I love the movie Aladdin. It’s fun, the music is great, and Jasmine is pretty cool in my opinion. The law in her city requires that princesses marry a prince by their sixteenth birthday but she fights back to marry someone she loves (Aladdin.) However, I won’t hesitate to say that the movie is filled with some pretty serious instances of racism, sexism, and stereotypes about the middle east.
Let’s start with the stereotypes. Take the opening scene/song, for example. Agrabah (a mystical city in the middle east) is described as being “barbaric” and a place where it’s “hotter than hot in a lot of good ways.” The first character we meet has a beard, turban, thick accent, and tries to sell viewers a broken combination hookah/coffee maker/french fry cutter. This sends a certain stereotypical message about exactly how things are in Agrabah: harsh and violent.
Sexism comes into play often as well. First of all, Jasmine is always dressed quite provocatively and at one point is even handcuffed and forced to serve Jafar in a way that reminds me of a concubine or prostitute. Jasmine is constantly controlled by the men in her life (the Sultan, who tries to enforce the law because he wants a man to “provide for her” and Jafar who does everything in his power to put Jasmine in the degrading concubine position.) In every other scene where women are portrayed, they are either portrayed in a similar fashion to Jasmine (sexy, beautiful, high pitched voices) or big, fat, and intimidating. Every woman, not surprisingly, falls all over Aladdin whenever he walks into the scene.
Finally, there is some serious racism happening. The most prevalent example is that characters who are considered antagonists or idiots are portrayed as stereotypical middle eastern folk, with turbans, beards, middle eastern skin tones and facial features, and heavy accents. On the other hand, our protagonists Jasmine and Aladdin have American accents, caucasian facial features, and light toned skin.
Here’s the opening scene that portrays the stereotyping of their culture:
Sooooooo this is a really interesting blog. What you are saying really resonates with me for several reasons because Aladdin has always been the only prince i had a crush on. As unorthodox as it seems everyone has that one Disney character they fall in love with and for me that person was always this little street rat, he is just perfect. But as a gay person i understand that even if Aladdin loved me back, his culture would never allow us to be together. I find Persian, middle eastern men so very attractive and I am very open to the idea of one day being in a relationship with one, if we ever meet, however i feel really sad about the repression they face in their own country. I cant fathom facing the hardships the deal with which stem from being exiled or threatened with death by authorities of your own country. Jasmine did have it rough and i appreciate the time you took to point out the underlying issues with the story.
I think this is a very observant and powerful post. I believe that it is also important to note that a lot of viewers don’t notice these obvious things when watching the movie, which, in many ways, shows a flaw in our society for not looking to be observant enough and witness innappropriate steryotypes being shoved in our face.