Aladdin Informed Persuasion

Jackie Yelenosky

Rhetoric

Aladdin Informed Persuasion

16 April 2016

Disney: Where Racism Comes True 

    When someone first brings up the 1992 Disney movie Aladdin, a few different things may come to mind. The comedic genius of Robin Williams in the form of a blue genie, a headstrong and resourceful princess and the street urchin who attempts to steal her heart, or the multi-award winning soundtrack that you could not help but sing along to as a child are just a few of the parts of this film that may immediately come to mind. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Aladdin was modeled  after the 1001 Arabian Nights and was supposedly set around the time period of 800 BC, somewhere in the middle east (Harold Kingsberg, Quora.com). Though this film is G rated, a closer look can reveal that there are large amounts of racism and racial fetishism that can be found throughout the seemingly harmless Aladdin.

    Since Aladdin came out years ago, the children’s movie has been the source of a sizeable amount of controversy and criticism due to it’s prejudiced portrayals of the Arabian people. Throughout the entire film is thinly veiled racism. In the opening song of the movie, one of the lyrics sent the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee into so much of an uproar that Disney actually changed the lyrics in the DVD version. The lyrics went from “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face/ It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” to “Where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense/ It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” (Scoop.com). Though Disney removed the lyric about chopping off someone’s ear that furthered the stereotype of Arabian people being violent, Disney still kept the “It’s barbaric” line in the film despite the fact that it is equally racist and stereotypical. Their keeping this lyric referring to the Arabian people as barbaric served to make the change to the first part of the lyrics basically a moot point.

    The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ACD)  was likewise outraged  about the portrayal of the Arabian people. Jasmine and Aladdin, the two main characters, were both very light skinned compared to the other Arabian people. They also sounded distinctly European when speaking, while other characters such as the sultan, Jafar, and the guards all had middle eastern accents. Though Disney defended the movie, saying it was the first film in a long while where the hero and heroine were Arabian, the obvious whitewashing done to it’s lead characters pretty much negates its defense (James, Time Entertainment). Aladdin himself was actually modeled after Tom Cruise, while Jasmine was modeled in part after Jennifer Connelly, both of whom are white Americans (Galindo, BuzzFeed). While Aladdin looks and sounds American because of his american accent and lighter skin, Jafar, the villain of the film, is shown as the complete opposite. Jafar is “….portrayed to be more Arabian than Aladdin through speech, appearance, thoughts, and actions. He symbolizes evil and disorder” (Nelson, Disneyandmovies.pbworks.com). Jafar’s skin is darker, he wears more of a traditional garb shown in part through his turban, and has many of the stereotypical traits that the Arabian people are assumed to have: The hooked nose, large eyes and longer neck  (Nelson, Disneyandmovies.pbworks.com). Aladdin is made to look more American, like the “good guy”, and so he is whitewashed while Jafar has those stereotypical Arabian traits.  A member of the ACD at one point made the remark “Can an Arab-American child feel good after watching Aladdin? The answer is no.” because of the outright racism and stereotyping of the Arab people shown in the film (James, Time Entertainment).

This film was made during the time the Gulf War was going on, and it seems that it brought some of the aspects of the war into Aladdin. For example, an article from PB works titled “Disney Movies and Racism” spoke of how Aladdin seems to represent more American values because though in the beginning of the movie he steals a loaf of bread (french bread) “….he cannot be categorized as evil because his negative actions are justified, as was the American intervention during the Gulf War…Aladdin, like the American troops, brought hope and structure”. It was also said in the article that Jafar bears a likliness in character to Saddam Hussein, in that “….[whoever] didn’t agree [with Saddam] were imprisoned, exiled, or killed, just like Jafar had Aladdin exiled to a frozen wasteland in hopes that he would die because [Aladdin] did not want to submit to Jafar’s new power”. Not only that, but Jafar also attempted to imprison and kill Aladdin in the beginning of  the film, after manipulating Aladdin into retrieving the lamp for him. In a children’s film that is supposed to embody a culture other than America’s own, they still managed to bring American and white supremacy into it.

 Not only was Aladdin chalk full of inaccuracies, stereotypes, and racism, but it was also subject to racial fetishism. Jasmine and the other women in the film, which were few and far inbetween, were undeniabley sexualzied. In the very beginning of the movie, Aladdin is running from the guards and finds himself in a room with three Arabian woman. Because of their bare midriffs, heavily accentuated busts, and the fact that they shun Aladdin once it becomes clear that he is poor,  it is immediately assumed that Aladdin has found himself in a brothel. The women had veils on, but if anything that just seemed to add to their overt sexuality. Jasmine, introduced after those women, is dressed much the same way except in that her outfit was blue, which immediately introduces her as a sexual object.  While European or American women were imagined to be sweet and innocent, “…women of the ‘East’ were imaged as exotic temptresses beckoning alluringly to white men from behind sheer veils in sumptuous harems” (Tassja, Irresistible Revolution Blog). This view of “exotic” women is exactly what was portrayed in Disney’s Aladdin.  Jasmine herself is the typical fantasy of European men: “…the alluring dark-skinned woman, exotically desirable like cinnamon and indigo and other spices that were the corporate backbone of colonialism, a hedonistic indulgence counterpointing the tastes of ‘civilized’ Europeans” (Tassja, Irresistible Revolution Blog). Not only does this show the Arabian woman as objects to be conquered, but it is completely inaccurate. The  traditional garb of the time would have been much more conservative, most likely with the women wearing hijab and modestly clothed, as it is speculated that the people in Aladdin were probably Islamic due to the sultan at one point saying  “Praise Allah!” during the film (1992, Clements). Instead of representing Arabian women accurately, Disney modeled them after the exotic temptresses they imagined them to be.

    Going along with this, near the end of the film when Jafar had captured Jasmine, she was forced to wear an all red version of her outfit by Jafar. Despite her original outfit already being overly sexualized with the bare midriff and fairly exposing top, this version was more gauzy and seemed more like lingerie in nature than her previous outfit. The red color, often associated with lust, of the outfit also sexualized Jasmine even more. When Jasmine sees that Aladdin is trying to rescue her from Jafar, she attempts to seduce Jafar as a distraction. She fed him grapes and stroked his beard, swishing her hips and speaking in a lower tone of voice, using her sexuality as weapon. While this shows that Jasmine is resourceful, no other disney princess got out of a tough situation by the use of her body.  During this portion of the film, Jasmine is reduced to little more than a sex slave (Nelson, Disneyandmovies.pbworks.com). Even as a child, it was clear to me that she was being treated and used as a sexual object. In this film, the few women who are present in the movie do not actually represent the women of the time period, but instead are an overly sexualized white man’s fantasy version of middle eastern women. Not only were these women the white fantasy version  of their culture, but Aladdin also had a predominately white audience, which furthered the idea that the Arabian women were objects to be possessed across America.

As a child, my love for this film was huge, as i’m sure many other children also felt. However, after now having rewatched the film for this assignment, I have made realizations that I might not have otherwise made. The impact that the movie could have on Arabian children could be immense, especially for the young girls because of the oversexualization present, and it is an inaccurate portrayal of a beautiful people and culture. Though it was the first Disney movie to gross over 200 million dollars (Scoop.com), it was also chalk full of immense racism and racial fetishism throughout. This movie made me realize just how secxualized the other ethnic women of Disney were as well. While Snow White, Belle, Aurora, and Rapunzel are all shown to be innocent and sweet (as well as conservatively dressed), the foreign women like Jasmine, Meg, Pocahontas and Esmeralda are all scantily clad and even their body movements are more sinuous and sexualized. They are a prime example of the racism that Disney has sanctioned and furthered over the years. The catchy music and the witty genie voiced by Robin Williams does not excuse the fact that it is an affront to the Arabian people, and rightfully rated one of the most controversial films in history by Entertainment Weekly.

 

Work Cited

“Aladdin: Ranked as Most Controversial Film.” Scoop. Gemstone Publishing, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

 

Aladdin. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, 2011.

 

Dean, Bethany. “The Controversy of Disney’s Aladdin.” Wikinut. Wikinut Ltd, 25 Jan. 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

 

James, Randy. “Aladdin | Top 10 Disney Controversies | TIME.com.” Entertainment Top 10 Disney Controversies Comments. Time Inc, 9 Dec. 2009. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

 

Nelson, Alyssa. “4 Aladdin.” Disney Movies and Racism /. PB WORKS, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

 

Screenjunkies. “Honest Trailers – Aladdin.” YouTube. YouTube, 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

Tassja. “4 Aladdin.” Disney Movies and Racism /. PB WORKS, 2 Sept. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.