Stereotyping And Discrimination In Aladdin

Within Aladdin, there are themes of stratification, stereotyping, and discrimination. “Stratification occurs when members of a society are categorized and divided into groups, which are then placed in a social hierarchy” (Ferris). Race, gender, class, age, or other characteristics are the categorized qualities predominantly. Aladdin mainly focuses on issues relating to class and gender. Stereotyping occurs throughout the movie and can be defined as, “the judging of others based on preconceived generalizations about groups or categories of people” (Ferris). Discrimination is also prevalent in the movie and occurs when “unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice” (Ferris). Ideas

He meets and falls in love with the princess of Agrabah, Jasmine. Setting his sights on her, Aladdin discovers a magic lamp and wishes to be made into a prince, because that is the only way he could ever marry Jasmine. The Grand Vizier of Agrabah and villain, Jafar wishes to keep Aladdin as a poor street rat and makes it his mission to reveal Aladdin’s true identity. The characters in the movie are divided into three groups, the poor, merchants and guards, and royalty. The social hierarchy that is created is also a closed system and doesn’t allow for a lot of social mobility, which is why Aladdin wishes to become a prince, magic being the only way he can change social classes. Aladdin himself is discriminated against by Agrabah’s guards. Just based off of his appearance and lack of title, the guards are always after him. Jafar stereotypes Aladdin as a street rat with no redeeming qualities, someone unfit to marry a princess. Jafar instead believes he should be wed to Jasmine based on his social class and status. Jafar refuses to see past Aladdin’s poverty and learn his true character. Gender stratification occurs throughout the film, as Jasmine is being forced to marry. Jasmine has to marry a prince, as it is law, to continue the family line of succession, if she wanted to marry a commoner, such as Aladdin, she wouldn’t be allowed. Jasmine is objectified by Jafar repeatedly throughout the movie, most

By the end of the movie the characters all overcame some form of stratification. Aladdin no longer has to fake being a prince and is seen as a hero for saving Agrabah from Jafar. Jasmine is no longer confined by the law that she must marry a prince and her father, the sultan, makes it so she can marry whoever she deems fit. The genie is finally granted his freedom when Aladdin uses his finally wish for it. This shows it only takes one person to make a change, the person being Aladdin and the change being the genie being free. Even the shackles that confine us to society can be changed if we put forth effort. A real life example would be the extermination of the caste system in India. The movie implied that the majority of stratification was unacceptable but it never touched much on gender stratification at the end of the movie. It is still expected of women to do the majority of housework including duties that would fall into the second shift. I’m sure the guards of Agrabah frown upon the poor the same way they did at the beginning of the movie as well. Overall the stratification in Aladdin is not glorified and is seen as a problem. If I were to address stratification in a movie it would be similar to the concepts used in Aladdin. The same kind of rags to riches story but without the objectification of women. Instead of just one person overcoming social stratification like in Aladdin, I would have a large group