Aladdin: A Glorified Depiction of the Middle East

A Disney feature animation is a classic piece of children’s entertainment, but also possesses poisonous stereotypes. Edward Said’s Theory of Orientalism examines the idea that the West has created a homogeneous view of the Orient in the animated feature film, Aladdin. The film unfolds through the eyes of a kind-hearted thief named Aladdin, who dreams of a life of riches. As Aladdin continues to pursue a life of prosperity, three powerful, stereotypical themes permeate the film: gender, culture, and ethnicity.

Men and women’s identities infuse the viewer with multiple stereotypes. Males are almost always tall, with big noses, handsome and in very good shape; having chiselled abs, a barrel chest, and huge arms. The protagonist Aladdin is a street beggar, and is portrayed to be athletic-looking, filled out, and a young leading man who ultimately wins the love of Jasmine and her father, the Sultan. The female body is portrayed in quite the opposite manner; Disney glorifies a body type of extreme attractiveness over all others, representing a female of ideal beauty. The females are seen as objects, to merely satisfy the men sexually. The beautiful and charming princess, Jasmine, stands as a blatant illustration of this. This is exemplified in one of the final scenes of the movie where Jasmine must use her sexuality to become a seductress to subdue Aladdin’s aggressor, Jafar: “And your hair, is so… wicked.” Jafar, being the sultan by overthrowing the predecessor, wants Jasmine to fall in love with him. Jasmine, as an act to distract him from Aladdin, coquets Jafar. Her big breasts, tiny waist, tanned skin, and low-cut belly shirt gives the idea that the female body’s use is to manipulate people (specifically men) to get what women wan...

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...r, culture, and race have all been common themes in the mysterious land of the Arabs. These themes are all interlocked in the same manner. Gender is portrayed through the generalized notion of an ideal form of a man: being muscular and courageous, while the woman being beautiful and helpless. Likewise, culture is shown through the stereotyping of their typical religious lifestyle for the love of certain types of nutrition, attire, and rundown environment. Of the three, memory has the greatest effect on representing a theme through Orientalism in the novel. The misconception of the lighter one is that the more compassionately kind they are, while the violent and irrational conduct is spawned through the dark-skinned creature. The movie, Aladdin, corrupts the blank book of a child’s mind with preconceived notions, giving them a narrow-minded view of the Arab world.