My Ode to last semester

Last semester I took a class called Islam in the West. This class was the epitome of making you feel bad for loving the movie Aladdin. We discussed heavily the book Orientalism by Edward Said and as Alex can tell you it was a topic that we didn't let drop for the rest of the semester. I bring this up because of a recent article published by Al Jazeera called "Orientalism with a Surgical Twist". I personally have an issue with the idea of Orientalism and the idea that it still exists. I will agree that Orientalism did happen, but to give this notion a thought in modern day culture, I will argue that it is not prevalent. I would say that it is safe to assume as a small child the majority of us watched Disney movies and we all wished that we could find a prince like that some day. We admired Mulan's courage, Ariel's voice, Belle's beauty and of course that Jasmine got a tiger AND a magic carpet. Even though us young girls fantasize about these princesses we grow and realize how unrealistic that is. We understand that when you travel to the Middle East there aren't actually Sultan palaces and women don't walk around with a pet tiger and bare their midriff in some silky sheer get up.

                                               ^This isn't real life...I know, shocker.

This article suggests that the New York Times wrote a piece suggesting Beirut is the "new Paris" of the Middle East. I would beg to differ. Beirut is modernizing in the same sense that Dubai or Abu Dabi is. Comparing Beirut to Paris is a way of perpetuating this idea of Orientalism but Beirut is no more sexualized and bronzed than the beaches of Israel or Egypt. This article also talks about how this brand new, refurbished downtown over shadows the neglected and over crowed Palestinian refugee camps, but this is no different than any other city in the world. New York City has its homeless begging in the streets and cardboard box houses spring up each night and are gone before dawn.

This idea of Orienatalism once used to define the Middle East, but I believe it does no longer. The Middle East is making a name for itself through technological innovations in their building to their mass production of oil. The Middle East no longer has to adhere to these ideals that it was sexualized and contextualized through these French poets years ago. Through the convience  of travel these days also visually seeing what the Middle East looks like also helps negate the idea that Orientalism still exists.

This is the link to the article I read: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/201210311055370407.html

Photo Cred: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/princess-jasmine/images/7219364/title/princess-jasmine-photo