Thursday, September 13, 2007
As i was researching, i have to agree with sun in saying that they portray and stereotype the "orientals" to be more sexual or exotic. I searched the word "oriental ism" and got pictures of belly dancers and naked women. These women were wearing very little clothing and lots of eye catching jewelery, makeup, and clothing. The picture on the right, she is dressed up in an exotic "bikini" like, belly dancer outfit decorated with diamonds. People in the east do not go around wearing belly dancer outfits and shaking their hips, no, that's not what happens. These pictures kinda remind me of Jasmine in the Disney movie Aladdin. The movie takes place in Arabia and Jasmin is wearing a belly dancer outfit and has long dark hair. This not only stereotypes the eastern countries in general but all of American children are watching Aladdin and are believing that this is how Arabia is, and this his how they dress, when that is not really thecase.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It's interesting how censorship is so strong in today's media and how so many people are uncomfortable discussing political/sexual/ religious topics, but no one seems to take issue with fact that in Disney/ children's films, scantily clad characters still strongly resemble the sexual sybols stereotypically associated with the east/"Orient". Jasmine is oddly proportioned and scantily clad, imprinting a biased opinion of eastern culture upon youth, an opinion that they inevitably carry with them later in life.
While it is by no means common for most women in the Orient to wear little clothing on a regular basis, some of the costumes depicted in media are based on accurate styles of dress for certain situations. For instance, in a harem it may be far more likely to see women dressed in an outfit like Jasmine's... though for a princess like her, it would hardly be appropriate as everyday wear. Despite this, the fact that scantily clad women are the ONLY types of women displayed, that is by far the prevailing stereotype in the West.
It is very interseting to see how all the movies and animations that we used to watch as children imply this complicated and deep concept of orientalism. Or, Orientalism is so accustomed to our lives that we could not realize them before. Whether the moviemakers were intentionally putting this concept or not, these movies show that the orientalism is common idea today.
Post a Comment