Ethnic Stereotypes In Aladdin

These films have included certain features that can be seen as covert racism, a form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious. In their film Aladdin, released in 1992 introduced the sixth Disney princess Jasmine, Disney include a song as the opening credits that created great controversy. The original song lyrics were, “Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place where the caravan camels roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” After receiving negative criticism Disney agreed to change the lyrics of the song after obtaining approval from the song producers. However, the Arabic community was not fully thrilled about the song after the change. It was "nowhere near adequate, considering the racism depicted in 'Aladdin,' " said Don Bustany, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (Fox). In the film, Disney attempts to recreate Arabic culture by including what they believe as producers will represent the culture. “When they show a market where the signs are meant to be in Arabic but are written in a form of gibberish, it implies there really isn't a culture in existence that uses that language" (Shweffi). For their latest film Moana, the producers of the movie attempted to fully capture and represent Polynesian culture to the best of their

Aladdin is a proletariat, trying to stay alive by stealing food. Due to his social class, he is unable to wed princess Jasmine because a law forbids commoners to marry royalty. On the other hand, Jasmine is part of the bourgeoisie. Trying to overcome this obstacle, Aladdin pretends to be a prince through one of his wishes granted by the genie. However, the evil Jafar uncovers him and eventually this conflict is solved by Jasmine 's father, Sultan. After seeing the courage of Aladdin, he changes the law and allows a commoner to marry his daughter. This compromise happened due to the conflict of social class between the poor commoner and high royalty.

How Arabian Nights redactors borrowed love-story motifs from pre-Islamic Iraq and applied them to historical personages such as the caliphal vizier Jafar the Barmecide and Abbasa, sister of Harun al-Rahid. Jafar and Abbasa are then made to behave

Literary Analysis of Aladdin Disney’s Aladdin is a film that attempts to stereotype and westernize Arab culture. Using racially inaccurate stereotypes, an inaccurate depiction of The Middle East, as well as countless cultural generalizations, Aladdin creates a setting of “exotic orientalism” and Islamaphobia. “[Aladdin depicts…] the Arab world as backwards and irrational, the film’s distorted ethnic representations fuel the western world’s fear of alternity and perpetuates dangerous stereotypes.” (Heydt).

Disney’s Aladdin is a fit example of misrepresentation of diverse cultures from a Westernized perspective. Disney is famous for lending representations of world from a Western viewpoint. According to Edward Said, orientalism is a way of expressing Arab peoples and Islamic cultures as compared to Western or European society (Palestine Diary). Said’s explains orientalism is the framework that we use to

Traditionally, Disney tales have a common theme where their princesses or princes’ curses need to be broken by the spell through a kiss of love, so the dream becomes a reality. In the first feature-length animated film from Disney, The Snow White, and Seven Dwarves. Jasmine the princess and Aladdin the street boy both they had chemistry and realized their wishes against Jaffar and Middle-Est culture. Passing over the fabulous story of Ratatouille, Alfredo Linguini and Remy that is the story about rejected someone according is status. Disney animated movies blend social diversity through their tales, but they didn’t realize to go so far until they see the first African – American president in the White House, Disney made a First American princess who is black, The Frog and the Princess. Moreover, Disney animated movies are diversities whose people knew as The Jungle from Indian culture, Mulan is a Chinese tale, the Amerindian- Princess Pocahontas, and so on. Thus, Disney animated movies include more various cultures and teach children to know and appreciate diverse cultures.

Lazarus states her thesis by saying: “The Lion King is breaking box office records. But it’s not breaking stereotypes (1)”. She discusses how at first she believes it will be different from the traditional Disney movies because it is based on a group of animals and not on sexist princess movies such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast (1). Lazarus says she had grown “weary of reinforcing women’s subordinate status by screening fables about a beauty who tames an angry male beast or a mermaid who gives up her glorious voice and splits her body to be with a prince.(1)”

the South Asian community, despite him playing an Arab. The Thief of Bagdad has its flaws

When it comes to the illustrations of his popular characters in Aladdin, Disney proves to be quite racist. Most of the small-part, background characters and especially “the bad guys”, such as Jafar and the palace guards, all have incredibly distinct Arabic appearances. Every one of them stereotypically consists of “beards, large noses, sinister eyes, and heavy accents, and they’re wielding swords constantly” (Giroux, 104). In contrast, Aladdin the hero, looks and talks like an All-American man. His skin is pale and he wants to be addressed as Al, which is an American name rather than Arabic. He does not have a beard, big nose, turban, or accent. The key point in this illustration is that Disney is establishing that Aladdin looks right for the part of a hero, while Jafar looks right for a villain.” Jack Zipes, author of the essay “Breaking the Disney Spell”, clarifies that “though the characters are fleshed out to become more realistic, they are also one-dimensional. There is no character development because the characters are stereotypes, arranged according to a credo of domestication of the imagination”

1001 Nights is a collection of stories set in Southwest Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and other Islamic states. There is no known author for 1001 Nights and the origin of the stories has little known. The book and its stories are very well known in the Arab world and very well known in Europe and the America's. So much so that tales from the book have been adapted into the loosely based 1992 film Aladdin. While the stories are so well known, the culture of the Arab world is not. Much of a societies culture comes from their Art, Music, and Dance. All of which is rich throughout Arabic history.

In brief, this study discusses about the representation of orientalism idea which is portrayed in the film Avatar. The film tells about the conflict between human and native people in Planet Pandora, where human exploits the land and oppresses the native. This study explores in what way the idea of orientalism is represented and how both narrative and non-narrative aspects of the film helped in delivering that representation.

Plot summary: Amir flashbacks to when he was twelve years old in Afghanistan. He lives with his father, Baba, and has two servants, Ali and Hassan, who are also a father and son duo. The latter two are Hazaras, Afghan’s minority, and as such, are subjected to racial slurs and cruelty. Amir and Hassan are playing when Assef, Kamal, and

Aladdin is a Walt Disney movie that released in 1992. The animated movie is based on an Arab-style folktale of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp from One Thousand and One Nights. This movie is based upon a street rat named Aladdin, who lives in Agrabah with his monkey friend Abu. When a princess named Jasmine gets tired of being told what to do she sneaks out to the marketplace, where she accidentally meets Aladdin. Under the orders of Jafar (the sultan's advisor), Aladdin is thrown in jail and gets tricked into Jafar's plot to rule the land with a mysterious lamp. There is legend that only a person who is a "diamond in the rough" (poor) can retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin falls in love with Princess Jasmine, but he can not marry

Even the most seemingly harmless of __ can change the way we treat peopl. In Aladdin, Aladdin is a street rat until he finds a magic genie lamp, which can grant him three of his wishes. However, the villain Jafar, who put him up to finding the lamp, has a different idea for its uses. In the end, Aladdin has to save Princess Jasmine and the city of Agrabah with the influential help of the genie from Jafar and his evil forces. In Disney’s Aladdin, the culture in Agrabah is presented through an orientalist lense, suggesting the population in Agrabah needs, wants, and would be better off with the influence of western culture; this representation is in order for Disney to justify the United States cultural colonization.

1. While the film Aladdin is set in a country of Arabic origin, many stereotypes and racial views are still present. For example, as pointed out by Addison in “Saving Other Women” all the other men except for Aladdin have facial hair and darker skin. This facial hair represents power and sexuality. Aladdin, who represents the lower social class, is lighter-skinned and clean shaven. Aladdin and Jasmine both have American accents as well. While many women have veiled faces, their bodies are nowhere near as covered. Jasmine is an example of this as she bares her stomach throughout the film, even though she is part of the royal family. This act of veiling was intended to symbolize women’s modesty and respectability and it also represents the idea that men’s and women’s spheres are different (Abu-Lughod). Perhaps this is why Jasmine is also one of the only females featured throughout the film. The American-looking Jasmine and Aladdin challenge the Arabian laws and Islamic culture. This, along with the U.S. military efforts in the Persian Gulf War at the time of the movie’s release matched the media’s promotion of straying away from barbaric traditions as an excuse to intervene in the Middle East (Giroux). This film also misrepresents Arab culture as noted by Shaheen in “Aladdin Animated” the Arabic since names are mispronounced and store signs are written in scribbles. Even the word “barbaric” in the opening part of the film refers to the child-like speech they speak and also