Monday, April 28, 2014

Aladdin

It’s Disney’s version of the classic love story of a poor boy who falls in love with the beautiful princess, and they want to marry but her father will not allow it.

 However right from the opening scene we can the evidence of apparent racism of the stereotypical Arabic village. We see the typical dessert scene, with a merchant riding a camel through this town that appears to be a wasteland. This scene also had to be changed because a number of protesters did not appreciate the line “Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face” because it makes it seem like those of Arabic decedent are extremists that will stop at no costs to make their country how they want it. We can also see the stereotypical Arabic man being portrayed as an overbearing man with distinct facial hair and other features. 


In this movie in particular sexism and racism are closely related and we can see this through the main female of Jasmine. Disney completely throws out traditional clothing and dresses Jasmine in a number of skimpy sexual outfits that objectify women which is extremely sexist. They also use her character to try to say that their government is extremely forceful, and that women could not run the country alone which causes her father to find her a mate at any means necessary. 

This shows how women are undervalued and put below men in other countries teaching young women they are not good enough to do things alone. To find her mate we see men fight over this beautiful women like she is a prize to be one, until she is captured by Jafar. While captured Jasmine tries to escape using her looks which is basically saying women only have their looks going for them, and can’t fight like men. She is eventually saved by Aladdin because she can’t escape by herself which fits in the typical damsel in distress stereotype of women, and how they cannot take care of themselves.

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