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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