Disney's Aladdin

 

Growing up as a child, Aladdin was  one of my favorite Disney movies and still is today. However, I never really understand how racist it was with its many racial stereotypes of the typical Arab or muslim. I just automatically thought it was a progressive movie and that Jasmine was so special because she was one of the only princesses of color besides Pocahontas and Mulan. Watching it now, it is obvious how americanized they made the movie and the many stereotypes within it despite claiming to depict Middle Eastern culture. First of all, why did Disney think it was okay to dress a typical Arab woman or an Arabic princess in tops that could almost be bras and baggy pants? That is just completely wrong. In no culture, especially not Arab culture, would the typical dress of a woman, let alone the princess, be a literal crop top or bra that shows her entire stomach. In fact, if anything the typical dress of Arabic women is a lot more conservative than Western culture, often not showing very much skin. Although, it varies between different middle eastern culture, most middle eastern dress seems to be pretty conservative. However, I guess you could say they dressed up Jasmine to look like a belly dancer or “gypsy.” Belly dancing is said to have originated in the Middle East, specifically Egypt, and dates back to a long time ago. Another thing that I noticed is that the accents of the people in the movie are so inconsistent. Jasmine and Aladdin obviously have a typical American accent despite being Arabic. Jafar has a subtle accent thats not very strong but is still there. The question is, why does Jafar, the villain, have an Arabic accent and not Aladdin or Jasmine? They all come from the same place. You would think that think the princess and sultan of all people would have an accent. In addition, the man who starts to introduce or narrate the story in the very beginning has an Arabic accent that is a lot stronger than the rest of the characters in the movie. They obviously depict the "bad" characters as darker with thicker Arabic accents and the “good” characters as lighter with American accents. Also, in the opening "Arabian Nights" song, I never noticed that they literally described this Arabic land as “barbaric.” The specific lyric is, “Where it's flat and immense. And the heat is intense. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.” That is clearly wrong, and representative of the stereotypes that American have against people who are Arabic. 

Besides, all the racist or stereotypical things about the movie, after reading the story of “Aladdin and the wonderful Lamp”, there are obviously big differences between the story and movie. In the story Aladdin is just some lazy boy who seems to have parents but one of them literally dies because of Aladdin’s laziness. In contrast, in the movie, we know nothing about Aladdin’s parents. All the family Aladdin has is his monkey sidekick, Abu. This animal sidekick is obviously one of Disney’s signature traits in his princess films. Also I don’t think that in this movie you could describe Aladdin as lazy or only caring about himself like he does in the story. He obviously has to put in a lot of effort to steal food and run away from all the guards and even after all that he is willing to give up the only food he has to these poor, hungry children. In the end, he also uses up his last wish to free the genie. There is also the addition of the magic carpet which is not in the story at all. Robin Williams as the genie obviously adds a comedic element to the Disney film. Also in the film, the genie is only a slave to the lamp, not a ring. Also the villain of the story does not pretend to be Aladdin’s uncle who is actually a magician, but instead is the royal Vizier who is also a sorcerer. I guess that it wasn’t hard to add in Disney’s signature magical elements and the typical “Happy Ending” because the story seems to have these two elements within it already. Also, in the movie, the princess obviously has more of a voice and isn’t willing to go along with whatever anyone tells her. She is a feisty princess that doesn’t want anyone choosing her future for her. She is given the chance to actually get to know Aladdin and then choose to marry Aladdin for herself. They both seem to connect over similar struggles but on the opposite side of the social hierarchy. Aladdin, overall is also a much better person than the Aladdin of the story and a lot less creepy with princess Jasmine. 

Overall, I love Aladdin and it will always be one of my favorite Disney movies, but the movie clearly contains many controversial stereotypes and issues.