Addison's Aladdin

Introductions are intended to hook the reader, giving them a taste of what is to follow and leave them eager to read on. Unfortunately, Addison’s opening paragraphs fulfilled neither of these for me. Addison’s opening paragraph in particular was very wordy, giving a synopsis of Islamic law and a brief history lesson. While this aspect of her article let me know from the very outset that she was very well informed about the topic, it was tedious to read and did not particularly enhance her argument in any way. Aladdin is a movie that has very much divided critics in terms of its “racist” content and Addison definitely does not sit on the fence when it comes to exposing the most “racist’ elements of the movie. I have to admit that when I watched Aladdin as a young child, I was completely oblivious to the racist components of the movie. However, having watched the movie again with a different perspective and after reading Addison’s compelling argument, I now see why Aladdin is such a controversial movie.

Although she does not explicitly state her thesis, Addison’s argument is very clear; Aladdin acted as a  “missionary project” and its aim was to replace Islamic culture, laws and social norms with American “individualism, romance and the aristocracy of the wealth” by deconstructing Islamic social order and culture. She made a very valid point when she described how Disney tried to portray Agrabah as a “trans-cultural, trans- geographical” place. Agrabah is ultimately a stereotypical representation of what most Americans perceive the Middle East to be like. Egypt, India, Arabia, Turkey and Morocco are all combined to form one large country; “The Orient”, suggesting that because each of these places are so different from American culture, the distinct differences between each separate country are trivial.

I agree with Addison when she suggests that the main characters’ appearances are caricatures of Islamic culture and primarily act to emphasize the huge discrepancies between American and Islamic culture. She remarks how Aladdin is the only clean-shaven male character and his skin is much lighter than the others, reinforcing his connection with ideological American culture. Even though he is supposed to be a typical poor Arab boy, it is clear that he has much closer affiliation with American culture than Islamic culture. He even asks Jasmine to call him Al, the Americanized version of the Arabic Aladdin. He doesn’t resemble any of the other Arabs in the movie and without a turban or headgear, is indistinguishable from an ordinary American. As an audience we are routing for Aladdin but in doing so we are not pulling from the Arab but in fact the American. Addison believes that wealth and love are paired together in the movie and are viewed in an overtly positive light. However, The quest for power, especially political power in the case of Jafar is portrayed as being destructive, driven by sinister desires. Beards are associated with power in the movie but it is skin color that largely dictates whether the character is viewed as good or evil. The Sultan has a bushy, white beard almost reminiscent of a harmless, Santa Claus like figure and is “race-neutral. While he may be ruler of the Arab people in this movie, it is hard to view him as an Arab due to his light skin complexion. Dark colors are associated with evil, sinister forces, one of the many reasons why this movie is considered racist. It’s not surprising, therefore, that Jafar has both a dark beard and dark skin tone. The other male antagonists with corrupt agendas; thieves, guards and street vendors bear similar resemblance to Jafar with their dark beards and skin color, reinforcing the link between color and evil.

Overall, Addison successfully argues that Aladdin is a racist film but her closing paragraph is perhaps not as effective at reinforcing her argument as it could have been. The references to domestic strategies and foreign policy are irrelevant and the idea that all Muslim woman long to be like American teenagers is a bit of a stretch. Personally, I believe that we are often ignorant of other cultures and assume that Arab’s wish for the things we possess, that they don’t have but in fact, what they truly desire may be very different.