Constructing The Other
Middle Easterners are still spoken to be as outdated, aggressive and highly sexualized with women. Islam in pop culture has put a great effect on the society. Presently, they are likewise spoken to as risky people to mix with. Women have regularly spoke to as misused by obsessive men, and, no more sexualized, yet show up in Burka. This has added to islamophobia: fear, abhorrence, and disdain of all Muslims.
In class, we discussed about “Alaadin”. We talked about how Arabs are given a rough and an arrogant image. The ladies are spoken to as outlandish midsection dance lovers and have hidden countenances. The men, and society all in all, is represented as primitive. It is said that the Arabs have no space for differences and there is no plausibility for development inside the general public.
These representations of Arabs that were made by Europeans were not indeed about Arabs, however about themselves. They developed a picture of the Arab that was the inverse of the perfect picture they had of themselves. The Arabs were aggressive and primitive. The Europeans were dynamic, educated and well-behaved. At the end of the day, keeping in mind the end goal to approve their personality, the picture of the Arab as "other" was made. What's more, this picture had next to no to do with the truth of Arab experience and life, not just on the grounds that it was not educated at all by Arab experience or life, but since it was made and built as per the political concerns of the all the more effective, dynamic, Western men. For example, Latif Yahia. He was a well-educated army lieutenant who was forced to give away his identity to serve as Uday Huseein’s double. This shows that not all Arabs are backwards. There are a few of them who are in power and those people represent the nation as back dated and egotistical.
Middle Easterners are still spoken to be as outdated, aggressive and highly sexualized with women. Islam in pop culture has put a great effect on the society. Presently, they are likewise spoken to as risky people to mix with. Women have regularly spoke to as misused by obsessive men, and, no more sexualized, yet show up in Burka. This has added to islamophobia: fear, abhorrence, and disdain of all Muslims.
In class, we discussed about “Alaadin”. We talked about how Arabs are given a rough and an arrogant image. The ladies are spoken to as outlandish midsection dance lovers and have hidden countenances. The men, and society all in all, is represented as primitive. It is said that the Arabs have no space for differences and there is no plausibility for development inside the general public.
These representations of Arabs that were made by Europeans were not indeed about Arabs, however about themselves. They developed a picture of the Arab that was the inverse of the perfect picture they had of themselves. The Arabs were aggressive and primitive. The Europeans were dynamic, educated and well-behaved. At the end of the day, keeping in mind the end goal to approve their personality, the picture of the Arab as "other" was made. What's more, this picture had next to no to do with the truth of Arab experience and life, not just on the grounds that it was not educated at all by Arab experience or life, but since it was made and built as per the political concerns of the all the more effective, dynamic, Western men. For example, Latif Yahia. He was a well-educated army lieutenant who was forced to give away his identity to serve as Uday Huseein’s double. This shows that not all Arabs are backwards. There are a few of them who are in power and those people represent the nation as back dated and egotistical.
This video displays how different Latif is from Uday. While Uday continues to grind with girls, Latif maintains his distance from Uday’s lover.
Edward Said’s theory of orientalism has spread worldwide. It was translated into 26 languages for the whole world to have an idea of his theory. Orientalism tries to answer the question of why we have a perceived view on, for example, the Middle East. Even though we may never have been there or met anyone from there we have an assumption of the Arabs; how they talk, act or react. Orientalism asks how we understand people or strangers who look different to us by virtue of the color of the skin. The central argument of orientalism is that why we acquire this knowledge is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests, that is, it is highly motivated. Specifically, Said argues that the west, Europe and the U.S. looks at the people of the east through a lens that distorts the actual reality of those places and those people. Said calls this lens through which we view the other part of the world, Orientalism. Said, being an Arab himself, got interest in orientalism when he could not relate with famous paintings by famous artists who showed unpleasantness of the Arab culture through their work.
The movie displays the supposedly “typical” characteristics of an Arabic ruler’s son who behaves exactly how we have had always assumed the Middle Easterners. A part of it also shows that there are Arabs who act and talk just like the people in the west. For example, Latif Yahia.
Edward Said’s theory of orientalism has spread worldwide. It was translated into 26 languages for the whole world to have an idea of his theory. Orientalism tries to answer the question of why we have a perceived view on, for example, the Middle East. Even though we may never have been there or met anyone from there we have an assumption of the Arabs; how they talk, act or react. Orientalism asks how we understand people or strangers who look different to us by virtue of the color of the skin. The central argument of orientalism is that why we acquire this knowledge is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests, that is, it is highly motivated. Specifically, Said argues that the west, Europe and the U.S. looks at the people of the east through a lens that distorts the actual reality of those places and those people. Said calls this lens through which we view the other part of the world, Orientalism. Said, being an Arab himself, got interest in orientalism when he could not relate with famous paintings by famous artists who showed unpleasantness of the Arab culture through their work.
The movie displays the supposedly “typical” characteristics of an Arabic ruler’s son who behaves exactly how we have had always assumed the Middle Easterners. A part of it also shows that there are Arabs who act and talk just like the people in the west. For example, Latif Yahia.
Power
Karl Marx, the renowned German philosopher once said 'The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs". This statement can be seen as one fundamental ideas that has been portrayed throughout the movie, The Devil's Double. The relationship showed between the pampered son of Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein and his unfortunate body double Latif Yahia shows the colossal power that Uday Hussein had which he used to reign over his subordinates. Surrounded by sycophants, Uday Hussein used his father's absolute power to bully, rape and even murder. Saddam Hussein's substantially narcissistic characteristics such as the construction of thousands of portraits, statues and poster of himself placed all over Iraq has been passed on to the next generation. This can be seen through the behaviour of Uday Hussein with not only his subordinates but also his lovers including Sarrab in The Devil's Double. Sarrab's character showed an extreme example of the power paradigm between the dominant alpha male and the terrified obedient female. Karl Marx, being the founder of communism believed that the social position of the female sex can be treated as a means of measurement of the social progress. However, when this is applied to the film it can be seen that social progress is far from being adequate in Iraq as exemplary situations including the kidnapping of a 14 year old school girl and even the sadistic relationship with Sarrab masquerading to be of good natured shows that corruption and nothing less than absolute unyielding power is accepted by Uday Hussein.
Supreme and tyrannical levels of hegemony acts as one of the central themes of the film, The Devil's Double where fear of the father gives rise to the ruthless power of the son. Hegemony is an idea created by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist theoretician and politician. Gramsci spent much of his life imprisoned by another authoritarian ruler known as Benito Mussolini. His creation, the idea of cultural hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by their ruling class. This is done in such a manner that the society's beliefs, values and perceptions are manipulated in a way that the ruling class's views become the compulsory and accepted views of the cultural norm. This is beautifully integrated into the film as gunfights and thoughts of war are removed from the mind's eye through proper manipulation by showing extravagant parties filled with exquisite food and drinks and also through the use of lavish nightlife scenes. By showing and advertising such events, the ruling class, which in this case is Uday Hussein and his entourage, can force their views into the cultural norm portraying the idea that the overall situation is better than it thought before.
Karl Marx, the renowned German philosopher once said 'The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs". This statement can be seen as one fundamental ideas that has been portrayed throughout the movie, The Devil's Double. The relationship showed between the pampered son of Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein and his unfortunate body double Latif Yahia shows the colossal power that Uday Hussein had which he used to reign over his subordinates. Surrounded by sycophants, Uday Hussein used his father's absolute power to bully, rape and even murder. Saddam Hussein's substantially narcissistic characteristics such as the construction of thousands of portraits, statues and poster of himself placed all over Iraq has been passed on to the next generation. This can be seen through the behaviour of Uday Hussein with not only his subordinates but also his lovers including Sarrab in The Devil's Double. Sarrab's character showed an extreme example of the power paradigm between the dominant alpha male and the terrified obedient female. Karl Marx, being the founder of communism believed that the social position of the female sex can be treated as a means of measurement of the social progress. However, when this is applied to the film it can be seen that social progress is far from being adequate in Iraq as exemplary situations including the kidnapping of a 14 year old school girl and even the sadistic relationship with Sarrab masquerading to be of good natured shows that corruption and nothing less than absolute unyielding power is accepted by Uday Hussein.
Supreme and tyrannical levels of hegemony acts as one of the central themes of the film, The Devil's Double where fear of the father gives rise to the ruthless power of the son. Hegemony is an idea created by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist theoretician and politician. Gramsci spent much of his life imprisoned by another authoritarian ruler known as Benito Mussolini. His creation, the idea of cultural hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by their ruling class. This is done in such a manner that the society's beliefs, values and perceptions are manipulated in a way that the ruling class's views become the compulsory and accepted views of the cultural norm. This is beautifully integrated into the film as gunfights and thoughts of war are removed from the mind's eye through proper manipulation by showing extravagant parties filled with exquisite food and drinks and also through the use of lavish nightlife scenes. By showing and advertising such events, the ruling class, which in this case is Uday Hussein and his entourage, can force their views into the cultural norm portraying the idea that the overall situation is better than it thought before.