Disney is known for creating stories about far away places full of magic and mystery. As a child these stories are enjoyed with a naive innocence, but as we've grown up there are plenty of red flags throughout these stories. Disney is guilty of orientalism and portraying Eastern culture as a wild and mysterious place to the West.
Take Aladdin for example. The opening song, Arabian Nights, uses the lyrics, "It's barbaric, but hey, its home." This word choice dehumanizes Aladdin and his home. The audience is supposed to be intrigued and curious about this wild place, but in fact the audience is losing a connection with the humanity of this story. The very first song creates a scene of the wild and inhuman world that Aladdin lives in. This is Western dominance at its finest.
It's difficult to be critical of the stories that we all grew up with. The musicals of these far away places that led kids to believe the East was a whole different world. Really these stories are just being used to promote the greatness of Western culture. The plot of Aladdin is very Western, the whole rags to riches idea. Everyone can pull themselves up by the boot straps and be successful. Orientalism is about taking the stereotypes of the East and using them to promote the "winning" qualities of the West.
It's so weird to think how I never thought twice about this song when I was younger. It just shows how entrenched Orientalism is in our mindsets that this song was okayed to be in the movie.
ReplyDeleteI can see how humanity is losing it´s connection with it´s story in this case. Most shows and movies from a recent era have used these stereotypes against forms of orientalism. It is really strange to see the kind of mindset Disney directors put kids in when creating
ReplyDeleteAlladin´s soundtrack.
I agree with Meghan! I never thought twice about the lyrics as a kid. I think the fact that this is a kid´s movie is especially powerful because it shows early on we as a culture are taught to accept the Orientalist point of view.
ReplyDelete