A professor of mine asked
us to break down the imagery in Disney’s feature Aladdin in an understanding of Edward Said’s coined Orientalism.
I write about it here even though it is a sensitive subject, as it
is one that warrants observation and discussion. As I am writing this, it would help to
remember the social relevance of post-colonial theory, espoused by
theoreticians like Said, and how it serves to inform culturally imperialist
notions of the “East” (blanket term, in quotes due to its archaic categorization
of everything that is not America and Europe).
Firstly, the setting is rife with camels,
turbans, beards, and even the opening shots feature the tracking of the path of
a camel. The palace in Agrabah boasts
Arabic and/or Islamic architecture, and the overall appearance of the homes and
neighborhoods of commoners are primitive (camels, stucco homes, unpaved roads). Atypical and wild animals have been
domesticated, like Abu the monkey and Raja the tiger. The streets are filled with merchants, and
some are willing to chop off people’s hands if they steal (see: Furniss). There is also an obedience to royalty,
evidenced by the way the Sultan’s guards capture Aladdin and only bow to
Jasmine and release him when she reveals herself as the Princess. There is, additionally, the threat of “death
by beheading” which Jafar threatens to carry out with Aladdin when he captures
him for “kidnapping” the Princess. Characters
like an anthropomorphized magic carpet, a blue genie in a lamp, and a crazed,
greedy pauper flank Aladdin during the course of the film, which are
stereotypes of things that are thought to exist in the mystical Middle East. The font of the titles are made to look like
Arabic script. And finally, something
that stood out like a sore thumb was the Genie’s self-deprecating expression,
“Genie, wake up and smell the hummus,”
which I think is, for all intents and purposes, 50% funny and 50%
offensive.
All of these things
emphasize what the post-colonialists like Said would call Orientalism. Orientalism indicates a desire to
compartmentalize and pigeon-hole cultures of the “East” either into one
constructed reality or several, each with stereotypical representations. In speaking of “Arabian Nights,” the opening
song of the film, Furniss states, “The description seems to posit Ashman’s
conception of Aladdin’s Arabia as an Arabia in quotes—a parody of Hollywood’s
typical treatment of the 'exotic' Orient,” (Furniss 212). Furniss concurs with the notion that “Arabian
Nights” is a microcosm for the greater imagery of the film, and that it is
meant to be a parody of conceptions of Middle Eastern culture rather than
something taken for factual representation.
Agrabah falls in line with
this thinking in that Agrabah, a made up generic name for a Middle Eastern city,
is itself a parody of an Arabian city’s name.
Post-colonialism would pooh-pooh these notions, arguing that such
parodying serves to further disenfranchise Middle Easterners even in their
representation, the Western white man coming in to shrink down entire cultures
to stereotypes for comic effect and for the sake of entertainment. Perhaps this colonialism of entertainment
culture is more Imperialist than IRL, on-foot (or via-drone) Imperialism, in
that it reaches so many more in both the East and West through happy-go-lucky
animation, and thus, speaks to both cultures more clearly, literally painting
us a picture of colonialist frames of reference. Although, I would say it is difficult to
narrow down Aladdin into pure bona fide racism with a capital R. At most, it’s racist with a lower case “r”
pandering to ingrained notions of what it means to be Arabic. Again, this is a fairy tale: families that watch it ought to take it as
such. It is not meant to be, at least in
my opinion, a large-scale cultural commentary on all, or even just modern,
Arabic peoples. Maybe the reason the
cultural representation of Aladdin
bothers so many white scholars has to do with the fact that Westerners still do
not have reinvented notions of the Middle East in culture, past or
present. We still believe it is a land
of Princes of opulence and sand-bound paupers with camels due to films like
Aladdin, stories like 1,001 Arabian Nights, and the evening news, and truthfully, having been to
northern-African-influenced countries, some of these stereotypes are based on
certain realities—it’s just the narrowing down of all Arab peoples to one set of tourist-level superficial images
that frustrates critical voices, and this I understand.
What should also be
taken into account is this is a film primarily for children; Disney is kind of
lucky it got away with multiple jokes about dismemberment knowing that it was
meant to be slated as a G-rated film. I
think the MPAA may have been flexible in this regard, and I am ignorant as to
the reasons why. As citizens, we
have the right to protect our children from sex and violence as per
the MPAA rating system, but what about jokes that happen to be in bad taste? Disney seems to have only gotten the
relevance of being PC in the 21st century with films like Finding Nemo where the only culture
really referenced in the name of sport are tubular tortoises that resemble
beach-side surfer culture and some angry and accented Bostonian-inspired
crustaceans. Disney thinks now that it’s
“safe” to make fun of aspects of American culture---before, the good-spirited
joke was on everyone else: dwarves,
women, Arabs. Turn inwardly and it is as
if Disney has decided to act like the good sport and take the jokes
(self-written) as they come. Look at Moana now, how far has Disney come in
this playful albeit socio-culturally irresponsible game? Pretty far, but I’d say there’s no cigar
yet. Unless cigars go to the prettiest,
sing-songiest, most overwhelmingly spectacular displays of 3D animation one
could imagine; in which case, Disney wins by a long shot.
ESH
References
Disney's Aladdin, 1992.
Furniss, Maureen, ed. “The Illusion of Identity.” Animation: Art and Industry. Indiana University Press, 2009. Web. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/lib/rutgers-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1977963. Accessed 28 November 2017.
