Aladdin with Shereen Lani Younes

Jamie, Caitlin, and special guest Shereen Lani Younes show you a whole new world by dissecting the representation of women in Disney's Aladdin.

(This episode contains spoilers)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Dog Cast, the questions asked if movies have
women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and
husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef in
best start changing it with the Bechdel Cast. Hello and
welcome to the Bechtel Cast. My name is Caitlin Darante.
My name is Jamie Loftus, and we talk about how

(00:21):
women are represented in film and the podcasts were listening to.
Which is the Vectel Cast? We use the Bechtel Test.
Ever heard of it? No? What is it? It's a test?
Episode ninety Jamie learns what the Bechtel tests. That reminds
me of um. This show that he's been DIDNY channel

(00:42):
called Dog with a Blog And the first episode I
ever watched it's like season two, episode thirty five, and
it was like the people learned the dog as a blog.
It's like deep into season two that anyone becomes aware
that the blog everyone in town has been reading has
been written by a dog. It's a real wow. I
think that there's like an R rated version of that

(01:04):
that I think would be really compelling. Anyways, what is
the Bactel Test? I don't know what I don't know
what it is. Does the dog in this show identify
as any particular gender? Yes, you can't get a television
show unless you're a male identifying dog. Okay, So in
that case, the conversation we just had about the dog
with a blog does not pass the Bactel test because

(01:25):
we were talking about a male identifying figure. Um. So
the Bactel test requires that a movie, let's say that
you're watching, has to have two female identifying characters. They
have to speak to each other, and that conversation that
they have cannot be about a man. Let's try it. Okay,

(01:46):
Hey Caitlin, Hey Jamie Bucket, hats are back, Jamie. I
would have to disagree. We did. We did. That's that passed.
The Bactel test doesn't pass the rules of fashion, but
it does pass. Yes. So anyway, we are here as
we always are with a guest. Um. She is a

(02:08):
filmmaker and she is the co host of the Ethnically
Ambiguous podcast on How Stuff Works. Sharine Lonnie Unite. Hi, Hi,
So you brought us Aladdin? I brought you a Laddin
Disney's nineteen ninety two Aladdin. Yes, it's a sentimental treasure

(02:28):
of mine. I watched it again yesterday. It was just magical. Yeah,
I hadn't seen it in a couple years, but it's
still bangs for me. I still, I mean, there's like,
I mean, there's infinity things to unpack about. What a
fun movie. It's a great movie. It was the introduction
to Robin Williams, the same catapult in my obsession with him.

(02:49):
The songs are fun and the lyrics are kind of
weird sometimes, but as a kid, you didn't know that
that's an adult, right, there's a lot of weird. Well,
there's like and this has nothing to do with our
discussion on gender, and this is the point where people
listening or are going to our iTunes page and being
like they don't talk about it in exopt But seriously,
there's so much like self referential Disney ship in this

(03:13):
movie that is like kind of unusual for Disney movies.
Like there there's a reference to a Little Mermaid, There's
there's a goofy at the end. Yeah, it almost feels
like a DreamWorks movie vibe where they're so they don't
give a fuck there, they're just like, oh yeah, this
is a new Shrek movie. But also Boss Baby and

(03:34):
you're like, yeah, sure, whatever. I can't think of a
ton of other specific examples aside from there's a moment
in Zootopia where they do some self referential stuff. But
I feel like that's not that uncommon for Disney. I
feel like they put a little like Easter eggs in
Easter Eggs. But I mean, I feel like the ones
in this movie and just like reference culture in general
is especially. I don't hate it at all, it's just

(03:54):
like kind of unusual for this that's true. Yeah. Anyways,
So Sharine, what is your hist with this movie? Your relationship?
I know you love it. Did you grow up with it?
I did so. I'm Arab, I'm Syrian, and as a
kid you had one thing to relate to, and it
was a ladd and if you were a real Eastern,
I grew up an older I have two sisters, and

(04:14):
my older sisters she's a year and have older than me,
and so we would grow up watching the same movies
and she would always relate to, like the princesses and stuff,
and like she was she was aerial, and she was
Jasmine and Belle, and I was always the animal sidekick.
I was Raja or flounder or I loved it. I
was like, I can't wait to be an animal like
peek younger siblings exactly sweet. But as a Middle Eastern kid,

(04:40):
you watch Aladdin, I don't know, do you automatically like
it just because it's like I'm represented at least a
little bit, even though it's all by like it's by
a white company, by with white voice actors, and but
they'll say like praise Allah or like even a Laddin
at one point says like my esteemed offendi and theffendi
means like friend, and like, as an Arab you know
what that means, like you you like, or like you'll

(05:02):
see Arabic on the on the on the screen and
you'll be like, I know, I know how to read that.
And so watching Aladdin as a Middle Eastern girl, it
felt like I was like, oh, I've seen now. That's
why I was especially pissed when they were casting the
live action movie of Aladdin. I thought like, this was
like a chance for like a Middle Eastern actress to
get her chance in the cast. Have Indian have white girl?

(05:24):
So I haven't. I haven't been keeping up with the
casting for that movie. Is there a Laddins Egyptian, which
is which is acceptable to me, but I just think, like,
and then the argument was like Acaba is made up,
it's a real place in the Middle East, Like yeah,
I understand that, but also when else will will a
Middle Eastern actress and get her chance if not for
fucking Aladdin? You know, so, and it's Middle Eastern culture

(05:47):
that's being referenced the whole time, so it's like the
whole time. That's not really a valid argument. Yeah, And
even like how the bread looks like in the in
the cartoon and everything, it's very like like that's how
looks like in Syria when my grandpa would come back
from the market, Like it's like these like yeah me
loaves of bread or like the bizarre. It would be
like something I would relate to. And obviously it's like

(06:07):
an ancient time, and like Syria wasn't like that ancient
when I was when I would visit there, But there
are little references that you can relate to, and like, um,
there are similarities that are just like you can't ignore.
And it felt cool as a kid knowing that was
my movie and it was a great movie, and it
was like that's another thing. Um. And then there was

(06:28):
also a Supernintendo video game of Aladdin that we were
obsessed with, and it was like walk you through the
whole thing, and you would like eat apples and that
was like your life supported on the side, like how
many apples you had, and like so many of the
genie The genie level was like really hard and getting
out of a cave of wonders is really fun. And
the whole thing me and my sisters was just nerds
that loved the lad and loved the video game and

(06:50):
defined a lot of our childhood for sure. Yeah yeah, yeah,
it's I mean, it's so unfortunate that like that was
your one choice, like an Arab girl growing up, like
this is like my one chance to see myself represented.
It's wild. Um. It also resonated with white kids because
I also loved this movie growing up. Not yeah, not

(07:12):
for the same reasons as you, but I was just like,
oh my god, the genie is funny and I love
you know, so um yeah, I also grew up with
this movie. I think I don't know if I saw
it in the theater. I was six when it came out,
but um, we had this on VHS. I watched it
all the time. I watched it last night for the
first time in a while, but I still had so
many things memorized, like it just comes back to you.

(07:33):
Songs even a little like words in the middle of
a song. They're just like random, Like it's just everything
comes back to you just because you've seen it, like
it's ingrained in your memory. So I can there's like
certain songs that I can not only did I not
realize that I had fully memorized, but I can also
hear like my little brother at five singing it like
with me when I hear yeah, because my brother used

(07:53):
to sing friend like Me very loud, and I remember
pushing him into a wall once and his tooth got
loose because he was singing friend like Me too loud.
That's a really lovely memory. I want a beautiful shout
out to be The Genie was like my hero character.
I loved him so much, and I loved Dropping Williams
after I saw that movie, and I always think about

(08:15):
like actors now like comedians that decided to do children's movies,
like the kids that are growing up with them probably
are getting introduced to them for the first time the
same way I was induced to Robin Williams and so
I really love the roll. Williams did that and he
was just so funny, and I love the genie. And
my second favor character was the carpet because I'm a weirdo.
The carpet rules. The carpet is so cute, has a
big personality, even the carpets of a boy. Aladdin genders

(08:41):
the carpet right away, and it's like, how could you know?
How could you know best? The carpet is a genderless icon.
I agree, Jamie. What's your history with Aladdin? Exactly the same.
It's just I watched it five hundred times and then
I pushed my brother into a wall. Yeah, that was
the one to Prince we had. We never pushed us

(09:01):
something into a wall, maybe over different reasons. Yeah. Shall
I do their recap? So, okay, we open on Jaffar.
He's my crunish. We do need to unpack why Jaffar
is your crash, but we will get into that. Um So,
there's this bad, sinister looking man named Jaffar and he's

(09:23):
trying to get into the Cave of Wonders to get
this magic lamp and he's not able to do it
because like the guy he recruited is is he not
good enough? Unworthy? So then we meet Aladdin and he
and his pet monkey slash best friend. A boo also
means father of an Arabic which always confused me, Like

(09:46):
do you know how like in European countries like Johnson
is like the son of John and in the Middle East,
like a nickname will call someone by is like father
of the oldest child they have, So like my father
is a Buddha in me, which is like my my
sister's name is Raymi, or like a boo whatever is
like their nickname. So as a kid, the fact that
the monkey was named like dad, always that's so weird.

(10:11):
Never understood it anyways, Sorry, who is all of our fathers?
What does that make sense to me? So he and
a boo they are poor, they have to steal their food,
and they're always in trouble with the law. Then we
meet Jasmine and she is the princess. Her father is

(10:31):
the Sultan, and he is trying to marry her off
because laws, because laws. The law says that she has
to be married to a prince by her next birthday,
which is in three days. We also don't know how
old she is. They never specifive. I feel like, intentionally
I think so too. They're like, she looks sixteen, but
if anyone asks, she's five. Also, the Saltan is adorable,

(10:53):
such a bumbling idiot such he is shuffling around like
I want to one of those I don't know if
there's like a formal word for it, but like those
things where it's like a cartoon without it's like, I
guess we do see him in his underwear. I'm like,
I feel like his legs would be like a wild shape,
but they're regular. Yeah, he's wearing like Boxer's heart shaped Boxer.

(11:15):
I retract that statement. I was like, I wish we
knew what the Sultan was like without his clothes on,
but the movie actually does know. That's my first wish.
I want to see the Salton naked. Um. And then
it's also around here that we learn that Jaffar is
the Sultans, that he's not hot, but he is the

(11:41):
Sultan's like royal advisor. He's rasputant of the sult like
he's anyways sorry um So, then Jafar learns that Aladdin
is the person he needs to enter the Cave of
Wonders to retrieve this lamp for him, so he basically
tricks him. Chose a one narrative, so he tricks Aladdin
into going and getting this lamp and and so doing,

(12:02):
Aladdin meets the Magic Carpet, he gets the lamp. Jaffar
portrays him, but like Jaffar does not in disguise, yes,
because because the boot steals the lamp back. Yeah yeah, yeah,
he's a little pickpocket. But they're so they're now trapped
in the Cave of Wonders, but they have the lamps.
So that we meet the Genie big number right us

(12:24):
For me, it's so fun. I watched it twice. So fun,
so good. So now the Genie is Aladdin's master. No,
Aladdin is the genies master. Yes, he's granted three wishes
for his first wish. He's like, m oh, I forgot
the part where Aladdin and Jasmine meets. So Jasmine runs

(12:46):
away because she's like, I'm not going to marry anyone.
I don't want my choices made for me. I'm going
to run away from home. So she meets Aladdin in
the marketplace and they fall basically instantly in love. But
Aladdin gets taken away and like under arrest. And then Jasmine,
who was like I'm going to run away forever, returns
to her palace literally that night. Yeah, after saying I'll

(13:09):
never go back there. That's how my only trying to
run away from home scheme went when I was thirteen
to literally walked to my aunt's house. She drove me
on three hours later. Right, Okay. So then for m
Aladdin's first wish, He's like, wow, I really love this princess.
But the Genie's like, I can't make anyone fall in
love with anyone else. So Aladdin's like, what if you

(13:30):
make me a prince that way? I haven't had her in.
What if I gaslight this woman into falling in love
with me? So Genie turns him into a prince, and
he comes parading into her life, being like, oh my god,
like Prince Ali another great number, Any any any song
with the Genie is a blast. It's so good. It's

(13:52):
so good. So then he, you know, eventually kind of
wins her over because at first she's just like I
don't want you. You're one of these other stuffy suitors.
No thanks, But then he reminds her of the boy
that she met in the marketplace, ak Aladdin, because that
is who he is. She has eyes and she has eyes.
But he's like, no, that wasn't me, but you're pretty great,

(14:14):
so let's hang out and she's like okay, fine. Meanwhile,
Jaffar gets wind that Prince Alie is just Aladdin with
the lamp, so he tries to kill him, and then yeah,
I forgot that, like of the few like moments that
I did not remember about this movie at all, I
forgot that they knock him out and throw him off
a cliff like to his death, like he has a

(14:35):
weight on his feet, and he's like pretty much did. Yeah.
It's like, oh my god, was that truly necessary to
show us all of that? But and that's when Aladdin
uses his second wish to basically have the Genie stave
him from dying. And he had promised the Genie that
he was like, you know what for my third wish,
I promised to set you free so that you're not

(14:56):
my slave anymore. And the Genie's like, okay, great, I
hope that happens. And then there's a moment where Aladdin's like, actually,
they want to make me sultan, so like I can't.
I'm like, I would love both from slavery, but I
actually need you to help me lie to a woman
for the rest of her life. And yes, it's like,

(15:17):
oh cool, cool, cool, cool cool. But then Jaffar steals
the lamp and then he uses it to like take
over Agriba. Honestly, Jaffar uses the lamp pretty wide, like
he leverages the lamp in a way of like, oh, yeah, Aladdin,
you fucking idiot, you're wishy, you're thinking small, you made
your monkey into an elephant. And then Jafar took over

(15:39):
the entire king in like two seconds. Yeah, he had
an agenda, he had a schedule to maintain. He's busy.
And then of course, like Aladdin's like, no, I'm not
gonna let this happen, so he goes and defeats Jaffar
after Jaffar tries to kill Aladdin with a series of
visual pun get from that point, Yeah, it's actually, yeah,

(16:04):
I'm just getting warmed up. Breathe fire. So he turns
into a gigantic palace and then abuff Genie and then
he's defeated, right because Aladdin he convinces Jaffar to become
a genie, which will enable to him have to have
all the power in the world. He will then also
become enslaved because that's what being a genie is. So yeah,

(16:28):
missed a bunch of park. Also, the video game was
so fun because the final boss was like multiple levels,
like first it was Jafar, then it was him as
a snake, and then it was him a genie and
it was so that's so cool, so fun any nude sultan, darn,
he's not a boss. So yeah, Jafar gets defeated, and

(16:53):
then Aladdin learns the lesson to just be who you are,
and then he frees the genie. Jasmine still loves Aladdin
because she's like, you know, I always liked you when
you were poor, So that's this is fine. And then
and then Jasmine influences policy and changes the law so
that she can get married because that's her one function
in this story. He kiss bye bye, slur and good night.

(17:17):
So that is the movie. Let's take a quick break
and then we'll be back to have our discussion. And
we're back. Let's talk about the under politics of Aladdin.
Oh it's also okay, please explain to me what about

(17:39):
Jaffar makes you have a crush on him or had crush.
This is true. This is like a real day where
it's like that is a crush I had so early
in my life before I fully understood what a crush
even was that I cannot tell you why I have
a crush on de Far. I just know I always have.
And I first of all, I will say, Aladdin has

(18:02):
no nipples. No, no, what is that about Jaffar? We
have to assume has nipples, So that's a point for him.
I don't I really don't know. I just thought like
Jaffar was like really tall, as like he's so much
taller than Aladdin. So cool. I liked that he had

(18:23):
like his cool evil apartment, like his outfit. I like
his laugh, like his voice. You know. I just think
that there were redeeming things about Jaffar that warranted a crush.
But my cartoon crushes it was Jaffar, and it was
Peter Pan, it was John Smith. So I'm kind of
all over the j Smith John Smith boring motherfucker. Are

(18:47):
you serious? He's a He's a chiseled, boring motherfucker. I
don't know. I've since grown up, and no, Coco Won
was far hotter than don't ask John Smith Coco was
hot though he was great. Yeah, a grown woman knows.
I like ptsc just remembering the necklace, like just breaking, goddamn,

(19:08):
never be the same. Sorry, this a lot so if
you boiled down this story. We've already hinted at this,
but it's basically a story about a man who the
second he gets access to just a little bit of power,
he uses it to gaslight a woman into thinking that
he's a prince in into falling in love with him. Right, Yeah,

(19:29):
you would argue that she's already interested in him, but
as Aladdin, so he should we just like get into Jasmine. Yeah,
because there's a there's like the one female character. You
mean that's gonna be the bulk of our discussion today. Yeah,
there were parts of Jasmine's character that I didn't like.
I didn't remember her being as headstrong as she is.

(19:52):
Like there's a lot of like really good lines from her.
I like that about her remember as a kid growing up,
being like she's kind of a badass, Like she tricked
her far even though she had to kiss him at it,
but like she still was like smart. And then she
has a line like the very beginning when she's like,
I have no friends except for you, my pet tiger,
who's I guess a girl. Um, So it's like this

(20:12):
lonely but somehow still smart, badass person that I was like,
You're not too bad. So I kind of liked it's
a kid that she wasn't like represented too flimsy, and
I also appreciate as a kid. I remember very distinctly
that they like that they made the salt In like
a softie. Yeah, to make him the typical angry Arab man.
That's yeah. And then like other I mean even like

(20:34):
pitted against other Disney princess father So I was thinking
about the Saltan versus King Triton was awful and violent
and wrecked all his daughter's stuff like scary and the
Saltan and I guess Bell's dad too. Yeah, Yes, had
similar character design when I think about it, A little

(20:55):
tiny plump little men who were like very but I'm
still sexist. Yeah, I love you, but also get married now.
And this is another example of a Disney princess without
a mother. Yes, mom only has a dad. A classic trope,
the Sultan makes one reference to her mom. He says

(21:19):
after Jasmine's like, I don't want to get married in
less than three days, and he's like her mother wasn't
nearly so picky, which I think is a little little
little dig it himself, because you look at Jasmine next
to the Sultan, you don't see a lot of saltan energy.
Gotta think she's got a hot money. But yeah, her

(21:39):
sole purpose is to I mean, now that I think
about it, a lot of Disney movies, that's the main
purpose of all the female characters, whether it's pocahonas Little
Mermaid or like whatever. It's just like be obedient to
your father. It's kind of unfortunate that I just passion
in my head. Well, and like all the princess narratives
are very formulaic in that way, where, especially like during

(22:01):
the Disney Renaissance era, you see like princesses unlike Sleeping
Beauty who's knocked out for the whole movie, and Cinderella
who's like la la la, I don't know, maybe someone
will come and fix everything, you know, Like these princesses
have more identity and they're more headstrong. But by the
end of the movie, it's like there is some sort

(22:22):
of major compromise where they can still be themselves as
long as Daddy's happy, as long as they get married,
as long as like there's always like this caveat of
I don't know, Like they like a Disney trying to
like keep their conservative values and try to push forward

(22:43):
a little bit, but ultimately sell backpacks every state lunch
boxes backpacks. Right as we were saying, like, if you
isolate Jasmine as a character, like the things that she says,
the stances that she takes, her intelligence and like being
able to figure things out and like read the people

(23:04):
around her, like I am not apprised to be one exactly.
She she doesn't want to be forced into marriage so
much so that she runs away from home, so she
like arguably has a little bit of agency. But then
she does return back to the palace less than twenty
four hours later, so um, you know there's that. But

(23:24):
like if you just isolate her, you're like, oh, yeah,
Like this is an admirable character. This is someone that
like little girls can look up to. But her purpose
in the story is still just to be Aladdin's love interest,
so she doesn't really have a function outside of that,
and the narrative does screw her over several different times,

(23:46):
especially by the end, where she's literally like the classic
lead female character benched during the climax of the movie
in some horrifying way. We've got Mary Jane in a web,
We've got Jasmine in an hour glass, We've got the
woman in Pacific room launched out of the scene. It's
like happens all the time in a series of visually

(24:06):
obnoxious ways. But the meg Hercules in the Underworld, Yes,
crushed by a column. They killed her, and then they're like, Okay,
Hercules is actually for you. It happens all the time.
And I think even in The Little Mermaid, Eric is
the one who like defeat. There's also some big similarities

(24:28):
between Ursula and Jaffar that I was noticing, where they
both go into disguise to trick someone. They both get
huge at the end of the movie and the end
of similarities. But well, they're also both coded gay the
way that many many Disney villains are. Yeah, but before

(24:48):
before we get there. So the one thing Jasmine is
allowed by the story to do before she's benched until
the movie is basically over, and then all she has
to do is married influence policy and then get married,
but she tricks Jafar. I Okay, I wasn't totally clear
on this. Does she see Aladdin? Is she just trying

(25:11):
to distract to far? Okay, Okay, so she she does that.
She's really smart. We've seen her like trick people before
and like distract and blah blah blah. But the story
makes her do it with her sexuality and also he
calls her pussy cat. Calls her pussy cat, which it's
just like my skin crawl, Like you just you don't

(25:33):
want to kiss a woman, Jafar. Let's just like and
what a gross And I forgot that they actually kissed.
And if you hear the background when she's like trying
to seduce him, she just keeps like saying these like
ridiculous things like the gap between your teeth and you're
so tall, like your eyebrows are so it's in your
beard is so she wish it's disturbing. But I liked

(25:58):
her because she was smart. Even when she first sees Aladdin,
he says like, do you trust me? And she already
knows it's him with the whole apple thing on the carpet,
like she already figured it out. It's all someoing like
Miley Cyrus like like it's obviously him, and even at
the beginning where she is like she leaves the palace

(26:20):
and goes to I was worried. I was like, oh,
I feel like Aladdin kind of rescues her. But in
the end it sort of ends up being this team
effort where he's you know, he swoops down, he falls
in love. At first side, he's like, oh, she's hot,
although I have theories about a latin that again too,
he like looks like he's like, oh, she's hot. Better
rescue her from this cop very anti cop movie, which

(26:42):
is oh sure, I thought you were talking about. The
moment in the marketplace where she does not know how
commerce works, so she's like, here, let me give you
this apple, little kid, I have to pay, and the
vendors like, um, excuse me, please pay for that, and
then he threatens to chop off her arm and kill
her right, and then um Aladdin has to swoop in
and save her, right. But then he like when he

(27:04):
says like, oh, this is my sister. She doesn't know.
Jasmine does start to like play a long into it,
and he does say she's crazy, and then she has
to play along with being crazy because women be crazy obviously, right,
so seems believable. But but then she saves him, like

(27:25):
when when when the guard comes after him and she's
like unhand him. Yeah, by order of the princess. So
I don't know, I like, I like Latin and Jasmine's
relationships more than I like most. Yeah, like it seems
relatively balanced, balanced in comparable the fact that the movie
is called a Laddin right, well, he is the protagonist,

(27:47):
she is the love interest. He's pushing the narrative forward,
so she's she's just kind of like. She does make
some choices, but for the most part, things are just
sort of happening to her. Their romantic relationship is depicted
a little bit better than what we're used to seeing,
especially in Disney movies, where he does value her for
her looks, which he does say like when he's describing,

(28:08):
but it's the third thing he said. He does say
she's smart and she's fun and beautiful like um. And
then also whenever they're sort of like, he brings her
to his like studio apartment or whatever and exactly lives

(28:30):
near the reservoir, and they realize that they're starting to
like connect and like each other because they share a
similar experience, so they both feel trapped. So it's not
just that he finds her attractive. And I will also
say that this is one of the few movies where
she's like made to be less hot and he still
finds her attractive because she's wearing this like kind of

(28:51):
big like robe, and like her insane body type, which
we will talk about, is kind of covered up, so
he like he gets a glimpse of her like face
and her hair, and he's like, who's that. Yeah, but
that's something like as a kid, her body was very
like belly dancer like Mary, just like stereotypical like Middle
Eastern sexuality whatever, And that kind of made me I

(29:12):
never wanted to be Jasmine for Halloween because I, first
of all, was not allowed to wear those things, and
second of all, it was just like, I'm not that's
kind of just just too sexy for eight year old
to wear. Not. Yeah, I think she has like sexualized more. Yeah,
And I think it's because it's a middle I mean,
like maybe I'm biased, Like I think they exploited some
of the culture a little bit too much. Like even

(29:34):
the first verse of the Arabian night song. They say
it's barbaric, but hey, it's home like it's like you're
and then like cutting off a hand for stealing an
apple is just like the culture is either very barbaric
or very sexualized, or very just over the top exploitative,
sometimes just to serve the narrat And I see it
more now than I did back then. For sure, there's

(29:55):
a lot of things like that, Like the only characters
with accents are villain like there's all kinds of stuff
where it's very exploitative and like not necessarily painting Arabic
culture in a positive lay Ah. I thought another comparison
that I was like, oh, it is so different. The
way it's depicted in a Laddin is the one jump
ahead sequence is not entirely dissimilar from Bell walking through

(30:19):
her village at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast,
where it's like, Okay, this is where we are, this
is what it's like here, and both sequences are like
depicting like a lower class community, but the way they
do it in Aladdin is way more violent, way more
like it's just it's it's very different. I'm glad you
brought that up. Because it's completely true. Even the side characters,

(30:41):
whether it's like some like matronly person like coming on
to Aladdin, like like, they're all very just unattractive people
in the marketplace or in the bizarre, in the whatever,
they're just not flattering depictions of the Arab culture. Also,
the things like sword swallowing and fire eating, all that
stuff is like usually made to seem like a joke,
were like a gad for kids to be like, oh

(31:02):
my god, what what? Yeah? And all the women even
in like the parade for Ali, Prince Ali or whatever,
they were all belly dancer looking, like all the hot
the hot girls are all just like in very just
like our glass figures and and racy outfits or whatever.
And I like, in respect that belly dancing is a
part of Arabic culture and the Middle Eastern culture for sure.

(31:22):
But as for a children's movie, which just would have
been nice to have a woman dressed in something else, right, Yeah,
And it's either that or then Jasmine covered up in
a potato sack. It's just like there's two she and
and I'm sorry to keep comparing it to Beating the Beast,
but there's another analog there of like the three belly
dancers who they're in gusts like like women's yeah, and

(31:45):
the three and and they are significantly more covered, but
they're the same three characters basically. But I'm pretty sure
that the women in Beauty and the Beast had names
the women and I believe that they do. And in
Aladdin there's actress don't get names, but they show up
multiple times. They're in Prince Ali there in one jump ahead. Well,
that's the same. Those are the same women, the same

(32:07):
unless unless the characters are drawn that. But I'm pretty
sure it's say characters. I think that's probably true because
they're like in the same area, but yeah, I don't know.
It's It's weird is the implication during one jump ahead
that like Aladdin has like possibly hooked up with a
lot of ladies in town. Because I was thinking that
this time where it's like every time he runs into

(32:28):
a lady in the marketplace, they're like, hey, it's like
maybe he I mean, I had read it as being like, oh,
he's well liked, everyone knows him because he just is
always around and like it's homeless, but like maybe it
is like he's a player. Maybe, I mean I'm like,
kind of here, I don't buy that. Aladdin when he
meets Jasmine is like this virginal was like Aladdin like fox.

(32:53):
I think the nipples wonder of a fox, Like how
this one has to be has to be a fucking
stud Yeah. So my theory is and why he carries
himself he has the confidence of someone that has had sex.
And and the way that he whisks Jasmine into his
studio apartment. I'm like, oh, you've done this before where

(33:15):
he's like and the view you know, like you go
home with Okay, this is like stuff tap dancing. It's
like he's done that we can call in the studio
Apartment's totally right. He did have a Yeah, he had
a whole routine and oh there's a moment which we
come across a lot which is very annoying where a

(33:37):
woman does a thing that he did not expect a
woman could do, and there they have to pick their
jaws up off the floor. It's when he's taking her
to his studio apartment. Jumpy thing. Yeah, he like pull
vaults over like a gap between two buildings and he's
like you're He's like, you're gonna need this board to
walk across and then as he's like laying down the board,

(33:58):
she also pulled vaults over it, and he's like a
woman that can do a thing. But also was like,
I'm a fast leader. Yeah you were homeschool to see
your first about of the palace, Like can you really
learn that? That sta um that scene in general, though,
like I was more impressed by it than I thought
it was going to be where it's like like Aladdin,

(34:20):
he does his whole like bachelor bit or whatever, but
he doesn't come on too strong. It's clear he's trying
to get to know her a little bit. He's asking
your questions. She like is clearly expressing interest in him
in a way I think we don't see a lot
in Disney movies. Usually it's she's like I hate you
and he's like, so there's hope. That's every other. But

(34:44):
it's like, it was cool to see a couple who
clearly are into each other. And the fact that when
he meets her, like you were saying, Caitlin, like, he
doesn't know that like, and I think that once he
finds out she's a princess, he values her more than
he did when he met which sucks, but it's clear
that like bass level, they like each other. They used

(35:05):
they're like about to kiss, yeah, and then on each
other for thirty minutes and they're like better kiss already. Um.
I could see that he values her more after he
finds out that she is royalty, but he also feels
like a lot of shame for he's like almost stupid,
Like I don't know, I feel like, and Jasmine doesn't

(35:26):
value status in a man, so she's like, I actually
like this guy who is borderline homeless and you know,
doesn't have any wealth, doesn't have enough status nipples. This
is not onlike the movie like Titanic, say, where Rose
falls in love with a poor boy named Jack Dawson.

(35:49):
That's the thing though, So the protagonist can be a
poor person as long as he's a boy, and he's
like like his value does not equate with his status
at all. But the woman, I feel like it's never
reversed other than like asthrala that I just thought thought of,
but like it's I feel like to value the woman character,
she has to at least to be rich or like
at least have something else going for her other than

(36:10):
being just like a poor person. Because like when you.
I mean, there's there's one part where you think a
load has fleas. And when I was like thinking of
them like being together in a studio apartment, I was
just like, he probably smells bad, and like she's still
into him because he's like alow that he's nice, right,
And then I mean and even like going off that
the way that like poor women are drawn in that

(36:33):
world is totally different, where like, yeah, they're the only
two female characters like in the Agriba marketplace are either
like bigger older women wearing like potato sacks or belly dancers.
And that's it. Yeah, another quick Titanic reference though, Yeah,
Jafar needs the use of the mystic blue diamond that

(36:58):
the Saltan has to be able to figure out who
the diamond and the roughest who can enter the Cave
of Wonders. I would like to think that it's the
same blue diamond from Titanic. The Heart of the Ocean
Latin take place in the Titanic verse, do Yeah, I
would like to really quick discuss the Cave of Wonders
as a vagina metaphor, because it is okay, the Cave

(37:22):
of Wonders I think is a vagina metaphor. I used
to have nightmares about the Cave of Wonders all the time,
fear of own sexuality. Maybe I okay, question, do you
think in the quest for the clip with the lamp
or the jewel, that a boot takes which which thoughts

(37:43):
I'd like to open the floor? Sure? Well, I have
not given this any thought up till now. Well, whenever
a boot touches the giant jewel, that's what causes mad. Yeah,
so I would say it can't be that. But I
also don't think it's the lamp. Honestly, I never thought
too well. Okay, I see the comparison to Cat. It's

(38:04):
a gigantic cat. Cat Ja won't Jaffar won't go near it.
He doesn't even try to go inside. He keeps finding
straight men to go in. Cats do have eight nipples,
though this is Cat FACX with Caitlin Um. I feel
like I feel like it's the ruby, right, Okay, I

(38:25):
was leaning towards the ruby the lamp. I don't know
what that would qualify as. I don't Okay, here's what
I think it is. I don't think they come across
the clitterest at all, because don't find it because they
don't find it. They don't and if they do, they
have no idea what to do with it. So, like
the jewel, touching it has very bad consequences, which is
not what happens in real life. That's true. Yeah, touching

(38:48):
it made like has a lava and everything rupting. Maybe
it took a periods unless also that's a metaphor for
an orgasm. Oh no, the vagina was very upset and
trapped them permanently and finally is not what happens every
time he works, Okay, and I love like I would

(39:08):
like to propose, Uh, let's just like a body hack
ourselves and figure out how to get our vagins to
flood with lava when when unhappy? I think that that's
great that it like whoa and then last cave of
wonder question promised by those rules like when, because we're

(39:31):
led to believe that the guy at the very beginning
Gazine dies, but wouldn't he just still be there if
Aladdin was still in there? Gazine in there somewhere. I
think the carpet kind of saved Aladdin because like like
when Aladdin was following, the carpet kind of like like
lifted him up. So I think Gazine didn't have a
happy fall. I always got the impression that he got

(39:56):
like trapped in the sand, like he got crushed by
like he's fagated because suffocated, because he was just like
in the sand, the thing collapsing. Don't erase the gigantic vagina,
you will die. Right And on that note, let's take
a quick break and we are back from the Cave

(40:19):
of Wonders where we did go. During our break, we
tricked the genie. Yeah, I mean, just a little bit
more on Jasmine and sort of her characterization. She's constantly
saying things like I'm not going to stand around while
you make choices for me. I'm not apprized to be one.
Because there's a scene where like the Saltan and Prince

(40:42):
Aly and Jaffar are all like hanging out. Prince Aly's like,
just let her meet me, like she's gonna freaking love me.
I'm so cool. But he also knows that he already
Like I held that against him too, but it's like
he already knows that she will like him because she's
they've met. Yeah, that that's true, But I don't know.

(41:02):
I think he could have he could have handled it
better because he now that he's a prince, he's like
all cocky and he's not behaving well uh, and then
you know, Jasmine's like, I am not apprized to be one.
He does win her over in the next scene, so
not really. Yeah, he invades her personal space and he's

(41:26):
like she does tell him to kill himself, go jump
off that balcony. But I was trying to like make
sense of this because I was like, well, you know,
he's still kind of acting like he's entitled to her.
She should be like instantly falling in love with Prince Ali,
but I think it's because she senses that he is

(41:48):
this boy from the marketplace that she already likes him.
So I don't know. I don't know if I would
have figured all that out is a kid, I can't
remember well, because after the whole match of Carpet Ride,
he admits that he is the same person, but he
but he still double staff. He doubles down the line,
and then Jasmine's like, well, I did that too, so

(42:09):
I guess it makes sense. I don't know. And then
Jasmine at most points where she needs to be confronting
a man who's trying to lie to or disenfranchise her
in some way, she usually does, which is cool and
I don't think we see a lot of princesses do
that either, where even though she does go back to
the palace right away, she goes back to confront Jaffar

(42:31):
right away and be like, Hey, what the funk are
you doing? And he's like, sorry, I had him killed.
And and then she later confronts a lad and when
she's like, why are you lying? Later because she doesn't
confront her dad, but her dad sees that she's upset
and does listen to her. And this also affects Jasmine's
first policy change, which is that Jafar can't be a dictator,

(42:55):
which is cool, even though he later ignores that very
very fashion character right. And then in the climactic sequence
which we've already touched on, where Jasmine pretends to love
Jafar in order to distract him, Jafar quickly figures out
what's going on, so he traps Jasmine in this giant hourglass,

(43:16):
which means that one she cannot participate in the climax
of the story, which we see over and over again,
which we already talked about a little bit, and it
means that she has to be saved by the male hero.
So it's all these tropes that we see in so
many classic hero tales chosen one, you know, adventure stories,
which is too bad because it's like Jasmine does more

(43:40):
and like advocates for herself more than most characters we'd
like seen up to that point in Disney, right, and then,
of course, because it's a Disney movie, they sell her
up the river by the end, because stories, because hero stories,
because fem that needs to be saved. To Aladdin's credit,

(44:01):
he does apologize to Jasmine for lying to her throughout
the whole movie, unlike movies like She's All That where
Freddy Prince Jr's like, you know how I lied to
you and manipulated you this entire movie. I'm not even
gonna bother to apologize. Yeah, so at least he apologizes,

(44:22):
But it's one of those things where it's like one
apology from a man U does oh the bad behavior.
I love, Yeah, he does, But like I'm giving that
was sarcasm. I mean, like, but like that wasn't interesting.
I was thinking she saw that during the sequence where

(44:45):
Aladdin kind of like gets a makeover too, but he
gets like the most empowered makeover of all time, like
one that would never be afforded to. Right, it's not
to make him more hot or appealing, not even a
change his personality, which is a big part of it.
It's like he still has Aladdin's personality. He's just like

(45:05):
wearing nicer clothes and lying about his idea. Yeah, it's so.
In movies where women have to be made over, it's
almost always to make them more attractive, usually to the
opposite sex, for very heteronormative reasons. In like Aladdin, he's
getting a makeover to assume a position of more power,
to assume like a leadership position where he's can you know,

(45:26):
have access to more power, access to her and access
to her. Yeah, so Aladdin's makeover is to make him
more dominant, whereas most female characters are made over to
be more submissive. Basically pretty much. Yeah, got it? Okay, Yeah,
very cool. We cracked it, hacked, we hacked storytelling. You've

(45:47):
done it. Um, can we talk about the queer coding
of Jaffar and Disney movies in general, and a lot
of movies where there's like kind of a classic villain. Yeah,
Parcella hades Radigan, a lot of people argue maleficent tons

(46:07):
of them. So basically, if you're not familiar with the
concept of queer coding, it's basically assigning harmful stereotypical troops
to characters, oftentimes they are villains, to vilify them further.
And it's a very harmful thing in general, and especially
when young children are seeing it, because they're like, you know,
their subconscious brains see these characteristics in these villains, so

(46:32):
they think, oh, those characteristics must be bad if a
person in real life displays them. So it just kind
of perpetuates homophobia, and it equates stereotypically queer traits to
being bad or negative in some way. And lots of
Disney movies do this to their villains and they I mean,

(46:54):
it existed prior to that and st but like, yeah,
it's like especially harmful to it in children's movies over
and over, especially because there are no queer characters in
those Disney movies that are good the heroes or at all. Yeah,
at all. Right, So yeah, it's just a really bad

(47:15):
thing that keeps happening because you could argue that, like
the crab in Moanna is sort of coded queer like
some other like the record Ralph pretty recent movie. The
villain in that movie is coded queer. So yeah, they
have not stopped doing this, even though surely they know

(47:36):
it's problematic, but they just keep at it. Well, I
think maybe they tried to make Jafar when he when
he was like, I'll have her fall in love with me.
I'll have Javans fall in love with me. That was like,
I feel like it was Disney attempt to be like
see like he's yeah, but then before that happens, actually
before he's made sultan, when he's thinking of marrying Jasmine anyway,

(47:57):
just to become sultan, his next ideas so then I'll
throw both her dad and her off a cliff. Yeah,
So it's like it's not yeah. He's like, Okay, I
guess I'll marry a woman, but only so I can
immediately kill her. He's like, oh, I guess I'll marry
this shrew he calls jasmina's true and then later in
the movie whenever he's like, yeah, we're gonna get married,

(48:18):
and Jasmine's like and he's like speechless, I see a
fine quality and a wife, Like wow, the far feminist
I cond villain Yeah, it's it's harmful for children. I
feel like it's it just like pumps you up with
all the wrong ideas about queerness at a very very

(48:39):
young age. The one thing that at least seems like
a semi positive is that there are like portions of
the queer community that have reclaimed these characters and there's
like festivals around them and like they've been re embraced
in retrospect. But it's okay to have queer villains if
you also have queer heroes. Yeah, that's completely absent from

(49:05):
and it just all of children's entertainment. It sucks for
the queer community. Even if they have like reclaimed these
villains and like celebrate them, it still sucks that like
that's pretty much the only representation of First of all,
they're not even explicitly queer, they're just like coded that way.
And then they're also villains, and it just sucks that
that's like the only representation representation that the queer community

(49:27):
has in at least children's movies. I mean, I identify
as queer, and I think I mean that I think
about it. I think maybe that's why I like The
Animal Movie so much, And that sounds like like a
weird thing to relate that to. But like I related
more to Raja than I did the princesses, or like
I related more to the movie Dumbo than I did
to any other princess. Yeah, because like I think whatever,

(49:50):
I think, seeing an animal, for whatever reason made me
feel more comforted than than seeing a woman or a
boy character. And I don't know if that's true for
everyone else. I mean for me, as like a queer kid,
I appreciated the animal characters because they were just like
they weren't explicitly a boy or a girl most of
the time, like Flounder like had like a boyish voice

(50:13):
or whatever, but like it was it was a little
fishy pretty genders or carpet even like it was more
just like these characters that didn't necessarily make me feel
that I was any less of a girl or anymore
you know what I mean, like genderless, that's what I'm saying,
But that carpet, So I mean, that's also sad though
to think that like that's what I related to versus

(50:35):
like actual character characters. But sorry, sorry to straight cis
plain queer coding. Oh no no, no, no no, I
thought what I was trying to get out, you know,
but I I fully recognize it. When I like do that,
I'm like, yeah, I'm a I'm a straight ciss lady.
I think I don't even know I mean like that later,

(50:56):
I do appreciate recognizing queer quoting for sure and stuff,
but there's also part of me that thinks, like, well,
even knowing, like oh, their voices or they're the way
they speak sometimes like even thinking, I mean like I
know that that that I'm fully aware that they intended
it to be queer coding, because like that's just like
they're trying to make a those queer traits seem unattractive orunflattering.

(51:19):
But at the same time, it's like, is it on
us also for thinking that way? I don't know, I
kind of give in my head about it too much.
That makes sense, And yeah, of like, well, it's it
takes two to tango kind of a thing. It's like,
or if they're sending out these messages, we have to
be like receiving them in a particular way or I
think I think I know what you're saying, but I

(51:39):
mean I do. I do blame Disney a lot for
in general, because I mean, they're they're they're so conservative
and and and you know see it until you're an adult. Yeah,
and as a kid, it's just subliminally just like accept
it all and like watching a load and or being
in the Beast or on any of those movies. Is
that adult is so different. Dome is Park as Fun

(52:01):
is so dark, so dark the whole fucking like Admilla
to be like like that, what's his face of villain
desiring her? And like it's so dark. As a kid,
it goes over your head. So I think Disney sometimes,
I don't know, their agenda is a little wacky. I
don't know, it's all for the place. Yeah, and then

(52:23):
and then that's that's another movie where like I cannot
think of and and correct me if I'm wrong, but
I can't think of a movie with like, oh, white
Princess where she has to like kiss the villain because
that happens in Hunchback of Notre Dame and Aladdin, and

(52:43):
it's just like, I don't know, it's just that's totally
it's so true. And it's really unfortunate because because women
of color are more often sexualized than white woman just
across the board, whether it's in live action stuff or cartoons. Um,
And it's just unfortunate that it's even the children cartoons,
Like even like the dark skinned lead female will be sexualized,

(53:05):
and that just like plays into a child's idea of
what those women are like, and what those women are
like dress like, and what those women will do to
with them or whatever. So it's like it's so damaging,
it's so yeah. And then like her body type to um.
We talked about this a little bit in the episode
we did on Frozen, but her body type of like

(53:29):
this tiny, tiny, tiny waist that does not adhere to
anything that you would see in the natural world and
reminded me of aerials body type of she they are
animated and like drawn the same way in that they
like are the most scantily clad and they have these
just tiny, tiny frames and adhered to this like very

(53:52):
unrealistic Western beauty standard. I mean her her head is
wider than her waist, Like it's insane, Let please photoshop ourselves.
So it's just so harmful for little girls to see
this and and and think, oh, that's I guess the
ideal that I have to strive to. And everyone thinks

(54:13):
she's beautiful. And like right, and she like her beauty
is so coveted. And we see this again and again
in so many Disney movies where it's this same body type.
We don't get any differentiation really in like the female
leads of these Disney movies and in just media in general,
video games, live action movies, like everything that's like this
very you know, the most desirable women has the same

(54:37):
you know, body type, and it's this very unrealistic, very virginal.
I mean, Jasmine is another, like the movie goes out
of its way to be like she's literally never left
her house. Don't worry if she's pure like that kind
of thing. Yeah, so very harmful. Yes, oh early on,

(54:57):
Like we said, like Jasmine is a pretty cool character
if you just isolate her. She's smart, she's capable. She
does make some active choices in this story. But then
you'll have a scene where the Sultan is like, yeah,
I'm trying to marry you off and it is because
of this law that I have control over changing but
I'm not going to do that. I'm instead just going

(55:19):
to make sure you get married in three days or less.
And he says, like, I need to make sure you're
taking care of because you can't take care of yourself, right, Like,
I'm not gonna be around forever. I just want to
make sure you're taking care of provided for because of course.
I mean, I guess you can consider the era that
this movie takes place in, in this you know, fictional world,
but like, let's just subscribe to the patriarchy in this

(55:41):
world that doesn't exist. That's cool too. So yeah, Jasmine,
just like overall, she does have a little bit more agency,
a little bit more personality than we are used to
seeing in Disney Princess characters, but the narrative still makes
sure that she doesn't really to do anything, doesn't really

(56:02):
get to take any action to influence the direction of
the story, doesn't really get to exist in the story
outside of just being the romantic interest, and it really
kind of screws her over again and again. And unless
I am missing something, and all white cast to this movie,

(56:22):
the voices, voice actors all white, and some of them
sometimes written and directed. Just yeah, there is that scene
in the very beginning before we get into Agriba where
Robin Williams does this voice too, where he's like trying
to sell you like a bong that makes Julian fries

(56:45):
or whatever. Um, and he's doing an accent. So it's
like this white guy doing like a vaguely Arabic sounding accent,
and it's like, yeah, it's just it's the problem piling up. Yeah,
it's offensive. Also realized that was Robin Williams until this
vieeling really I think I think I probably knew, and

(57:08):
then I forgot probably and I had to I had
to listen to really carefully, and I was like, oh yeah, like,
oh yes, you can't. That wasn't necessary, but it is
a choice that they made. Yeah, like so many things
in this movie. Um. Towards the end of the movie,
it's like after they've defeated sorry, after a Laddin his
defeated ja'far, and he's like debating whether or not to

(57:31):
free the genie, and the genie's like, it's fine, it's
just you know, an eternity of servitude. But this is love,
so make sure you do that. And then he says,
you're not going to find another girl like her in
a million years. Believe me, I've looked. And that's basically
saying she's not like the other girls, so you know,
stick with this one and then against all odds, Aladdin's like, no, Genie,

(57:53):
you're not my slave anymore. What a hero I am? Yeah,
it's like, oh he's the like should he truly get
credit for doing that? But it doesn't seem like something
that should occur. The Jenny looks like goofy And that's
the Disney World slavery is solved. Does anyone have any

(58:15):
other thoughts about Aladdin? I did find it strange that
there's a monkey in the Middle East, because I've never
seen a monkey in the Middle East. I mean, then
to get a tiger either, I mean, like, I don't know,
it's it's ancient times. What am I talking about? Everything
is possible, but but it is. I find it interesting
that she has no friends, that Jasmine has no friends,

(58:37):
and just like her female pet tiger, and she's still
like very competent about the world other than not knowing
that Apple needs money, I guess, but like, yeah, right,
you think she'd be a little more like if she
has never stepped outside the palace, like she's only interacted
with her father and like the guards in Jafar and stuff. Right, Yeah,

(58:57):
that's something that I don't know. If there's like a
tech nicole term for what exactly that is. But I
feel like that comes up sometimes with female characters, but
like a yes queen kind of femine, like women can
do anything, it's like that they need to learn. It's
like a naivete that's like very she's naive, but it's
not unattractive, and it's like I want to show you

(59:18):
the world, like I want to like introduce you to everything,
and like it's almost like is it kind of like
the born Sexy Yesterday trope? A little literarient of that.
I think it's also like it plays into the fact
that like she's a version. He's going to show her
how to have sex. Like it's kind of because like, yeah, exactly,
it's like there's a trope where it's like you're a pure, untouched,

(59:40):
unknowing person and there's a certain sexiness about someone teaching
you for the first time or like showing you the
way for the first time. So either shot that little
interesting on this viewing then, and also along the lines
of like her lack of female friends or interactions with
any women, like Disney movies do this all the time,
where if there are other female characters who are around whatever,

(01:00:02):
like princess. It is they're either evil stepmother's, evil step sisters, animals,
or some other villainous set people props. Basically, um, and
there's almost never anyone that she can actually like talk
to and interact with in a meaningful way until like Frozen,
and then you know, you can listen to our episode

(01:00:23):
on that for that whole discussion. But um, yeah, there's
just it's so rare to see women interacting in a
Disney movie. Hey, that brings us to whether or not
this movie passes. The test doesn't even come close. There's
no opportunity. The closest it comes is that, as we

(01:00:43):
talked about, the like group of three like belly dancer
dressed women are in a couple of songs one jump ahead,
and they show up again in the Prince Ali song,
and in one of them they're like singing near each
other and the other one they are sort of looking
each other while they're singing. But in both songs they
are singing about Aladdin and I not have names. I

(01:01:05):
was gonna say the closest thing is when Jasmine is
talking to Raja at the beginning, but I don't know
if that does not respond, she does not verbally respond
in human language. So but she is named, so there's
a few close calls, but nope, not at all. So

(01:01:26):
with that, let us rate the movie on our nipple
scale zero to five nipples based on its portrayal of women.
I'm gonna go with one and a half for Aladdin.
I do like, as we've said, if you isolate Jasmine
as a character and the intelligence she displays, the stances

(01:01:46):
she has on things, she does have some degree of agency,
and you know she's always saying like, I'm not going
to let people decide my future for me. I'm not
a prized to be one. So in that regard, she
is maybe a proto feminist icon. But because the narrative
doesn't care about her really except to make sure that

(01:02:08):
she is the romantic interest of Aladdin, she doesn't really
get to do all that much or make that many
active choices or existing story outside of her relationship to Aladdin.
So the movie gets a lot of nipples taken away
for that. It is nice to see a woman of
color be a Disney princess. Um. This is one of

(01:02:29):
the earlier ones, if not I think the first first one.
So it is like, you know, Sharine for you when
you're seeing this as a kid and you saw yourself
represented to some degree in Jasmine or Raja. So it
is nice for that, But because the movie doesn't really
handle like Arabic culture very responsibly, it doesn't do that

(01:02:54):
great of a job. Yeah, so one and a half nipples.
Jasmine is cool, but she doesn't get to display her
coolness all that much. And my nipples, I'll give one
and a half nipples to Raja. I'll go. I want
to go too, because I want to give a lot
of nipples for the first time in this life. But

(01:03:16):
I'll also do one and a half for for basically
all the reasons that you said. And I'll also attack
on losing points for overly sexualizing a non white female character,
a trend that they will continue to do with Pocohonas
and as Maria and like into Infinity as long as

(01:03:37):
these same five male directors are still directing every single
Disney movie. It's out to Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott,
and Terry Rassio look out. But yeah, I mean, other
than that, I could you summarized it very well, and
I'm going to give a nipple and a half so
close to a ladded. I think I will give. I

(01:04:03):
really do like Jasmine's character. I think I think her
personality is great. I like that they made her strong
and stuff. But I agree with everything you said as well,
and just it's it just doesn't handle the culture. Well,
it's sexualizes a woman of color and would have been
nice to just have another female character at all that

(01:04:23):
had speaking with live right. Yeah, um so yeah, I
think I'll give. I'm gonna give one namble to Jasmine. Great. Yeah, yeah,
because there's Jasmine's manly female character. But as far as
the male characters, we've got Aladdin, a Boo is gendered male,
the Genie, the Salton, Jafar Iago, all of Jafar's guards, like,

(01:04:44):
it's just like countless male characters, and just the I do.
I say, I love Aladdin and it's a fucking blast
of a time, and you even watching it as an adult,
it's still so fun. And I love Rob Williams and
miss Robin Williams and and still sad Robin Williams and
I will never be the same. There's there's a there's

(01:05:07):
a sentimental nous to Aladdin that I cannot ignore it
for me, and it reminds me of watching with my sister,
reminds me of playing the video game. It reminds me
of like just being a kid and not realizing it
was problematic. Yet I think like the ignorance is a
bliss thing is so true as a kid because you're
happy and you little things make you laugh, whether it's cheating,

(01:05:27):
doing something stupid or whatever, and it's just like reminds
you of when times we're simple. Definitely, Yeah, yeah, like
you can still love movies that we as adults realize
are problematic, but as long as we when you talk
about them on a podcast, there's so few that aren't. Right. Well, Sharine,
thank you so much for being here. Thank you so
much for having me. This was so fun. Do you

(01:05:48):
have anything you'd like to plug? Where can people follow
you online? You can follow me on Twitter at Sharine
y Sharne s h E R E n W h
Y and then on Instagram. I'm Shiro Hero. I don't
know if any of you guys are going to be
in New York on July nine, but I have a
short film screening at the MoMA. Yeah, I'm really excited

(01:06:10):
about it. There's going to be a Q and a
after the screening, So if you guys want to see
a cool movie, and it's in a collaboration with an
exhibition called the Future of Films Female. So if you
guys want to see some cool short films, it's me
and seven other filmmakers featured that night. So it will
be fun to have you guys there. And congratulations. I'm

(01:06:32):
super stoked and just kind of honored that I'm even
included in the line up because it's like people that
I really like. Um. But other than that, I have
a poetry book on Amazon if you guys want to read,
It's called Dime Peace. And Yeah, just follow me on
the interwebs and keep up and listen to ethnically and
I think made us that house stuff works. Yeah, your

(01:06:54):
co host being of course an a host, which was
on our all that episode, Great movie episode Solid. You
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(01:07:16):
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