This paper explores the question of the political in new Arabic texts. The political, I suggest, can no longer be reduced to clearly defined ideological models and historical narratives shaped by nationalist struggles from the 1950s and 1960s. Social and political transformations and technological developments in writing and communication have permanently changed the nature of the political and the categories through which it’s explored in literature. In this context, I explore new tools of confrontation, critique, and subversion in scandalous and vulgar writing and tell-all novels, diaries, and blogs. Focusing on the nomenclature of scandal and exploring its different manifestations in Arab cultural history, I argue that “causing a scandal” or “making a scene” [fadiha, sharshaha, tajris, kashf] take shape through modes of embodiment emerging from interactive texts that refigure notions of authorship, readership, and community. Engaging these aesthetic frameworks across theoretical and cultural contexts elucidates key paradigmatic shifts in writing practices and sheds new light on political transformations in the Arab world.