By Emily Gonzalez
Throughout history, stories portraying the Middle East have been filled with Orientalism, racism, and the aspect of fantasy. This has been a result of colonization. For example, since the French translation of the Arabian Nights, stories of the Middle East have been oversexualized and ill-translated, causing a never ending cycle of misrepresentation.
In these stories, aspects such as religion and culture have been erased to fit the fantasized ideas of the Middle East presented in the French translation. The Middle East in these films and pieces of media is seen as a land of magic, and pieces of media perpetuate this fantasy ideal with the use of genies, magical carpets, and magical stones. These flim’s have oversexualized Arabic women for centuries rather than portraying authentic stories about Middle Eastern women. In order to make stories about the Middle East without succumbing to Orientalism and racism, we must start from scratch. We mustn’t refer to films previously made about the Middle East because these films are a result of colonization. In order to tell stories about the Middle Eastern’s without succumbing to Orientalism and racism, those of middle Eastern descent should be in charge of writing these stories and involved in the creative process of making these films, rather than having white people spend some time in a middle eastern county and call that enough to produce a film, a musical, or a book inspired by middle eastern culture.
As I watched the films in class, there were several aspects that seemed to be prominent throughout the several films. These aspects include the use of magic, the hyper sexualization of the women, and the fact that the majority of the actors are white and are portraying middle-eastern characters, or that the characters are telling stories about white people rather than middle-eastern ones. In the Thief of Baghdad and Disney’s Aladdin, both of the Princess wear costumes that are inaccurate to middle eastern culture, and especially revealing in the chest area. Princess in the Thief of Baghdad and Princess Jasmine both wear tops that are either tight fitting or a small top. In both films there is a heavy use of magic within the film with the genie’s, magic carpets, lamps and magical stones. The Sheikh, and The Thief Of Baghdad have a majority of white actors playing Middle Eastern characters with the exception of Sabu Dastgir who is of Indian descent. Another thing found in all 3 of the films are that the characters who had stronger facial characteristics of Middle Eastern descent were made out to be the Villains such as Omiar, Jaffa, and Jaffar . Whereas the characters with more European Centric features such Aladdin, Jasmine and Genie are seen as good.
