Aladdin

When we were first talking about orientalism and western cultures, Aladdin, the Disney channel movie came up in my mind because I remember that the film was criticised for perpetuating orientalist stereotypes of the Middle East and Asia.

Aladdin is set in a mythical town called Agrabah, meaning scorpion in Arabic. In the movie’s original opening song “Arabian Nights”, Agrabah is described as a land “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” These lyrics were later changed due to the outrage they caused since they were seen as racist by the audience. Despite the setting being mythical, there are Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Asian aspects mixed up within the movie. The king, Jasmine’s father, is at times called Sultan (Arabic) and at others Shah (Iranian). Aladdin wears a Fez (Turkish) and Jasmine wears Indian-style shoes. Belly dancers are seen dancing with red marks on their foreheads (Hindu) and terms like “Salam” and “Allah forbids” (Arabic/Islamic) are used.

Through these representations, Orientals are depicted as barbaric (Aladdin almost get’s his arm chopped off for stealing), sensual (belly dancers & revealing clothing), yet exotic and enticing. Interestingly, one can argue that the Genie’s character represents the West through his foreign jokes, impersonations of foreign characters. Genie makes fun of Aladdin but helps him, making Genie into the figure of a Western “rescuer”, where Western influence is seen as beneficial for the “barbaric” (Aladdin) from their strange and dangerous ways.