The OtherA Modern Day Portrayal

Hollywood shines a spotlight on the rich and famous, glamorizing the lifestyles and
cultures of the elite while simultaneously distorting images of the other. The 2006 video
documentary, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, analyzes how Hollywood very
explicitly corrupts and alters the image of Arabs, demeaning their character and portraying them
as savage, beast-like animals apathetic toward other human beings. Over three-hundred of the
biggest Hollywood blockbusters demonize the Arab peoples, characterizing them as barbaric
terrorists posing a threat to the civilized American society. Women in such films too, are
projected as armed, belly-dancing, submissive creatures at the beck and call of Arab men. Such
negative portrayals in popular culture have been fixed in our brains since an early age through
such memorable childhood movies like Disneys Aladdin and the motivation for those depictions
has largely been fueled by the historical trajectory of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the 1973 ArabIsraeli war, the oil crisis of the 1970s, and by the American hostage situation during the Iranian
Revolution. As a result, Islamophobia is now part of our psyche and our vilifying of all things
Arab has made entering the war in Iraq in 2003 easier, a clear demonstration of how politics and
Hollywood images reinforce one another.
Hollywood images have surely shaped US politics, constructing an image of the other
as uncivilized, undemocratic, and inferior. Through such radical projections, the US and Western
cultures have justified entering war against the Arab and Muslim world and have carefully
constructed an image for themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum as that of being
civilized, democratic, and of superior status. More than anything, such characterization of the

Arab peoples has established an image of Western cultureby capitalizing on the view of Arabs
as vicious, we are directly setting ourselves apart and calling ourselves otherwise. Orientalism, as
described by Edward Said is a distorted and imaginative image of the Orient and such
perceptions of that which is not Western have become an integral part of European and American
civilization and culture. The hundreds of Hollywood films negatively depicting Arabs reinforce
the ideology, discourse, and supporting institutions that Western cultures have had for centuries
to contrast the Occidents and the Orients civilizations, and have undeniably helped to define the
West and justify Western acts of violence against Arabs.
The Orientalist views and portrayals of Arabs seen in Reel Bad Arabs have all but offered
a new perspective of realistic Arab culture and society. Growing up in a culture surrounded by
prejudice makes it difficult to see Arab people as anything other than dangerous, backward, and
uncivilized. Particularly after 9/11 Islamophobia has been on the rise and as described by
Mohamed Nimer in Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism, Causes and Remedies, Islam is seen
as a violent and archaic political ideology, incapable of adapting to modern democracy. With up
to 33% of Americans holding negative views of Islamic culture, Reel Bad Arabs shines a new
light on the lifestyles of Arabs, emphasizing that the Arab world is quite secular and educated
(Nimer). In fact, in many Arab countries, women make up the majority of the student body. In
terms of religious cultural differences, those Arabs who do exercise a religion have lived side-byside with over 20 million Christians in Arab countries without living in warfare. With events like
9/11 reinforcing negative stereotypes about the Arab world, categorization of all Arabs as
diabolical terrorists becomes justifiable in the minds of the Americans and Westerners who
historically have defined and characterized themselves as opposite of the Orient and have

rationalized Western colonialism and cultural and economic imperialism. Dehumanizing an

entire culture and blaming them for the acts of a few Arab people who have decided to
participate in terrorists acts is not rational. In the case of the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995,
due to centuries of anti-Arab sentiment, Americans undoubtedly blamed Arabs for the act, calling
the bombing characteristic of Arab traits. The media reinforced the labels of Islam as
supportive of terrorism and negative sentiment persisted even after the investigation concluded
an American had committed the crime. No one would say that all Americans are terrorists
because of the acts of one man who decided to blow up federal buildings, so blaming the acts of
one group on the entire Arab culture and categorizing all Arabs as terrorists after events like 9/11
is as equivalently incoherent.
Memories of terrorist acts like 9/11 cannot be erased but just as Hollywood films have
put discriminatory images in our heads, it is possible to steer away from Islamophobic views. To
do so, it is imperative we speak up and take a stand, acting on moral and ethical grounds. We
cannot continue to demonize a people through Orientalist views and a Western lens of seeing the
world. Advocating for the humanizing of Arabs and Muslims in film, movies, and media will
likely be the only means by which the stereotypes can fade and we can slowly begin to unlearn
our prejudice.