I feel like most Disney movies have something positive and negative to contribute. Maybe it isn't so much about what you show your kids, but how you talk about them afterward-- which attributes and characters you praise and which ones you discourage.
Looking at some of the more controversial movies, I find they still have some things to tell, and a lot of them were released when people weren't as aware about racial issues and what negative or stereotypical characters bring into the world. Anyway, I'm going to try to think about some of these films this week, mostly because I have nothing else to bloody write about!
Aladdin
Okay, it is racist. There are a lot of problems, especially with the original version of "Arabian Nights" and the line, "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." Jasmine is dressed in ridiculously slutty garb. Jafar does look a bit more, shall we say, swarthy. And yes, the original story, was set in China, as the Hallmark channel movie pokes fun at.
But, starting with this final point, the writer's seem to be paying tribute to Scheherazade and the original 1001 Arabian Nights. Genie's song, "Friend Like Me," references her further ("Scheherazade had a thousand tales"), and, if they are just using those stories as indicative of Arab culture, they definitely had a violent text to draw from to create this tale. After all, Scheherazade was telling her stories to literally save her head. Maybe those stories were presented via European colonizers, maybe they were from the 1700s-based English translation, and from an age when most European countries similarly had violent punishments for stealing (like Aladdin's hand being cut off). But it was trying to pay tribute to a female storyteller, and an interesting figure who used her wit to save her life.
And while Jasmine is scantily dressed, so too is Aladdin pretty bare-skinned. Not really a great counterargument, but you do get to objectify equally, if you're into skinny animated characters.
Plus, the movie does present some interesting ideas surrounding socioeconomic class-- particularly with regard to Aladdin's need to steal to survive and then offering his food to the even poorer, orphaned children on the street. Aladdin explains it clearly, "Gotta steal to eat, gotta eat to live," and the reasons for this poverty are clearly out of his hands ("I'd blame parents except he hasn't got 'em"). All he needs is a fancy outfit, a sweet ride, and an entourage, and he is just the same as a prince. Plus, Jasmine gets to marry whoever she wants at the end (though by the age of sixteen... also indicative more of the time period?), so everybody learns that royal blood ain't everything.
Anyway, I need to continue this tomorrow-- when it's fancified I'll repost!
No comments:
Post a Comment