him are the major component of personal image.

In Business, A company looks for smart, energetic, sharp, elegant, self assured person to hire, to portray the company’s image and to reach to the masses. But sometimes image deceives, what the company wants us to think is not what it really is, and that goes for people in real life situation too.


For Middle Eastern men this is no difference but image holds a priority; as well as that the Middle Eastern society obliges their male’s image to reflect certain values. That is why the image here holds a bigger more important aspect to it; the Middle Eastern man image should be one of a strong, powerful, knowledgeable, mature, funny, family man, one that people seek for advice and favors.

A perfect image where any remote hint of failure is not allowed, any normal or medium achievement are considered as failure in the society, only success is expected from all population!!! Isn’t that ironic, where most of the population only achieves failure by global standards!!

Unfortunately, even those with limited mediocre qualities, think of themselves as perfect, and behave accordingly, which makes it even harder for people around them to confront them with the truth and the reality, such confrontation is unheard of in the Middle Eastern culture. One can mimic, joke and criticize but never in the face of the person in question.

As one can expect, the image here reflects personal achievements, a young Middle Eastern man is eager to achieve success, each and every ones regard success from his point of view, but it mainly contains quick financial success. The unduly success usually leads to arrogance, and to the envy of others, this lethal combination usually leads to decline and failure eventually. (The rise and fall of a shiny star).

Unfortunately, The Image concept varied and deviated from its original target, where it was supposed to give incentive to become a better human being, to have strong values and to apply those values in each and every aspect of life, we now see that image only promotes personal gains despite ethics and values. We see young men using all means to reach fast monetary and materialistic rewards despite the fact of their ineligibility for such rewards; Or of their lack of ethics.