Sunday, October 25, 2009

Arabs in Television

I thought the video about how Arabs are represented in television and movies was interesting because as a little girl, Aladdin was one of my favorite Disney movies. Obviously when I was young, I didn't realize that Aladdin was even Arab, and that he and the other Arab characters were being portrayed in negative ways. After watching the video, it further opened my eyes to how many movies and shows have been made that put Arabs in a bad light.
Our conversation about black people in television and movies raised some interesting questions. We began naming numerous black actors and someone noted that black female leads are rare. I cannot even think of a movie with a black actress as the lead. I thought about this when I went to the movies this weekend. I noticed a poster about a movie coming out called The Princess and the Frog and the main "actress" is a black female. Is that really one of the only black female actresses? And will it pave the way for black female actresses to become the lead more often? I just thought it was a coincidence that we had been talking about black actors and actresses and this movie happened to be coming out.
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5 comments:

  1. sambossOctober 25, 2009 at 9:06 PM

    During class I was thinking about the new disney movie also. But these issues of representation are also visible in children's books. The majority identity carries the biggest pocketbook (in this country) and so it wins all the lead roles...

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  2. Laura COctober 27, 2009 at 4:44 PM

    But at the same time, Molly you bring up an interesting point in regards to not knowing Aladdin was Arab. I think many children fall into this and just watch the movie, see someone who is different from them, but just take it with a grain of salt and see it as part of making the story better. And although Aladdin and Jasmine were different, I would have loved to be there friends and go on those adventures. It never occurred to me that that story was a representation of contemporary Arab life, let alone a representation of anything. So in a a sense yes I am sure one could argue it is institutionalized discrimination, but considering the audience does it really have that impact if they can't differentiate to begin with?

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  3. allisonarlottaOctober 28, 2009 at 4:18 PM

    I thought of one! Catwoman!

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  4. Olivia HarringtonOctober 28, 2009 at 9:41 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Olivia HarringtonOctober 28, 2009 at 10:01 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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