Alienating through anger? Diasporic Muslim girls’ coming-of-age in France and Belgium through the white gaze of the <i>SKAM</i> franchise

This article analyses whether and how the popular coming-of-age adaptations SKAM France/Belgique (2018–23) and wtFOCK (2018–present) employ a white gaze to depict diasporic Muslim girls in Western Europe, amidst a rise in ‘progressive’ Muslim representations. Drawing on a postcolonial feminist lens, it situates these series within the broader context of rising gendered Islamophobia in France and Belgium. Despite nuancing diasporic Muslim teen girls’ intersectional lived experiences, these series continue to reiterate a dominant white gaze. The article contends that through this unquestioned white gaze ‘racialized anger’ is misrepresented. Finally, it argues that the neoliberal logics informing these misrepresentations consequently naturalise what the article coins a racialised knowledge binary : ‘accepted ignorance’ for white teens versus ‘expected knowledge’ for Muslim/racialised teens.