Stereotypes In Aladdin's Arabian Nights

Aladdin is like any other love story. The Rich girl that lives in a palace meets a “street rat” boy that can show her the ropes of real life? Typical. But it goes just beyond the love story, because it may be one of Disney’s most controversial movies ever made. Through the presentation of; characters and their traits, the music and lyrics, as well as language and dialect; Aladdin shows Middle Eastern culture through only racial stereotypes.

The song, “Arabian Nights” opens the movie and the viewers are introduced to the sandy deserts that westerners think the entire Middle Eastern region is comprised of. In the song, a certain lyric stirred up some controversy. The lyrics started off with “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your

One form of racism is discrimination of language and dialect, meaning not accepting or a prejudice of the way someone chooses to speak. Specifically in the scene where Aladdin meets Jafar and his character is properly introduced. Jafar is an old, Arab man who is the main antagonist in the movie. He is made out to be an evil character due to his appearance and the way he speaks. Also, most Disney villains are intruders from a far away place, Jafar is the enemy within his own country which is very ironic and implies a bad image towards Arab men and where their loyalty lies. In contrast, Disney tries to make the fact that Aladdin speaks standard English in the movie, which is, in turn, superior to Jafar’s use of

Most of the other supporting characters in the movie were portrayed as having dark skin, speaking in an Arabic accent, drawn with Arab facial features, and always conspiring against the two. Specifically, the scene when Jasmine first escapes the palace, she sees a poor and hungry child. Ignorant of the consequences (considering she is a princess and grew up in a palace) she steals an apple to give to the little boy. Almost immediately, she is caught and the fruit stand owner grabs her and threatens to cut it off with his sword. This adds to the barbaric stereotype of Arab men and how they deal with conflict; through violence and anger.

In terms of skin color, which is one of the main and obvious ways people are discriminate against race, the Sultan and Princess Jasmine are much lighter in skin tone than the rest of the characters in the movie. The Sultan is fair-skinned and Jasmine is slightly darker than him. They were the first characters in the movie initially presented as the pure, good (and white) characters. They are also the wealthiest characters. In result them being the whitest, presented as good, non-violent people, one can only assume that they would be in charge of leading the