Middle Eastermerican

After watching Aladdin again, I was very offended by the Middle Eastern the film portrayed. More specifically, I hated the fact that it managed to merge every single Middle Eastern culture and even some Asian culture into one film. In Addison's "Saving Other Women From Other Men in Aladdin," Addison illustrates the concept of "orientalism." Orientalism is the categorization of others into one homogenous group. In other words, if you were not white Euro-American, you are considered as the "other." Disney effectively uses this when its films are based on other cultures. Sometimes, I feel irritated that with the financial capability Disney has how hard is it to get a group of animators to actually go to the Middle East and observe the area?

Furthermore, Disney imposes Western ideas on a Middle Eastern setting. Disney hyper sexualizes Jasmine with her belly dance looking dress. Middle Eastern women especially women of Islam would never wear such scandalous apparel out in public. Aladdin perpetuates American ideals of going from rags to riches. Furthermore, Aladdin has a much whiter skin tone compared to the average citizen portrayed in the movie. The issue of race is brought up. Is Disney favor people with lighter skin? In past, Disney films were predominantly white. Also, Disney used the color of their cloth to define their character. Usually characters who are villains are typically portrayed in black or great. Take Malificent and Jafar for example, they both wear a black in the movie. From a young age, Disney implicitly teaches children to associate "dark colors" to evil. I think this effects a child very negatively as they are developing. Furthermore, in Aladdin, the concept of a lighter skin tone corresponds to success worsen these stigma Disney creates.

The film also plays on American ideals such as wealth and power. Addison states that Aladdin primary agenda is to gain the Sultan's wealth and Jafar's primary agenda is to gain power. Disney portrays gaining wealth as a positive thing and gaining power as a negative thing. These to ideals correspond closely to the American dream and American democracy. The American Dream basically allows greed to run free as long as you are willing to work hard. There is nothing that can hold your financial success back. Americans are encouraged to pursue financial success. However, when it comes to power, non one is allowed to have too much power. It defeats the purpose of the democracy. So instantly, Aladdin is the good guy because he is pursuing the American Dream(even through the means of cheating, lying, seducing, and relying on a invisible Ginie). Jafar is the bad guy because he wants more power.