Tori Falcon

During our discussions on the 1992 Disney movie Aladdin, one of the things that deeply sat with me was the understanding that as much as Princess Jasmine is a central role in this film, none of it is her story. Our readings for that week put into perspective a Western view of women from the vague Middle East and our perceived idea of their oppression. One of the things I found specifically interesting about this Western view of Middle Eastern women is to save them from Middle Eastern men. This is an idea that perpetuates in Western culture for all women of color even within the U.S.’ own country lines. There is this misunderstanding of foreign women that what Western society perceives as their oppression exists in a vacuum. I really wanted to emphasize on what implications are packed into saving Brown and Black women from Brown and Black men and how the movie Aladdin recycles this Western view. In this critical response essay, I will narrow my focus to be on how agency for Brown and Black women is only viewed as agency if they are adapting to Western ideals. In the movie Aladdin, we see that one of the most important parts of Princess Jasmine’s not story is that she is “not a prize to be won.” Her father, the Sultan, tells her she must marry a Prince with no exact understanding of what the ‘or else’ here is, which I believe leads us to believe the ‘or else’ is unspeakable. This I think doubles down on a Western view of the believed oppressive nature of the Middle East. Jasmine then needs to be saved from this Brown system, created by these Brown men. Even though Jasmine says she is not a prize, her life and story is still determined by the men around her. Other than the Sultan trying to find a good prince for her to be a prize for, Jafar, the villain and the Sultan’s royal vizier, wants to become Sultan to become powerful and also wants Jasmine as his prize. Enter Aladdin, our hero. Aladdin is a diamond in the rough, former “street rat”, who wants to attain upward mobility as well, but not in the selfish way like Jafar. Oh and he wants Jasmine for love – still a prize though. But, Aladdin is supposed to be perceived as deserving of Jasmine as his prize because within American framework, he earned it all. Although Aladdin is a Brown man, in this movie he takes on the characteristics of a Western man, where Western often means white. Aladdin and Jasmin both act differently from everyone else in Agrabah. In Aladdin Animated Racism, Jack Shaheen describes how the street vendors and palace guards have sinister eyes, are darker and speak in “idiot accents” while Jasmine and Aladdin speak and look so different than the rest of the Arabs. This tells the audience our heroes want more than this life they have been placed in and that more is Western. The West ties very closely Islam and the Middle East and projects an understanding of the religion onto this region and its women. The cultural misunderstanding of the Middle East can also be connected to the West’s obsession of the plight of Muslim women. (Abu-Lughod, p. 784) Abu-Lughod describes this obsession as colonial feminism which creates a separation between the “others” and “us.” It is those Brown and Black male “others” who want to force their world on the rest of us and the Brown and Black women need to be freed. It is recurring views such as this which has justified much of the violent colonialism that permeates in Brown and Black areas as white men saving brown women from brown men. (Abu-Lughod, p. 784) This is something even in the U.S. that is projected onto Brown and Black communities. Where Latino and Black men are stereotypically seen as violent and abusive to their women, there is demonization of this population and a need to save their women from them. And the

women can be supposedly saved, and the men can be rectified if they just adapted to the system correctly. But, this demonization of these racialized groups is more about the domination of them. Furthermore, the colonialism that gets justified through colonial feminism regenerates so often because it is part of the foundation of these communities. The conversation of the veil is the salient symbol of oppression in Islamic regions. The history of Middle Eastern regions comes with the ingredients of colonialism, Christianity, and Islam and the cultural understanding of the world is shaped by these factors. And many of these pieces are interrelated to the Western world as well. So, what became of this region, is not unique or special and to deny or ignore its foundation is ahistorical. (Ahmed, p. 5) That is not to say that what become of this region is wrong, but a different cultural understanding of the world and the women are navigating and choosing what to do with this understanding. So, when Western women place colonial feminism onto these Brown women, they assume they are saving them from a Brown patriarchy. But are then asking them to assimilate into a white patriarchy and Western ideals not within these women’s historical, social and political understanding. This is violence. So, in Aladdin, we see all of this ignorance packed into a children’s animated film. The lack of understanding of Middle Eastern women’s history as not interconnected to the rest of the world causes a harmful otherization to perpetuate. And what audiences take away is that American Aladdin, assimilated into Western ideals, is allowed to save Brown Jasmine from the other oppressive Brown men. Brown women only have agency if it is the right to choose Western ideals.