{"id":31195,"date":"2010-12-31T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T15:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=31195"},"modified":"2013-11-23T03:40:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T08:40:53","slug":"the-vilification-of-arabs-in-hollywood-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/12\/31\/the-vilification-of-arabs-in-hollywood-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vilification of Arabs in Hollywood Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lester Andrist, at The Sociological Cinema<\/a>, alerted me to a 9-minute short film revealing “Hollywood’s relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims.” \u00a0 Created by\u00a0Jaqueline Salloum<\/a> and\u00a0Dr. Jack Shaheen’s book,\u00a0Reel Bad Arabs<\/a>, <\/em>it is a stunning and disturbing collection of clips. \u00a0The depictions are grossly prejudiced and relentlessly violent. \u00a0Andrist summarizes:<\/p>\n

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It demonstrates the way Arabs and Muslims are consistently depicted as religious fanatics, perpetual terrorists, backwards, and irredeemably tribal… [T]he media consistently propagates the idea that the Muslim or Arab terrorist is not only a threat to life, but also Western civilization.<\/div>\n
Taking the analysis a bit further, I think the clip also allows one to contemplate how these depictions of Arabs and Muslims are simultaneously about constructing an American national identity, and in particular, a masculine one. In several places, one sees how an American masculinity, characterized by stoicism and poise, is set in contradistinction to an irrational, Islamic fanaticism.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
It’s really a worth a watch, but very disturbing. \u00a0Consider yourself warned:<\/div>\n
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The Media Education Foundation also made a full length documentary based on Shaheen’s book<\/a>. \u00a0The 5-and-a-half-minute trailer<\/a> is a good indication of its content. \u00a0It contains many similar disturbing depiction, including a discussion of Disney’s Aladdin<\/em>, but also points to how Arabs are frequently shown as buffoons (“rich and stupid,” “oversexed,” and “uncontrollably obsessed with the American woman”).<\/p>\n

See also our posts on how Arabs are portrayed in video games<\/a> and\u00a0Reel Injun<\/em>, a documentary about the representation of American Indians in Hollywood<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lester Andrist, at The Sociological Cinema, alerted me to a 9-minute short film revealing “Hollywood’s relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims.” \u00a0 Created by\u00a0Jaqueline Salloum and\u00a0Dr. Jack Shaheen’s book,\u00a0Reel Bad Arabs, it is a stunning and disturbing collection of clips. \u00a0The depictions are grossly prejudiced and relentlessly violent. \u00a0Andrist summarizes: It demonstrates the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,2110,778,129,343,276,283,1756,1757,133],"class_list":["post-31195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-nationalismpatriotism","tag-intersectionality","tag-media","tag-tvmovies","tag-nationalismpatriotism","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity-arabsmiddle-easterners","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31195"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59348,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31195\/revisions\/59348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}