Orientalism

Orientalism is the stereotyped depiction of Middle Eastern, East Asian, South Asian, and African cultures. Orientalism plays a huge role in our society and we often don't even see it. One movie that comes to mind is The Lion King. While Lion King is a great movie it is also damaging because it is supposed to portray an accurate perspective on the continent of Africa, but there are no humans in the movie, which is very stereotypical because Africa is the second largest continent in the world but it is still portrayed as a continent full of just animals and wildlife. Another movie that comes to mind is Aladdin, which is based in the Arabian city of Agrabah. Disney has been criticized for perpetuating Orientlist stereotypes of the Middle East and Asia in this movie. In fact certain lyrics and lines have been changed or removed from Aladdin to make it seem less stereotypical. If Orientalism can exist in two extremely popular movies, where else could it be? Orientalism is everywhere even though we don't see it and if we can acknowledge that it's there perhaps we can take certain steps to remove these stereotypes from the media and our everyday lives.