The Arab Culture In Disney's Aladdin

One thing the film did not do so well was an accurate representation of the Arabian people.

according to saheen cinema is a vehicle which fosters the stereotype of the evil arab. Post 9/11 attack the whole image has been changed . Saheen also says that the Hollywood accepts African American actors but express racist slurs towards arabs (Shaheen, J. G. (2003). Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 588(1), 171-193.) There is no shortage of muslim villains and terrorists in Hollywood films and television programs. All of the muslims are pictured in Terrorists or villians or Barbaric or foreigners . The media potrays muslims in a very narrow boundry, a muslim women is either shown as belly dancer or a women wearing a hijab while mens are mostly shown as terrorist or either sheiks having huge oil spills in arab . the media never shows how good and how bright the muslim community has flourished with knowledge that they precive. One of the biggest media example is Disney potryaing muslins in Aladin. They present this community living in deserts and having swords with them all the time . did anyone has ever seen an ordinary muslim guy who carries a big sword with him always? No

Racism: discrimination which exemplifies stereotypical differences between the ethnic groups to which people belong. While Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. Disney’s movie Aladdin (1992), “was a high-profile release, the winner of two Academy Awards, and one of the most successful Disney films ever produced” (Giroux, 104); however, what is often disregarded is the obvious depiction of careless racism towards Arabs seen in the illustrations of the characters, the statuses into which they are placed and the lyrics of the opening song near beginning of the film. Furthermore, with the movie disguising itself as innocent and wholesome, children are exposed to these

"Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA." That statement, coming from a man who was a past president of Motion Picture Association of America, is an automatic sign that movie accuracy is not always the top priority of filmmakers. Something shown once in film can hardly sway someone view on a topic. However, the continuous repetition of a cut out stereotype has the power to make minds think a certain way. Since the beginning of Cinema, that has been the case of viewing the people of Arabian and Middle Eastern decent. Aside from the cliché turban and robe, what is shown is a consistent connection between any form of evil and those two particular groups of people. The reasoning for that falls behind America's political agenda.

By continually representing the Muslim or the Arab as the heartless villain, even cartoon movies contain a biased perspective against the Muslim image in America. All that glitters is not gold, and this is true for films fresh off the reels of Hollywood, as some contain an unfair perspective of Muslims.

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

Kids are growing up with racial prejudices created from Disney movies. For example, Disney princess are commonly thought of as white because of several films that came out early in young kids lives. Causing them to grow up with the idea that all princesses and upper class citizens are white. However, when these princesses are not white, they are hypersexualized. For instance, the Arabian princess, Jasmine, from the film Aladdin uses a seductive motion to gain her way. So not only are these movies teaching racism, they are teaching young girls to take advantage of their body to acquire what they want. The opposition may claim that few movies display this racism. However that is too abundant already. The children who watch those films will have racist fundamentals implemented into their brains. The Society For Research In Children Development wrote an article explaining how racism affects children. After researching and interviewing kids, they came to the conclusion that,”When children become aware of these types of bias about their own racial or ethnic group, it can affect how they respond to everyday situations, ranging from interacting with others to taking tests.”(Society For Research In Children Development 1). This explains how racism can affect kids when they are growing and developing through life. Disney should create films that do not produce racist fundamentals to

According to Jack G. Shaheen in his essay titled, “The Media’s Image of Arabs,” Hollywood producers must have instant kits that contain sunglasses, Arab clothing, tents, and mosques in order to provide a snapshot of Hollywood’s stereotypical Arab (99). Undoubtedly, the same holds true when depicting the typical southern example. Whether one

Walt Disney shows us how his strong feelings and or values shown in his films were all meant in a good way. “Our heritage and ideals, our codes and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings”. Disney uses language predominately as means to imply the race of a character. Language has the ability to signal race and has been influenced to exploit racial stereotypes, which are displayed in Disney films. The problem arises when movies do not portray these values. Disney Classics that our generation adored as children are now thought to showcase many questionable values in their storylines. There is a clear representation of stereotypes through the use of language in many of these classics. An example of sexist stereotypes can be seen in Cinderella, where the young girl is helpless until the Prince falls in love with her. Most Disney movies exhibit lessons not desirable for children as this sets a precedent

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

The world is filled with different races, cultures, religions and beliefs; everyone has a different opinion and perspectives on life. Unfortunately not everyone respects other peoples personal opinions, this had led to discrimination, stereotyping, hatred and even war. After many incidents that affected the world; Arabs started being discriminated by many people. People were stereotyping the Arabs and they had the wrong image about them.

The misrepresentation of minorities is frequent in Hollywood films and Arabs are one of the many minority groups Hollywood misrepresent. Arabs are portrayed negatively in films for long time even before 9/11. The Arabs characters are portrayed with always having accent, wearing traditional attire, untrustworthy, aggressive and almost always associated with terrorism. The continuously falsification could lead to stereotypes, misjudgment, and damage to Arabic culture.

An example of racism occurred at the beginning of the film when the Arab looking father and daughter attempted to buy a gun. The clerk at the gun shop made a few blatantly racist comments about the customers because he assumes they are Middle Eastern. There were several references to the September 11 attacks. It didn’t matter that the two were Persian, not Arab. Unfortunately, the reoccurring theme post 9/11 is that all Middle Eastern people became potential terrorists. It is amazing that people have the ability to interpret bad events and cast their own prejudices on different ethnic groups to mask their own feelings of anger and frustration.

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.

Arab is not a race, but is a group of individuals that are united by their culture and history (ADC, 2014). There are many different variations commonly based on a particular individual’s country of origin such as Arab Americans. Other variations are based on their social class, the level of their education, if they live urbanely or rurally, or the time they have spent in the United States (Lipson & Dubble, 2007). Most Arabs also practice Islamic religion and are Muslim. When working with an Arab or Muslim client, nurses should ask what the client wishes to be referred to so as not to offend them in any way (Lipson & Dubble, 2007).