The Kid Down the Hall: "You can't just have your opinions on your blog, you've got to put other stuff there as well..."

Despite this blog being called 'My opinions about Disney', my hallmate thinks that my blog is inferior to his because I haven't got 'other stuff' on it. Of course he didn't realise that he was just giving me an excuse to write about my opinions, so that was a bit short-sighted of him. I will take the offer!

This next post is going to be a bit different. Having finished the course now we must each write our own extended essay on a topic of our choosing. As I already mentioned, mine is about the Orientalism of Aladdin and how it reflects the world we currently live in. This essay has led me down a number of research paths and has made me really consider what the media really means. To jumpstart me in this discussion, I'll look briefly at Dianne Macleod's 'The Politics of Vision: Disney, Aladdin, and The Gulf War'. This reading, despite the seeming shambles it was, was one of the most important in guiding me towards the conclusion that western depictions of the east are not so much indicative of an attitude as they are a cause for such attitude. As Disney's major audience is mostly children, the images of Hun savages in Mulan, tyrannical Arabs in Aladdin and brutish colonials in Pocahontas are integral in the mental development of Disney's young audience. Macleod, having the background of an art historian, comments that this tradition has developed since the early Renaissance where paintings such as those by Jean-Leon Gerome conveyed a sense of eastern inferiority through shear barbarism and rampant sexuality.

Pool in a harem - Gerome

This tradition has developed to the point that it is commonly accepted, perhaps even encouraged. A quick google search of 'Arabian culture' reveals Westen preconceptions: women in burqas, mosques and camels are rife. Although this may indeed reflect key aspects of culture in Arabia, there is a pronounced emphasis on the more foreign, the more exotic. Aspects Edward Said would label 'Other'. By blowing these aspects out of proportion, the west can create a tangible misrepresentation of the east which is reinforced by succeeding cultural products. It is this misrepresentation which arguably brought about the fear and loathing which led to the wars in Iraq, the Gulf and Afghanistan. But where does Aladdin fit into this tradition? Aladdin reinforces the image of the greedy, conniving Arab in the character of Jafar who seeks to subjugate Agrabah under his evil rule by manipulating the Sultan with his magic.

In the contemporary context of Aladdin, Jafar's character was all too similar to that of Saddam Hussein. I would go so far as to argue that Aladdin's creation is indicative of the attitude of fear and foreboding that led to the start of the Iraq war. Without finding any chemical weapons, the preemptive western assault displays an assumption of intended malice from the people of the East. This attitude is propagated in as seemingly benign media such as Aladdin...