Monday, December 9, 2019

Communication Across for World Trade Attack- myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theCommunication Across for World Trade Attack. Answer: Since the time of the colonization of the Arab World to the period of the World Trade Attack, modern world have help negative perceptions about the upbringing and cultures of people living in the Middle East[1]. This negative attitude and stereotypes against the Middle East people reflects in the way Arab characters are portrayed in moves and televisions. Apart from viewing them as outright terrorist, people residing in this place are regarded as mysterious and having misogynistic characters[2]. Hence, Middle East people are often overemphasized and exaggerated in European and U.S films indicating reinforcement of orientalist perspective in film making. However, the truthfulness of such portrayal is questioned because Middle East people are not from Islamic culture only, many Christian people also resides in Middle East countries. It is necessary to critically analyze this negative stereotyping of Middle Eastern people because it is leading to harmful consequence such as bullying, di scrimination and racial profiling. The orientalist approach is explored in detail by the analysis of the film Hurt Locker. The essay examines the film to determine the manner of portrayal of Middle East and its inhabitants in films and identify whether negative or positive stereotypes exists. The review and analysis of the Aladdin (1992) gives insight into the portrayal of the Middle East and its inhabitants in films. It was musical animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by John Musker. The film set in the fictional state of Agrabah portrays the character of a peddler who explains the story about the oil lamp to the public. Meanwhile, Jafar, the Grand Vizier of the Sultan is in search of the lamp hidden in the Cave of Wanders and he seeks the help of a street urchin named Aladdin. A romantic angle between Aladdin and Princess Jasmine is seen, however Jafar secretly captures Aladdin and disguise as an old man to set him free. In return, Jafar ask Aladdin and his monkey to retrieve the lamp. This is followed by several fantasy inside the cave and the release of Genie from the lamp. However, at last Aladdin becomes lucky as Genie explains that he has become his master and can ask any three wished. Aladdin used his trick to free himself from the c ave and fulfill his personal interest. However, several face-off is seen with Aladdin when Jafar steals the lamp and uses it for negative purpose such as usurping Aladdin from the Sultan position, trapping Jasmine into a magical hourglass and become the worlds most powerful sorcerer. The film reaches to its climax when Aladdin tricks Jafar by stating that Genie is the most powerful being in the world and he should use his last wish to become one. This resulted in Jafar being sucked into his own lamp and finally the Sultan alters the law to allow Aladdin too marry Jasmine[3]. Hence, finally the film ends with a positive note. Although the film synopsis makes it difficult to understand any negative stereotypes against the Middle East, however a song sung by an Arab character in the movies depicts negative perceptions about people residing in the Middle East. The lyrics of the song was Where theey cut off your ear, if they dont like your face, its barbaric. This line in the song was opposed by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee as it was regarded as a discriminatory lyrics[4]. The character of Aladdin in the film was also portrayed in a stereotypical light. In the film, Aladdin has been depicted as a poor orphan and his home is a depiction of a life in poverty. In the film, Aladdin has been showed stealing food for survival. This reflects perception about Arabs and common stereotypes related to culture of Middle East people[5]. The stereotyped image of Arabs in American and Western Media has been extensively research and a study suggested that this ugly portrayal of negative stereotypes of Arab s transforms the perceptions of a child and similar perceptions stays with them till adulthood too. Just like the character in Aladdin film, Arabs has been dehumanized and portrayed as bad character in television shows, cartoons, movies and comic books. The critical evaluation of the Aladdin movie depicts how hollywood vilifies people from the Middle East countries. In the film, the main character Aladdin is seen stealing loaf of bread and just when he sits down to eat, he gives the bread to a hungry child. Here, the stealing is justified. However, some touch of American value is also seen in the character of Aladdin. This is mostly because in Disney movies, main character has to be attractive to the audience. Hence, despite his origin from Middle East, he looks like an American. He was shown fighting violence and restoring order in Agrabah. He has fair complexion and proper American accent. His dreams and aspirations also embrace the idea of freedom and success. This is a positive attitude because this is basic nature of humanity and irrespective of peoples origin, everybody wants and seeks freedom from life of struggles and poverty. However, despite his aspiration, Aladdin was shown having little power and economic stability in li fe. One study also explained that the Middle East is often portrayed as a region of defeat and fundamentalism and the place lacks democracy, unity and modernity[6]. In the film Aladdin, many negative stereotypes related to Middle East and its culture is seen. Firstly, the depiction of Aladdin as a thief and living life in poverty reflects negative image about the inhabitants of the Middle East. Secondly, the director of the movie also showed negative characteristics of dictatorship, deception and violence among Arab people through the character of Jafar[7]. Jafar has been shown as conniving character with unattractive image. His features have been over exaggerated to reflect upon the Arabian ethnicity. There is evidence that according to American stereotypes, Middle East people are not real men and their eyes reveal deceptive motive. When reviewing several representation of Arab images in editorial pages and comic strips, dehumanized image is found.[8] The director also made all attempts to dehumanize the character of the film as far as possible. For instance, Jafar was given hooked nose, enlarged eyes and elongated neck to make him look evil. S econdly, his deceptive manner is reflected by the act of hypnotizing people in the movie. His desire of having control over Agrabah depicts his dictatorship idealism. Dictatorship was seen in Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein, however American people cannot associate every people living in Middle East to be character with negative attitude and intentions. Just like good and bad characters exist in each group or country, similar people are also found in Middle East. However, media has played a role in giving a whole dark image to the Middle East inhabitants. This is the reason why relationship with Middle East and West is never associated with peace and tranquility. The media rol in reporting about different wars and conflict in Iraq has caused strain in relationship between two sections of society. The manner in which these news are presented determine how American people view Middle East culture and society. However, media cannot be totally blamed because government and different companies of the West control media. The interest of these parties hampers the objective of news reporting and biasness in presenting events is found[9]. Just like the main character of Aladdin and negative character of Jafar, several events in the movie also reveals few stereotypes in the movie. Firstly, the movie shows Kazim, a bootlegger shows bootleggers who sell range of worthless objects to make a living. However, all the things that he choose are fake and no use to people. Therefore, the character of Jafar and Kazim exemplifies am untrustworthy personality. Secondly, several altercations of Jafar with Aladdin reflects his brutality and shrewdness. Audiences watching this film get the impression that Arabs have the tendency to engage in violence and use violence as a means to solve social issues or problems[10]. Similar to the film Aladdin, Orientalist view is also seen when Arabs and Middle East settings includes endless deserts, harem girls and belly dancers. This is an over-representation which gives the impression that there no computability of Middle East culture with Western morals. Therefore, regardless of the context and theme of any particular film, character portrayal in western films shows a never changing oddity of the Arabs compared to the other culture in the world. One study provided proof to the fact that large number of films depicts negative stereotypes of Middle East and those films are scarce which portrays positive stereotypes[11]. Another aspect seen in the Aladdin movie is that women in the film are highly sexualized. Jasmine has been presented as beautiful and exotic personality and her beauty attracts everyone. Apart from Jasmine, several other scenes also show that sexualization of women. For example, when Aladdin was rescuing royal guards after stealing staffs, he accidentally went into a room and in that room all women were half dressed. Apart from that, director visualizes the image of women by means of accentuating dresses to reveal their midriff. However, in reality, this portrayal is in complete contrast to the values and lifestyle of Middle East women. The cultural reality of the women of the Middle East is that they are completely covered and veiled. The males of Middle East cultures believe in protecting the sanctity of women. Although the movie also showed women in veils, however their clothes and revealing figures arouse sexual thoughts. Hence, they are acting as form of sexual seduction. Jasmin e has been represented as a royal women, however she is also used in the film for arousing sexual pleasures. A report also suggested that Westerners have seductive and mysterious image of the oriental women. However, according their religion and culture, women are personalities who preserve their dignity by all means. They do not engage in sexual arousal and moreover whole women from the community cannot be regarded as things of sexual interest[12]. As Aladdin is animated film by Disney Studios, audiences have been mesmerized by the movie. However, the depiction and portrayal of Middle East characters in the movie can also give a negative impression to the audience. The character portrayal of Aladdin and Jafar in the movie will gives the idea to the people that Middle East people are dishonest and engage in violent acts to solve their social issues. Secondly, audience also gets the impression that native people of Middle East live a life of poverty and struggles. They adopt dishonest means to fulfill their personal interest. Secondly, wrong portrayal of women is also seen which will give bad vibes of Middle East women to Western audience. There is biasness and negative stereotypes associated with these people, which is not socially and morally correct. As media has played a role in developing these negative stereotypes, they must also plan strategies to remove this form of malpractice in society. The essay summarizes the orientalist beliefs of the Western world by the critical analysis of the movie Aladdin. The critical evaluation of the character portrayal and depiction of culture in the movie revealed that the films indeed show negative stereotypes of Middle East people. The main character of the movie as well as the negative characters has been shows as having dehumanizing characters such as that of brutality, dictatorship, lack of honesty and lack of trustworthy behavior. Media has also played a role in embedding negative perceptions about Middle East in the minds of people. It is time to address this and engage in proper reporting and portrayal to ensure that discrimination and hate crimes among these people are addressed. Reference "Arab Portrayals in Film: A History of Stereotypes - Arab American Institute". in , , 2017, https://www.aaiusa.org/arab-portrayals-in-film-a-history-of-stereotypes [accessed 20 May 2017]. "Disney Movies and Racism / FrontPage". in , , 2017, https://disneyandmovies.pbworks.com/w/page/17905678/4%20Aladdinhttps://disneyandmovies.pbworks.com/w/page/17905678/4%20Aladdin [accessed 20 May 2017]. "Review for Aladdin (1992)". in , , 2017, https://www.imdb.com/reviews/16/1618.html [accessed 20 May 2017]. Afshar, Haleh, ed.Women in the Middle East: perceptions, realities and struggles for liberation. Springer, 2016. Alsultany, Evelyn. "Conflating Arab and Muslim Identities."The Routledge Companion to Media and Race(2016). Avraham, Eli, and Eran Ketter.Tourism Marketing for Developing Countries: Battling Stereotypes and Crises in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Springer, 2016. Ewert, Jolene. "A Tale as Old as Time-An analysis of negative stereotypes in Disney Princess Movies."Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences13.1 (2014). Fawcett, Louise.International relations of the Middle East. Oxford University Press, 2013. Mohamed, Eid.Arab Occidentalism: Images of America in the Middle East. IB Tauris, 2015. Prayag, Girish, and Sameer Hosany. "When Middle East meets West: Understanding the motives and perceptions of young tourists from United Arab Emirates."Tourism Management 40 (2014): 35-45. Saha, Anamik. "Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11, by Evelyn Alsultany: New York, NY: New York University Press, 2013, ISBN 9780814707326, 239 pages, 23.00(paperback);ISBN9780814707319,239pages, 75.00 (hardback)." (2014): 65-68.

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