The unfamiliarity of the “other” often leads to the creation of an enemy, with the Middle East being no exception. This enemy status has been habitually established through the implementation of stereotypes by the USA towards the Middle East in media and entertainment such as movies, television, and music. This enemy status created through stereotypes has been explored in academia such as Edward Said’s Orientalism, written in 1979. Beginning with Said’s Orientalism and continuing with the stereotyping present in The Sheik (1921) and various modern music, the making of an enemy by the USA through stereotypes is clear.
Said’s Orientalism was one of the first works to truly articulate the concept of stereotyping by the West towards the East as …show more content…
The film stars Rudolph Valentino, who plays an Arab that kidnaps a woman, Diana, and imprisons her, waiting for her to love him back. When a different sheik attempts to rape her after she escapes, Valentino’s character saves her and reveals that he is not in fact Arabian, but is instead of European descent (The Sheik). Enemy making is clearly central to the plot, as the Sheik kidnaps a woman that looks American for his own bidding, effectively establishing Arabs as an enemy to Americans, as dangerous people that will steal your women and threaten your way of life. Other imagery in the film further reinforces this, as in one particular scene women are being sold as wives/ slaves to Arabian men (The Sheik). This scene paints Middle Easterners, and Arabians in particular, as powerful, barbaric, sexual men with no regard to any type of decency or morality. However, that description does not stop there, as The Sheik also portrays Arabs as thieves and killers. The Sheik’s racial change from Arabian to European and Diana’s reluctance to confess her love to him until she realizes that he is of western descent emphasizes the undesirability of Arabian men from an American perspective. While the East and West come together in the film, it is only to highlight the how backwards, evil, and uncivilized the East is, while the West is depicted as modern and free, effectively making the East …show more content…
The 1921 song “Rebecca Came Back From Mecca” by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby tells of a girl, Rebecca, who visits either Turkey or Mecca after being entranced by an “oriental show”, and her changes afterwards. She’s described as, “All day long… smoking Turkish tobecca” and that, “…since she’s back home from the Harem,/ She has clothes but she don’t wear ‘em” (Kalmar and Ruby). Her description as now being a lazy, possibly promiscuous girl clearly reflects attitudes towards the Middle East, and stereotypes associated with Middle Easterners. This also paints them as a disease, as they write that, “Once her little sister Sonia/ Wore her clothes and got an pneumonia” (Kalmar and Ruby). Her clothes are covered in disease due to where they are from, so while her corrupted self is unfazed by it, they make her sister sick. “Rebecca Came Back From Mecca” depicts the Middle East as a malicious place bent on corrupting curious American girls, effectively portraying Middle Easterners as the enemy and the other. Siouxsie and the Banshees’ 1981 song “Arabian Knights” is no different in terms of demonizing the Middle East, Arabs in particular. The song writes that the Middle East is, “A monstrous oil tanker/ Its wound bleeding in seas” (Ballion, et al.). This description oversimplifies what the Middle East offers while
Said’s Orientalism was one of the first works to truly articulate the concept of stereotyping by the West towards the East as …show more content…
The film stars Rudolph Valentino, who plays an Arab that kidnaps a woman, Diana, and imprisons her, waiting for her to love him back. When a different sheik attempts to rape her after she escapes, Valentino’s character saves her and reveals that he is not in fact Arabian, but is instead of European descent (The Sheik). Enemy making is clearly central to the plot, as the Sheik kidnaps a woman that looks American for his own bidding, effectively establishing Arabs as an enemy to Americans, as dangerous people that will steal your women and threaten your way of life. Other imagery in the film further reinforces this, as in one particular scene women are being sold as wives/ slaves to Arabian men (The Sheik). This scene paints Middle Easterners, and Arabians in particular, as powerful, barbaric, sexual men with no regard to any type of decency or morality. However, that description does not stop there, as The Sheik also portrays Arabs as thieves and killers. The Sheik’s racial change from Arabian to European and Diana’s reluctance to confess her love to him until she realizes that he is of western descent emphasizes the undesirability of Arabian men from an American perspective. While the East and West come together in the film, it is only to highlight the how backwards, evil, and uncivilized the East is, while the West is depicted as modern and free, effectively making the East …show more content…
The 1921 song “Rebecca Came Back From Mecca” by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby tells of a girl, Rebecca, who visits either Turkey or Mecca after being entranced by an “oriental show”, and her changes afterwards. She’s described as, “All day long… smoking Turkish tobecca” and that, “…since she’s back home from the Harem,/ She has clothes but she don’t wear ‘em” (Kalmar and Ruby). Her description as now being a lazy, possibly promiscuous girl clearly reflects attitudes towards the Middle East, and stereotypes associated with Middle Easterners. This also paints them as a disease, as they write that, “Once her little sister Sonia/ Wore her clothes and got an pneumonia” (Kalmar and Ruby). Her clothes are covered in disease due to where they are from, so while her corrupted self is unfazed by it, they make her sister sick. “Rebecca Came Back From Mecca” depicts the Middle East as a malicious place bent on corrupting curious American girls, effectively portraying Middle Easterners as the enemy and the other. Siouxsie and the Banshees’ 1981 song “Arabian Knights” is no different in terms of demonizing the Middle East, Arabs in particular. The song writes that the Middle East is, “A monstrous oil tanker/ Its wound bleeding in seas” (Ballion, et al.). This description oversimplifies what the Middle East offers while