grew up on a farm. I genuinely wish I was kidding, but it’s true. Where I grew up the only people who weren’t purely identified by stereotypes were straight white christians. I was so entrenched in the world of white western stories that anything outside of that, felt like a mystery to me, something which was mystical and far away from any realm of reality. This especially applied to the Middle East, as it was treated almost as a taboo in my town. Something which really interests me when reflecting upon my childhood is the way in which Aladdin was viewed as a white story with mystical elements of stereotypical elements of orientalism as opposed to a true Middle Eastern Story. 

I grew up as a musical theatre kid and throughout my whole childhood, I remember it feeling very socially acceptable if not encouraged for full white casts to put on productions of Aladdin. I have quite literally been in three such casts myself. In these productions there was never any discussion of the origins of the stories we were telling and nobody saw any issue with all characters and people being portrayed by white people. I now see the many problems with this, but at the time it just felt like we were telling a fantasy story. I think this connects back to Disney’s goal with this film. The film itself in no way accurately depicts life in any type of modern Middle Eastern society. Instead, it more mirrors the traditional outline for an American hero’s journey with an emphasis on deeply western values such as freedom. This paired with the choice to design many of the lead characters with more white features strips the movie itself of much of its true connection to its Middle Eastern origins. 

Disney created something, which felt natural for white people to tell and claim as their own, which should not have been the case with this movie. It was long before I went to college when I started to see issues with these all white theatrical productions of this story, but I didn’t fully grasp what was making me so uncomfortable until the onset of this class. Within our discussions I realized the way in which Aladdin was spoon fed to my community, was through the lens of a story about white people told by white people and race was almost used as an element of fantasy. Sure, within the movie the characters were of color, but also there was a 1,000 year old genie and a carpet could fly. All cultural aspects, whether they be accurate or not, felt like part of the whimsy and fantasy, instead of like important world building details. Because of this, as a child, it was easy to claim the story of Aladdin as my own.  

Another element which added to this was the way in which I related to princess Jasmine. I remember in one Staninger text we read in class, she was referred to as the stereotypical American teenager or the “Valley Girl in Veils”, rebellious and strong-willed. I saw myself in this in a way which transcended racial boundaries. I genuinely believed I was Princess Jasmine in many ways and this was a main goal of Disney in creating this character. By giving her many traditional American values, they created a character which was easily claimed by white girls all over the world as their own. I think this added to the sense that white people could claim this story with little to no negative consequence. 

Upon beginning this class, I started seeing more and more blaring issues with the ways in which my small white town connected with this piece of media. We viewed it as a white story where any element of otherness could be attributed to the fantasy genre instead of actual cultural representation. Through discussion of this material in class I have seen more and more how in many ways this was Disney’s intention and how this can be very harmful to the cultural groups which are represented within the film.