The Zohan

As any film that can be classified as orientalism this one is no different. The Zohan focuses on two foreigner groups in New York City who are full of hatred and are classified as terrorist outside of their population. This film uses false accents, outfits, and probably false Israeli writing. The use of the opposing groups present a terrorists aspects. But the thing that really stands out in this film that shows orientalism is the fact that they have a hacky sack tournament with all foreigners and after that a riot breaks out. In my eyes this is saying that they can't live with others but they are too hostile to live among each other. As a whole the movies says that foreigners are violent, aggressive, and don't have the skills to live with others. It is a false perception of other cultures based on an american point of view.

Orientalism

While films that are South Korean, Indian, and Chinese have become more popular in Western countries, there are very few Western films with Asian actors/actresses. I can only name a few films where there have been Asian characters in western films, even films where they take place in Asia, such as Indiana Jones, and films where the character should be portrayed as Asian but is not like we saw in Doctor Strange and Ghost in the Shell. (Scarlet Johansen simply wears a black wig to make herself seem Japanese in Ghost in the Shell, which was an originally a Japanese animated film.)

Examples such as these tend to portray the white woman/man as the hero and the Asians as the side characters, even if the film is about kung fu/karate or takes place in an Asian country. Karate Kid is a good example of a white boy who learns karate from a Japanese maintenance man. There is also the new Karate Kid with Jaden Smith, who learns karate in China (even though karate is Japanese). It interests me that there have been three different actors who have starred in the karate kid movies and not one was Asian, given that Karate originated from Japan.

While I have Asian actors in movies, they are solely for special effects/martial arts performance. While I love seeing kung-fu action in movies, the films rarely go beyond the fighting aspect, making the Asian characters seem flat and lifeless. Ip man is a good kung fu movie where the main character (Ip) is more of a round character, even for a kung fu film. My main point is that there should be more Western films that include Asian actors, and not just simply for martial arts purposes.

Orientalism and Traveling

In my French class, we viewed a short travel video featuring mostly older, white, Americans traveling through Morocco on a "cultural excursion". Although the video is supposed to highlight the "mysterious and wondrous culture of Northern Africa" the video was nearly entirely through the American travelers perspective. The clips often focused on the bewildered and delighted faces of the tourist as they make their way through bazaars, hikes through the desert on camels, visits with nomadic people, and clear night skies. All the scenes were accompanied by faraway chants making the whole country seem mysterious and faraway from western culture.
The video was created by a travel company that took their wealthy clients on these "cultural exchanges". The company made the conscious choice to make Morocco seem like an adventure-filled vacation location full of intoxicating mysteries and curiosities perfect for any risk-taking, wealthy American for the sake of making money. The myth of orientalism is used for financial gain of travel companies looking to benefit from these preconceived notions of life in non-western countries. Traveling is supposed to create connections among people of different cultures, not reinforce stereotypes created over the past hundreds of years through the colonialist mind-set.

A Critique of a Critique

In 1982, Bernard Lewis, a prominent English writer and historian born in the 1916, wrote an article for the New York Review of Books, in which he scrutinized Edward Said's work and the very concept of Orientalism itself. The article had valid criticisms in the context of Said's writing and overlooking of certain key events and details in his chronicling of the Middle East's development. However, Lewis' arguments against the concept of Orientalism and its presence in the European and American view of certain regions of the world was a wholly misguided approach, and serves here as an example to get rid of premature criticisms and counter arguments to Said's work.

My biggest problem with Lewis' review came in the very first sentence of the article, and the subsequent example which followed it for another page and a half. Here, Lewis tries to explain the concept of Orientalism, but changing the group in focus to the Greeks in order to somehow reveal the absurdity of the concept. However, his dramatic interpretation of Said's writing is the basis for his entire argument, and fails to analyze the complexity of the issue in any regard.

For example, in Lewis' Greek retelling, he mocks the critics of Orientalism in saying that those who teach Greek history or language (in this metaphor) but are not actually Greek "strive to keep the Greek people in a state of permanent subordination." This line, obviously heavily doused in sarcasm, rests on the assumption that people like Said believe that those who study cultures in the so-called 'Orient' are purposefully perpetuating a system which represses those they study. On the contrary, I believe that Said was writing about the sub-conscious manner in which Orientalism is carried out. Western study of areas like Persia, or China, or India aren't designed to entrap their populations in positions of "less-than," they just do that themselves. The distance between the teacher and subject matter is too great for that teacher to convey the fullness or humanity of the people being studied.

Another line in Lewis' whiny introduction pokes fun at what he thinks to be Lewis' exclusion of Western scholars from his view of the positive Middle Eastern and Asian study to come. I don't think Said would ever argue that Western scholars should be completely rebuked and banished from historical study in those areas. His argument is clearly that those Western scholars should really just back off of the domination aspect of that study, and refocus its lens on time periods and areas untouched or unconcerned with Western infiltration.

You can read Lewis' review here: The Question of Orientalism

The Paradox of Edward Said

To me, Edward Said is more than controversial. He is a repugnant figure who has been in the legislative wing of a terrorist entity that has killed members of my family. Not only is he vigorously anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic, but he is also a hypocrite.

Let me explain, throughout the literature of the Anti-Zionist perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the authors dive deep into orientalist mindset, only from the perspective of the Arab countries toward the Jews. To them, Jews are the other, the lesser people, the ones without agency. Their power is taken away in a system similar to the structures taking away the power of the East in the West.

Perhaps the best example of this is written by Edward Said himself, “Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims.” This piece of academia, in addition to being filled with factual inaccuracies of and logical fallacies, displays Jews in a truly orientalist mindset.

To demonstrate this we must first define what an “orientalist mindset” is. First, it must be pervasive throughout an entire culture. This view is in no uncertain terms. In a majority of Arab countries, in which a majority of these authors either reside or are from, Jews are the devil of the world. They are the other to the Arab’s not other in just the same way that the East is the other to the West’s not other. Said plays into this fact with his description of Zionists throughout his piece.

Said also takes away the agency of the Jews in this literature in just the same way that most western literature describes the east as people to be subjugated by the west. He places them in one of two boxes, either servants of the Europeans with no agency at all or bloodthirsty savages lusting for the land and heads of Arabs. This portrait of the Jew is typical of this literature and fits perfectly into the orientalist mindset.

Finally, throughout this essay he bends the facts of the story in a way to tear down the accomplishments of the Jews in a way similar to western literature demeaning the east. He takes away any claim they have to the land of Israel painting them only as conquerors of the land. He goes back from before contemporary time to when the Arabs owned the land instead of the British or Jews, but conveniently stops before going to when the Jews own it. He also brushes over the violent and hateful acts the Arabs of this land perpetrated on the Jews when they were living in harmony.

Said when he is writing this essay ignores his own ideas and paints the story of the Zionist movement in an orientalist mindset simply one oriented to put the Arab world in power.

Obviously, this is a minuscule look at a 50 page essay that is truly disgusting and filled with factual inaccuracies and failures of logic at every turn. I encourage everyone to read the full essay here.

Orientalism

For the foreseeable future, I don't think that orientalism is going anywhere. It's too easy for the entertainment industry to make exploitative movies and tv shows, for them to just vanish. Want an easy gimmick for your bland generic Hollywood blockbuster? Just set it in Bangladesh. Show some shots of packed in chaotic slums and marketplaces in the trailer. Maybe include a guy sitting on a velvet throne with a mustache and a turban. Oh, and a tiger. Certainly the director of this film could cast Bengali actors, shoot scenes in regular locations instead of fake sets, bother to learn about the culture in Bangladesh and shoot a film that actually reflects that culture. Not the made up, exaggerated American version.

But why would they? Why would they put in all that extra effort to make a film that American audiences wouldn't be nearly as interested in? At large, consumers like the white-washed movies, the exaggerated stereotypes. They don't actually care about Bangladesh, or any Country/culture that would fall into orientalism's scope. And it's likely that they won't start to care any time soon. As frustrating as it must be for many people to see a faux, stereotyped version of their culture, it's just a movie. Orientalist works aren't nearly racist enough to cause a strong uproar. Not to mention, everyone in America has grown up surrounded by orientalism. By now, we're numb to it. It's not some shocking new development, it's something that we have more or less accepted as a culture. I can't see that just changing, at least not any time soon.

Eat, Pray, Orientalism

Liz Gilbert thought she had everything she wanted in life until she faces a divorce and turning point in her life. Previously she had: a home, a husband and a successful career. However, now as she faces her divorce and a turning point in her life she doesn’t really know or is confused about what is important to her. She tries to attempt to step out of her comfort zone and goes on a quest for self-discovery that takes her to Italy, India, and Bali.

Eat, Pray, and Love illustrates the Middle-East as a place of wonder. It is just one of many that has romanticized the Middle-East. It made it out to be “someplace timeless, otherworldly, incomprehensible, waiting to be discovered by Westerners in search of self”(NPR, Mia Mask). While in India Liz meets a girl who is being forced into a marriage by her family and the other Indian’s in the movie are either carrying her bags or just serve in the background. This suggest women in the Middle-East are mistreated, and her seen nothing more as a symbol of an arranged marriage. In Bali women are seen carrying fruit on their heads, there are merchants, and a couple of men with their roosters. They serve to convince Western consumers that Bali is a pre-modern, magical, timeless wonderland. You never see any of these people doing anything modern. You also don’t see any other types of men besides an enfeebled, toothless old soothsayer.

Western countries definitely have an orientalist mindset. That’s why there are still movies made based of orientalist stereotypes, and they make millions of dollars and seen all over the world. Orientalist stereotypes lead to a single story, actually it is a single story. It makes others treat people as less than equal. It makes people of the Orient feel less than equal from the rest of the world and sometimes less than human. Orient people are seen as the other, the less desirable, the powerless. The world shouldn’t want other people to feel this way or look this way. Therefore, we should stop supporting these movies that have Orientalism in them. There should be more coverage n movies like these so people understand and see what they are doing. We need stop feeding the fire or the fuel to these stereotypes or they will continue to live on.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

A well known film franchise that most of us (hopefully) have seen is Indiana Jones. Through its famous main character, Indiana, to the many elaborate action scenes Indiana's escapades lead him through the Middle East and India and lead him to encounters with the stylized Eastern culture that Hollywood uses regularly. In all three movies of the Indiana Jones trilogy the Orientalists viewpoint shines through. As the definition of Orient became more prominent the more we began to see its use through our everyday media and its displaying of the binaries Orient/Europe, Exotic/Normal, etc. Specifically in the second installment of Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, there are profound examples of these binaries.

In The Temple of Doom the main setting is in India, there is a scene where Indiana is sitting at a dinner table and dining with the Indians. In this scene, the "exoticness" of the Indians is shown through their extravagant clothing, adorned with jewels and bright colors, compared to the Westerners (Indiana) where he is neatly dressed in a suit and more conservative in clothing which seems to be our normal for when we go out to dinner. The elaborate food spread is supposed to shock the Western viewers with an array of insects, innards, chilled monkey brains, and eye soup but ultimately ends up representing the Indian culture as barbarians who consume unusual and unsavory meals.

We as Americans have come to embrace these movies, filled with action and adventure but subtly slip in these Orientalism undertones that even myself at times fail to notice. This idea of comparing Eastern cultures to our very own in movies will not go away in a blink of an eye because that is what these big budget films use in order to draw big crowds. To make it habit that the white Westerner is always and the only one that can save the day while the Easterners are the savages.

Fine Porcelian

Orientalism has nothing to do with any specific culture, it is all about the European viewpoint of the world and the ideology of a colonist. The entire notion of the eastern world is constructed from the idea that European countries are at the center of the world, and all other countries/continents revolve around and exist.

Western culture is parasitic, drawing on and relying on other nations for influence. It sees value only in the possessions of its colonies and absorbs what it wants to strengthen itself. The most obvious example of this could be the fine porcelain that Europeans called China since the only thing the explorers and traders who went to China cared about was the material goods they obtained. In 2018, Americans and Europeans still value fine porcelain and call it China, without any regard to how idiotic that name is (We call a dish China just because we took it from Chinese). Another example of this is England's national dish, Chicken Tikka Masala. A nation whose national dish is a dish from another nation says something about their culture. While it is possible to argue that these cultures are embracing others, it is hard to look past how Europe always seems to seize these things by force, when they go to these places and take things from them. This trading and colonialism has never been a mutualistic relationship as these nations have never been treated as truly equal to Europeans.

Furthermore, I believe the true threat of Orientalism is how we can often fail to accept or even acknowledge that other people's ways of life are more similar to our own than it may actually seem. The notion that developing nations are a land of mystery comes from the idea that the western world that we live in is the only form of "normal" modern living, and that all other nations must live in a state of constant misery or poverty. This distorted image comes from our filtered view of the third world, which is often a failure of our news and education systems.

The Nutcracker Problem

Western dance, like any other aspect of society, is saturated with an Orientalist mindset. Specifically, I'm talking about ballet in this post because it is a highly elitist art form that I have had the privilege to participate in. Many of the ballet pieces that are held in such high esteem by the dance world and its supporters are justified by the idea of 'preserving the art.' Centuries of dance teachers have perpetuated the myth that these stories are acceptable since they are old, and I'll admit that I myself have been a part of quite a few dances that I now look at with regret due to their fetishization of Asian cultures.

One key example of Orientalism in dance is the Nutcracker - what I'm assuming is the most recognizable ballet to dancers and non-dancers alike. The Nutcracker revolves around Clara or Marie, a young girl whose new toy Nutcracker from her godfather Drosselmeyer comes to life as the handsome Nutcracker prince. These aspects of the plot seem fairly innocuous, but Clara/Marie and the Prince end up in the Land of Sweets afterwards, where they encounter many dancers representing various foods and drinks from specific ethnicities. These include roles known as "Chinese Tea" and "Arabian Coffee."

Obviously, there are numerous issues with these roles. To start, Arabian Coffee and Chinese Tea are frequently played by white dancers, and the costumes are often designers' vague attempts at referencing an 'Arabian' or 'Chinese' aesthetic. The parts also play right into stereotypes of people from these areas. While Coffee is slow, seductive, and mysterious, the Tea dancers perform pointed bows with uncannily huge smiles and deferential tilts of the head.

Arabian Coffee and Chinese Tea are just two duets, but they demonstrate in a few short minutes the deep problems of an Orientalist mindset. These roles exemplify the ways that two Asian groups can become distorted, exaggerated, and oversimplified if portrayed through an indifferent European lens. Unfortunately, there are MANY similar roles within other ballets, as well as in other forms of dance that are more recent.

Ultimately, roles like these are the result of larger questions - Who controls the dominant narrative within a work of art or culture? Who is the subject, and who is the audience? The Nutcracker is a ballet created by and for Europeans, centering around the narrative of a young, white girl who gets to experience a brief, fantastic taste (after all, it is the Land of Sweets) of the world before returning to the safety of her own bed. The nonwhite characters in this ballet are objectified as food items, stripped of any real historical significance and both metaphorically and literally served to Clara/Marie and the audience as a whole. Merely limited glimmers of another world, these parts serve as a metaphor for the ways that white people tend to view Asia in real life. Within dance, film, and other sources of media, anti-Asian racism is too often sold under the guise of intrigue or exoticism without understanding.

A Service Trip, a Cartoon Character, or a Hollywood Blockbuster

A service trip that costs more than it gives, a history squeezed into a cartoon character, a Hollywood blockbuster that perpetuates the fetishization of one or more cultures- Orientalism in all forms is toxic and all too common. As a child I was attracted to the cartoon movies with female leads. I grew into this notion that the Disney classic, Mulan was a signal of the media becoming more progressive and inclusive.
One of the strongest reasons Orientalism is still heavily normalized in the Western world is the lack of motivation to change our ignorance surrounding the history, cultures, and countries of Asia. Ignorance is the very basis of Orientalism, moreover it’s the basis of discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and other disparaging social and institutional barriers. We as students know how the majority of public education (predominantly early education) treats the expansion of perspectives and cultures, as a tourist attraction worth a week of class. Something to skim through, memorizing specific names of warriors, rulers, religions, inevitably flowing back into the Eurocentric perspective. We notice classes such as Latin American History, Native American History, Women in History, African American History, are all elective classes. There are only 30 colleges and universities with an "Asian American Studies" as an elective, usually found in a minor curriculum. Even in the cases of elective classes trying to fit in an entire region’s history into a semester long class, vital pieces of our global puzzle are bound to be skipped over, left behind, and underrepresented.
I am not at all trying to say our public education is the sole reason Orientalism still exists. The root of the issue is an unmotivated majority. Westerns are so used to having this one single narrative of every Asian culture be retold over and over again that it becomes normal to be ignorant.
I have fed into Orientalism. I have thought, accepted, and assumed without research, without true knowledge or a larger grasp, and have thus fed into the acceptance of ignorance, stereotyping, and erasure of cultures. One person's decision to learn more can become a sea of self-expansion and open-mindedness when enough people stop to self-reflect. Asia is the largest continent on this planet. The idea that Western culture or Westerners can squeeze 48 countries and 100,000 years of history into a service trip, a cartoon character, or a Hollywood blockbuster is due to normalized passivity and ignorance.

Surprisingly Enough, Japan Does More Than Make Anime

The past few days, we've been reading and seeing a lot about Orientalism as it relates to the Middle East and Southern Asia. However, there also exists an Orientalist mindset towards Northeast Asia - China, Korea, and Japan. Of these three countries and their cultures, I consider myself most familiar with Japan. I am in my fourth year of studying the language, recently completed my third exchange program, and have family who are permanent residents there. I am also incredibly familiar with the way Western culture portrays Japan, and its inaccuracy.

If I were to go up to any random person on the street and ask them to think of a word they associate with Japan, at least 7 times out of 10 I would be answered with "anime". The rather recent rise in anime's popularity in the west, and the subsequent development of 'weeaboo' culture, are directly related to the orientalist view of Japan. If you don't know, 'weeaboo' refers to people who consider themselves to be obsessed with anime and Japanese culture despite very often knowing nothing about it. They revere Japanese customs without knowing the true reasoning behind them. While at first it may seem a positive that people are so awed by a foreign culture, the issue arises in the fact that these people tend to pick and choose which parts of culture they want to understand. Japanese culture becomes a drawing hat, from which random aspects of life are snatched and exaggerated to unreal proportions until a totally new, inaccurate, and borderline offensive culture is created. At this point, Japanese culture is no longer being honored but being rewritten by people with no authority to rewrite it.

Another issue, stemming from the popularity of anime, is the fetishization of Japanese women - particularly school girls. There's not much to say about this besides that it is blatant dehumanization and the most base form of Orientalism. It is taking an aspect of Japanese culture and warping it to please a Western audience in a way that blatantly ignores and disrespects its origin. In Japan, the main purpose of school uniforms is to encourage unity and discipline, but in the US I get told that it's "hot" that my exchange student wears a uniform at her home school.

The final aspect I'll be discussing (though certainly not the only other aspect of Japanese Orientalism) is the way the West views Japanese writing. In Japan, there are three scripts that are commonly used for writing. Hiragana - the alphabet for native words, Katakana - the alphabet for foreign words, and Kanji - the ideographic symbols that come to mind for most of us when we think of East Asian writing. They are sometimes seen as mystical and incomprehensible. Though they can be a pain in the butt to learn, the reality is that they are constructed from components with individual meanings to create a sensible image. Other times, they are thought of as outdated and ancient, full of 'Old World Knowledge'. Funny that Westerners point fingers at countries with ideographic writing systems while absorbing a whole dictionary's worth of emoji meanings into their written vocabulary without a second thought. Sometimes, kanji are stripped of their communicative value and simply looked at as pretty and aesthetic (I know you've seen people with foreign language tattoos), which sends the message that Japanese ideas are not meaningful or important in the West - a similar idea to the "squibbly Arabic" mentioned in the article about Homeland. Through disrespect of the written language and perversion of anime and the schoolgirl ideal into Western culture (among many other things), Japan has become a victim of Orientalism.

Social Media and Orientalism

You're scrolling through Instagram after "service trip season", and see ten photos of your Western friends candidly hugging brown children. The backgrounds of these photos consist of dilapidated houses with colorful paint chipping off of them. You swipe to see beautiful landscapes of mountains, exotic plants and animals, and waterfalls. So many waterfalls.

As privileged Westerners, we grow to understand "service trip countries" such as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, and Argentina through the photos we see on social media. This process is incredibly problematic because the pictures and stories that our Western friends bring back from their service trips abroad rarely represent the complexity and authenticity of the places they've visited. Every country in the world has cities surrounded by more impoverished areas. Outside the gentrified hipster-heaven of the West Loop awaits miles of hungry kids, failing schools, and overworked parents. Americans pity the starving children in "developing countries", but harshly judge and criminalize those living in our own cities. There is poverty everywhere, so why do Westerners see themselves as superior when we are facing similar problems in our own country?

We learn Orientalism through our media platforms, but we perpetuate it by perceiving these countries through the lenses we've been taught. We look for poverty where we've learned to expect it. With an Orientalist mindset, it is completely possible to come home from a different country and entirely miss its complexity. Studying or volunteering abroad can be such an educational experience, but only if we rid ourselves of our Orientalist biases. I think that it's great that we're learning about Orientalism, but I also think it is important to analyze how we view parts of our own country by comparison.

Somewhere Between (Western Culture and Orientalism)

As children, we don't think about how much film and television have impacts on our lives. I might even argue that they play as important as a part as life experience itself because it is seen on a daily basis and can easily change the minds of its audience. Growing up, I always had an interest in my Asian, specifically Chinese, heritage. My parents exposed me to Chinese culture without forcing it onto me, really leaving it up to me how much I wanted to embrace my biological versus my cultural heritage. I would watch those travel videos for kids and learn basic words and sentences in classes or events with other kids like me. And of course, there was the classic Disney film, Mulan. As a kid, I never actually saw Mulan besides clips and trailers because I felt like I would automatically be connected to however the characters were represented in the film. Even from a young age, distorted views of foreign countries and their cultures were affecting me.

In sixth grade, a documentary called Somewhere Between was made about four girls who were adopted from China and went back to visit. They all had slightly different agendas, some going just to explore while one looked for and found her biological family. Of all the Asian media and experience that I was exposed to as a kid, it was the most realistic and impactful one I had seen and continues to be to this day. Part of this is due to the perspective being from the girls themselves as opposed to the parents, but also because the documentary gave a true look at Chinese culture when they visited. While they took the journey of a typical tourist, they also immersed themselves into the culture and learned so much about their biological backgrounds. The people were all genuine and nothing was sugarcoated. It was my first real look at Chinese culture without a travel, tourist, or wholly American or European view and it changed the way I think.

Even seven years later, I think about the film and it definitely increased my desire to visit China at some point. I have always been a bit wary about visiting because, like the title of the documentary suggests, I feel like if I went there, I would be easily recognized as an American, but other American and European tourists might think that I lived there. By seeing a true representation of Chinese culture, I realized that I do want to have the opportunity to explore where I am from in addition to the rest of China. As a society, I think that there has been improvement regarding the way that we conceive other cultures and represent them, but there is still much work to be done. Too often, Asians are misrepresented by ill-written and.or ill-casted works. There are definitely some accurate representations of Asian culture, but the accuracy and the volume can be increased. After proof reading this blog, I realized that I did not really talk about orientalism and its consequences as much as I focused on one of the positive experiences I have had, but I think that it is important to acknowledge and critique things that are wrong, but also find a positive side as well.

Mulan: Orientalism for Children

Growing up, Mulan was one of my favorite Disney movies. I loved seeing a female as the heroine, proving herself to be strong enough and smart enough to fight with the boys. But, while Mulan’s storyline may be on the road to a win for more gender inclusivity and equality, it unfortunately plays right into the stereotypes of Orientalism. The storyline of Mulan is based on an old Chinese legend, and Disney picked up the narrative and transformed it into a multi-million dollar movie, I think with hopes to diversify their films and have their characters and movies be more identifiable for people of all cultures.

Still, Disney could not escape eurocentrism in this film. Disney was trying to portray a classic Chinese tale, but ended up just making Mulan a generally “Asian” story. They mixed elements of both Chinese and Japanese culture, and included details that would not have existed in the time frame of the movie, to make it more identifiably “Asian,” which let it become another negative example of Orientalism. Mulan is supposed to be a Chinese teenager, but in the beginning of the movie she wears a kimono and has a white powdered face, which is representative of Japanese, not Chinese culture. To Disney credit though, the flower that is a symbol throughout the movie is in fact a magnolia, which is a flower native to China, not a cherry blossom, which is a flower native to Japan.

Furthermore, Disney took the idea of collectivism in east Asian cultures to the extreme in this movie. Mulan is only able to become an individual and come into her own once she decides to sacrifice everything for the honor of her family, which is not realistic. The depiction of the veneration of ancestors is also made into a lighthearted, goofy topic through Mushu, Eddie Murphy’s dragon character that becomes Mulan’s sidekick, and depicted as mystical and strange when at Mulan’s house, when in reality it is an important part of Chinese culture. Overall, Disney’s euro-centric and oriental tendencies become apparent in Mulan because of the generalization of Chinese culture into just “Asian” culture. Mulan is fleshed out as a film just about the “far east” in the eyes of a younger, Western audience.

No More Hakuna Matata

Even though The Lion King was released in 1994, it remains a classic children's movie that all little kids can sing along to. For many kids, it is their first interaction with Africa, a world supposedly full of dancing and singing fuzzy and cute animals that just want to live in harmony with each other, except for Scar and the hyenas. There are no humans in the film and Africa is portrayed as a sprawling deserts, lush forests and vast almost nothingness, only animals and nature. This being many children's first time getting a visual understanding of what Africa looks like has the power to shape the way they view Africa as they grow up, even as they begin to understand more of the reality of the peoples and cultures of African nations.

When someone, including myself, is told to picture Africa, several images come to mind: first, the ever so popular safaris that provide tourists with the natural beauty, then those pictures of tribes and communities of people who through the efforts of westerners now have access to clean water and medicine, and finally, the bustling cities, overcrowded and impoverished. These pictures are what many westerners first imagine Africa to be like because that is how it has been "marketed" to us. We do not see the advanced, modern cultures and towns that really exist because we never question what we are initially shown and choose to believe.

Additionally, education on African history and culture, stops as soon as colonialism takes place and the slave trade. This once again leads to images of cultures from hundreds of years ago that were controlled by Europeans. After this point, we never again revisit African history in either of the required history classes at OPRF.

There are many many issues with the way we view Africa and Africans, including the fact that rather than seeing the many African countries, we see Africa the continent as basically all the same thing. When asked to think about Europe, we can think of many of the countries and how they are all different, speak different languages, and have different cultures. In order to change the very incorrect and close-minded lense that we see Africa through, a lot has to happen with how we are educated on Africa, taught more modernly and more similarly to Europe.

Free the Eyebrows (or Eyebrow?)

As wavy blonde hair comfortably sits atop my head, my European origins appear obvious. Though the one characteristic that contrasts my German ethnicity are my thick, black, Egyptian eyebrows. It is a part of me that I have been forced to maintain constantly. Though many frown upon men getting their eyebrows waxed or threaded, it is a religious experience for me. It means that for the next week, I would be able to have two eyebrows as opposed to one, and get one step close to the stereotypical male standard.

In 2007, my extended family and I took a vacation to Egypt over winter break. As I left for the airport, I awaited a fun-filled trip to The Pyramids, Sphynx, and sitting on camels. Although, as many of you may imagine, this was nowhere near the reality of my experience. In fact, I experienced much more beauty that lied in the complexity of my trip. Upon arrival, we were greeted by our own personal security guard strapped with an AK-47 on his back. As we continued about our trip in Cairo, the excitement and eagerness that I had at the beginning of our trip began to vanish as my safety no longer felt secure, though my interest stayed at a peak.

My family and I visited several churches where (according to the Christian religion) history had taken place; one in specific where Jesus stayed in after fleeing Israel. Iconic mosques surrounded us, and my mind was no longer focused on the Pyramids anymore. As we walked through street markets, I experienced something I had never really expected.  My grandfather (Geddo) was talking to venders in Arabic laughing and smiling. I felt welcomed with opened arms. It is frustrating that this elegant beauty is hidden under the burqa of the Pyramids.

Though it attracts tourism for Egypt, it hides so much more beauty, and merely oversimplifies Egypt to sand dunes and camels. It seems humorous that the pictures one may see on postcards is simply of the Pyramids, but what lies only half a mile away is a thriving city. It is unfortunate that the media has over-simplified Egypt to such a basic generalization, but time is the only thing that stands between now, and the elegant truth. It is because of my ethnicity's pride, unity, and humility that I plan to illuminate the Egyptian beauty by raising one of my thick black eyebrows. 

Suffering

When you google suffer they tell you that it is the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. No human wants to experience suffering. People respond to unjust or random suffering very differently. People cope with suffering in three ways, they can choose to get rid/hide their feelings, talk about their feelings, or they can take their feelings and grow from them. When people take suffering head on it helps shape them. By accepting the suffering and dealing with it, it can help you become a stronger person. They do say what doesn't "Kill you makes you stronger". Besides making you a stronger person suffering can provide you with a deeper appreciation a life. Realizing that life does not last forever makes you appreciate the small moments in life and cherish those moments. Another way people cope with suffering is they see it as a way they can strengthen their spiritual relationship with God. A stronger sense of spirituality can help provide people with comfort, stronger intimacy with God, and it can also help people gain a sense of control over situations. With having control over situations it will help you endure suffering in many ways. To endure suffering you have to remember why you are suffering and what happened to you. When you accept why you are suffering you can also endure suffering by realizing to keep doing what God has called you to do. People endure suffering based on their emotions and ways they feel they can handle it. Suffering is not easy to accept and it also is not easy to keep going in life. We survive with suffering by trying to keep pushing and realizing that life does go on. People pick themselves up differently, people have their own ways of pushing through suffering.

Lesser suffering fits into this discussion because all suffering hurts and all suffering takes time for someone to heal. Going through suffering from a relationship can hurt someone very deeply. Relationships allow you to put your time, effort, and trust into someone. When you end a relationship with someone you almost feel as if a piece of you goes with that person. That can take a lot of emotion from a person, and that can cause suffering. When people go through a bad breakup they choose to delete everything from that person or go out. Some people choose to be around family and friends to help them cope with suffering. When others see people suffering we choose to either help them head on or we choose to ignore it. 

Orientalism Dictates

In 2012, Paramount released The Dictator, a movie about a dictator from the Northern African Republic of Wadiya (fictional). The main character, General Haffaz Aladeen, travels to New York City to speak to the United Nations over concerns with his country's nuclear plans. While this movie displays extreme examples of orientalist thought, I do believe that it was intended to be satirical and speak out against the misconstrued ideas of the "Western World" in our pop culture.

First off, the setting says enough for itself. The movie is set in the middle of an African desert with a large palace smack in the middle. There are no modern buildings whatsoever and it appears quite desolate. Having travelled to Africa (and I know that Africa is a large continent and has many different settings), this is not realistic. Believe it or not, western countries have booming cities just like us!

Also, all Middle-Eastern men in this movie are depicted as angry, savage, and violent. The main character, Aladeen, often orders random executions at the slightest infractions. Furthermore, Aladeen is depicted as a full-on tyrant- which is an impactful misconception of Middle-Eastern leaders.

Finally, it is often believed that women in Middle-Eastern countries are heavily oppressed and lack education. There are certainly cultures in which women do experience severe oppression, but in no way does that apply to the entire Middle-East. In the movie, Aladeen shows interest in a woman that attended Amherst University. After learning this, Aladeen comments on how seeing educated women is comparable to a monkey on roller skates. He believes that it means nothing to women, but to men, educated women are adorable. Furthermore, after Aladeen's birth, his mother is killed by the doctor- intensifying the stereotype that all women are mistreated or abused.

Once again, I do believe that this movie was produced as a satirical piece. It's purpose was to fight against orientalism and demonstrate just how absurd the whole phenomenon is. By 2018, we should all, as educated Americans, be able to recognize that this is not an accurate depiction of the Middle-East. However, I am sure there are still many individuals out there who let this film act as reinforcement to their orientalist perspective.

The Dictator

The Dictator is a 2012 political satire and comedy co-written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. The movie takes place in New York during a United Nations council due to international concerns over his countries clandestine nuclear program. General Aladeen played by Sacha Baron Cohen has ruled the North African country of Wadiya since the age of 6. He took over as ruler when 97 bullets and a hand grenade killed his father when he was on a hunting expedition. Right here we already have an example of orientalism. The movie portrays his home country as one that is unsafe and the government officials as clueless and reckless. After taking over, General Aladeen is convinced by his advisors to go to New York and attend the summit.

Their are constant examples of Orientalism throughout the film that are highlighted and very hard to miss. First off, the city of Wadiya features exaggerated wealth as a result of all the oil their with a very "Middle Eastern" accent. The city is portrayed as an oasis and wasteland in the middle of nowhere with a massive government mansion where Cohen lives. There are no modern buildings anywhere in the city. Next, the movie shows a flashback to when Cohen was born and he comes out of his mother's womb with a full grown beard and endless body hair which supports the stereotype that all middle easterners are hairy. Later on, the movie supports the orientalist idea that all women are not respected and treated right because throughout the film Cohen always has women by his side that are barely dressed and bossed around. An example of this is when Cohens romantic interest said that she attended Amherst college, Cohen responds by saying, "I love it when women go to school. It's like a monkey on roller skates. It means nothing to them but it's adorable to us.". This clearly shows the inaccurate portrayal of women throughout the movie.

The movie also supports the idea that all Middle Eastern men are savages and angry all the time. Cohen is constantly ordering the executions of pedestrians and others because of the slightest offenses.  Also Cohen's father is shown as a tyrant and a savage. I think the best example of Orientalism shown in the film comes when Cohen meets the head of the security staff at the hotel. The head of the staff says, "I hate arabs". Cohen then tells him that Wadiya is not an Arabic Country but the head of the security staff says. "Well you are all Arabs to me". The belief that all middle easterners are Arabic is clearly an example of the ignorance that arises from Orientalism.

It is upsetting that a lot of movies coming out now a days and in the past continue to highlight and harass the culture and lifestyle of people living in the Middle East. Also the fact that most people do not recognize the inaccurate portrayals of the Middle East in films is upsetting. I can't imagine how people from Arabic descent feel when watching these movies portrayal of their country. With movies like, The Dictator, Orientalism continues to invade our movies and televisions shows with very few people realizing what is going on or trying to stop it.