Orientalism in Modern World - Coursework Example

Introduction Media is one of the most powerful tools of influencing the minds of people. Media’s hold on people has become so powerful that everything that is valued by people is being shaped by the media. Before the advent of the media, the behavior, identities, habits and lifestyle of people were determined by their traditional and cultural values. However, after the advent of the media, what is shaping people’s identities, behavior, habits, image and lifestyle, is the media (Kellner 1995, p.1). Hence, it is said that the culture that is influencing and dominating the lives of the people today is the ‘media culture’ (Kellner 1995, p.1). People’s sense of social class, ethnicity, nationality and social identity is being constructed by the visual, auditory and symbolic material provided by the media (Kellner 1995, p.1). People’s identities are shaped by the images and information provided in the media. Hence, people’s opinion about people belonging to other countries, communities and religion is highly influenced by the images and information they see about those people on television and in movies. When people are repeatedly exposed to a particular idea through visual or auditory medium, they start believing in it as a ‘truth’. Hence, influencing people’s opinion and ideas by repeatedly exposing them to visual and auditory material of that idea has become a favourite weapon of the media. In the age of the media culture, where people’s identities are shaped by media images, when a certain community or religion is repeatedly portrayed as a threat to the peace of the world, it not only harms the image of that community but also generates a feeling of hatred, prejudice and anger towards that community. The community that is suffering from the harmful effects of the media culture is the community of Muslim people. People belonging to Islamic religion are facing hatred and misunderstanding in the Western countries because of the constant negative publicity in the Western media. It is this bias treatment of the Islamic community by the Western media that led Edward Said to develop the theory of ‘Orientalism’. Orientalism Orientalism is a theory by Edward Said which proposes that the Eastern countries are highly misrepresented and misunderstood in the Western countries as the Western people are constantly getting exposed to the manipulated images and fabricated ‘news’ of the Oriental people through the Western media (Said n.d.) Edward Said, in his theory of ‘orientalism’, argues that the Western thinking about the Asian, Arabic and the Middle Eastern countries is highly influenced by the distorted images of those countries portrayed through the mediums of paintings, books, movies, television, music, newspapers etc.(Said n.d.). Hence, the Western people who have never ever been to the Eastern countries or have never ever met anyone from there, develop preconceived notions about the Eastern people (Orients) and their lives (Said n.d.). Western people’s notions about Orients are shaped and influenced by the Western media whose selfish interest is to make the Western people believe that they are the most powerful, educated and intelligent people in the world and hence, should be obeyed by the Eastern countries. The East is represented as a land of mysticism, mystery, magic, tradition and underdeveloped civilization (Said n.d.). The sad thing is that, Hollywood movies, which have immense power to influence the opinions and thoughts of the common people in America and Europe, are indulging in orientalism and are reinforcing the feeling of prejudice and hatred for the Orients in the minds of the audience. The two strong examples of stereotyped representation of Orients in the American movies are the two blockbuster Hollywood movies, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘True Lies’. Aladdin The animated movie ‘Aladdin’ was released in the year 1992 by Walt Disney studio (“Aladdin” 1992). The movie tells a story of ‘Aladdin and the magic lamp’, which is a part of Arab folktales. The movie was received with great enthusiasm. However, Arabic people were not happy with the way Arabs were presented in the movie (“The Most”. n.d.). The movie is an example of how the Orients are misrepresented in the Western movies. There were many things about the movie which tarnished the image of the Arab countries. Right from the beginning of the movie, it is obvious that the Arab land is being misrepresented as the land of magic, mystery and exoticism. The villain of the movie, Jafar, is shown traveling through exotic deserts in search of the magic lamp. His companion is a parrot who is capable of ‘talking’. This generates a feeling of magic and mystery in the story. Later, Aladdin is shown being chased by the guards of Sultan for stealing a loaf of bread to fill his hungry stomach. This is the sign of poverty. Moreover, the guards attempt not only to catch Aladdin but also try to kill him. They are shown using their swords to try to cut Aladdin into pieces. However, Aladdin escapes by jumping on roof tops and running through the narrow lanes of the city. The interesting thing is that in this scene, almost all the stereotypical images of the oriental people are shown. For example, one gets to see a man sitting on a board of nails, a man walking on a fire bed, people selling food items on street, snake charmer, people wearing rough and dirty clothes, voluptuous women gossiping, beautiful young girls dancing in exotic clothes etc. Not that these things are not true, but the fact is that these are not the ‘only’ things that one gets to see in Eastern countries. The stereotyped exoticism and mystery of the Eastern countries were exaggerated to a great extend with the aid of beautiful visuals, vibrant colours, brilliant music and funny characters. Moreover, when a story is told with the aid of unforgettable characters and such a profound sensual material, then it definitely remains in the subconscious mind of the audience. They believe that everything that is shown in the movie is true. The movie was misrepresentation of the Eastern countries as Arab was shown as a land of primitive, poor and barbaric people who do not have elegance and manners like that of the civilized Western people. Hence, Edward Said was right when he said that the Eastern countries are shown as a place where you get to see monsters, voluptuous women used by men for selfish purpose, wealthy kings dominating his kingdom, dictatorship etc. (Said n.d.). Also, the lyrics used in the opening song of the movie portrayed Arabs as ruthless dictators. The words "where they cut off your ears if they dont like your face/Its barbaric, but, hey, its home", in the original song, painted a picture of barbaric and inhuman form of dictatorship (“The Most”. n.d.). It creates fear and anger about the Arabic people and countries in the mind of the Western audience. These words generated a huge controversy and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) protested against it (“The Most”. n.d.). Hence, later the words were changed to "where its flat and immense and the heat is intense/Its barbaric, but, hey, its home"(“The Most”. n.d.). However, portraying Islamic characters in the movie, based on the prejudice and the preconceived notions, did not change even in the future. True Lies The process of portraying negative Islamic characters in the movies continued. In the movie ‘True Lies’, which was released in the year 1994, the villain character of Salim Abu Aziz, was completely based on the prejudiced and the distorted understanding of Islamic religion and Muslim people. The character of Salim is totally different from the character of Aladdin. Aladdin is poor, living on the streets of the ancient Arab city, uneducated, traditional, with no friends and is a ‘hero’ of the story. On contrary to Aladdin, Salim is wealthy, lives in the US, is educated, modern, has many subordinates working under him and is a ‘villain’ of the story. However, even when both the characters are so contrast to each other in their nature, behavior and life purpose, their image still portrays a negative picture of the land and religion they represent. While Aladdin’s character portrays Arab countries as weak and poor, Salim’s character portrays Arab countries as strong but peace threatening. Many of the scenes in the movie ‘True Lies’, portray the Muslims as fundamentalists and terrorists. In the movie, Gibson describes Salim as “hardcore, highly fanatical, ultra-fundamentalist.” (True Lies, 1994). He says that Salim is linked to numerous car-bombings and is a major player in terrorist activities. Also, Salim is shown using the language of ‘you’ and ‘we’ in the movie, as if he is representing every Muslim in the world. This sort of character in a movie imprints the idea that ‘all’ the Muslims are fanatical and violent. The misrepresentation of Muslim people in the Western movies has led the Western people to believe that every Muslim is a terrorist and every Muslim hates people from US and Europe. The idea of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ has been bombarded so repeatedly in the media that people are brainwashed to believe that ‘Islam’ means ‘terrorism’. Moreover, the word ‘Jihad’ is also constantly impressed upon the minds of the Western people. In the movie ‘True Lies’, Salim Abu Aziz is shown organising a terrorist group called ‘Crimson jihad’, with the mission to destroy the US cities. It is said that he has organised this group as he finds other terrorist group mild compared to his strength. After watching the movie, one feels that Muslim people do nothing else but create terrorist groups and aim to destroy the US and the European countries. However, it is not true. The fanaticism of Salim is evident from the words ‘holy war’ and ‘Crimson Jihad will rain fire’. Also, when his subordinate Juno asks Salim what should she do to find the truth about Tasker, he says “use the gifts that Allah has given you” (True Lies 1994). In this scene, Salim is described as a man who uses woman as a weapon to achieve his selfish goals. The movie as if gives a message that no matter where the Muslim people go, they still remain primitive, hardcore, fundamentalists and narrow minded in their thinking. In this way, even though the characters of Aladdin and Salim are totally opposite in every aspect of their lives, they still represent Orients in negative and ugly way. Their characters create a wrong identity of orient people in the minds of the Western people. As media has become a powerful influence over the formation of identities and culture, the Orients are suffering immensely by being represented negatively in the West. Orientalism in Modern World According to Said, the process of orientalism began post Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt (Said n.d.). Since then, the Western countries are constantly making efforts to portray that the different colour, culture, religion and lifestyle of the Eastern people are not just the ‘differences’ but are also their ‘weaknesses’ (Said n.d.). Media is so powerful that whatever is shown in the media is considered as the absolute truth. No one even tries to know if what is being shown on T.V. is real or manipulated. Political leaders and business houses have been taking advantage of this psychology since a long time, especially, in the West. Western countries are using media as a tool to defame and misrepresent those people who are threat to their power and world dominance. According to Edward Said, “the Orients are represented as irrational, depraved, childlike, and ‘different’ while Europeans are represented as rational, virtuous, mature and ‘normal’ (Siapera 2010, p.122). The Orients are identified as ‘Others’ in the practice of orientalism. The Western countries use orientalism to justify their control and domination on the oriental ‘Others’ (Siapera 2010, p.122). The stereotypical image of Orients describe them as weak, lazy, untrustworthy, fickle minded, violent and full of lust (McLeod 2000, p.46). The events and ‘news’ in the media are fabricated and manipulated to suit the needs of the government and the establishment which is in power (Liebes and Curran 2002, p. 6). Hence, most of the media events are designed with the aim of dividing people and generating antagonism among them (Liebes and Curran 2002, p. 6). Said says that in today’s modern world, the Western countries are using orientalism to show that the Eastern countries are incapable of governing themselves as the Eastern people are irrational and weak (Siapera 2010, p.122). Hence, it is their ‘duty’ to extend their ‘help’ towards poor people of the Eastern countries (Siapera 2010, p.122). However, the Western countries have their selfish interest hidden behind the mask of ‘goodness’. By extending their ‘help’, they not only intend to continue their domination over the Eastern countries but also intend to make them weak in their spirits. The arrogance of the Western countries make them to forget that the Eastern civilizations are in existence from thousands and thousands of years while the Western countries are not even few centuries old. Sadly, the human values of good or bad, moral or evil, positive or negative and safe or threat is being defined by the media (Kellner 1995, p.1). It is the media who dominate people’s decision making, opinions, feelings, fears, beliefs and desires (Kellner 1995, p.2). Media manipulate the information to demonstrate the power and strength of their ‘own’ people and make the audience believe that ‘Other’ people are weak and hence, not worth living (Kellner 1995, p.2). In this way, the ‘Other’ people (Orients) get a negative identity in the West as they are recognized as a threat to the society. In the world which is driven and shaped by the media, people’s identities depend on how they are portrayed in the media. In such a situation, when the media continuously exposes its audience to the manipulated and negative image of people belonging to certain community, then it creates a negative identity of that community in the eyes of people. In this way, the Islamic and the Eastern countries have become victims of constant negative exposure in the Western media. Conclusion Edward Said has voiced what everyone from the Orient was thinking. His theory has brought people’s thoughts into action and has opened the eyes of the Western people to the fabrications and manipulation by their media. Even though one cannot expect the Western media to change its nature immediately, one can definitely expect common people from the Western countries to form their opinions about the Orients on the basis of personal interactions and understanding, and not on the basis of manipulated media images or prejudice. People from the West can learn and understand the ‘real’ truth about the Orients only by putting a barrier on the influence of media on their mind. They should realise that it is high time to acknowledge the genius, the depth and the richness of the Eastern people and give them the respect, appreciation and love that they deserve. References Aladdin, 1992 [Film] Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. USA: Walt Disney Feature Animation. Kellner, D., 1995. Media Culture: Cultural studies, Identity and politics between the modern and the postmodern. London: Routledge. Liebes, T. and Curran, J. 2002. Media, Ritual and Identity. London: Routledge. McLeaod, J. 2000. Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester: Machester UP. Said, E. n.d. On Orientalism. [Video Online] Available at : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCOSkXR_Cw> [Accessed 6 January, 2011] Siapera, E. 2010. Cultural Diversity and Global Media: The Mediation of Difference. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. True Lies, 1994. [Film] Directed by James Cameron. USA: 20TH Century Fox. The Most Controversial Films of All-time. (n.d.). [Online] Available at [Accessed 6 January, 2011] Read More