b'Short Essays Sonia Thakurdesaiis the only time when the action penetrates the audiencerules over the Orient from an exterior situation. The Orient is the space: The ensemble weave through aisles by the audience,entity under the political and ideological management of the Western.performing flips, cartwheels, ribbon dancing, juggling,- (Borthaiser 2008)hula-hooping, followed by Aladdin on a giant elephant - all conjured up by the Genie to impress Jasmine and winA falsified image of the Orient centred around the West her hand in marriage with Aladdin. Similarly, Friend likeis signified to the audience by Genies Americanisation me displays acts to impress: Following the lyrics Canand deprivation of Otherness. Addressing the post-Gulf your friends do this? are jumps, flips and lifts designed towar state of Disneys production of Aladdin, Nadel claims amaze Aladdin with his powers. The spectacle created bythat Genie symbolizes the desert that contains oil-making the ensembles performative acts is iconic of a circus. Inprofit and a possibility of nuclear weapons (Borthaiser introducing Prince Ali, the Genie invites the audience to2008). The large oil lamps lining the staircase on stage the Agrabah showgrounds, making Genie the Ringleader.symbolise the ability to gain power for the one who They are object[s] in the midst of other objects (Fanonacquires either the lamp, or the oil beneath Arabia. Said 1967: 129) The Orient is thus objectified, represented ascontends, the Gulf war wasnt a war fought on principles something to be ogled at and taken advantage of by thebut over oil, as he notes the strategic importance of the superior West.Gulf region to the United States for its own purposes (Said 1992: 6). Thus, the Genie and the lamp is a metaphor for Building on the showman persona that Genie embodies,oil remains in Kuwait and the desire of the US to dominate Slavoj iek claims that todays multiculturalismthe Middle East and is a mode of centring the West.experiences the Other deprived of its Otherness (Borthaiser 2008). Genie falls victim to this. In strippingFrantz Fanon explores the psychological impact of him of his Otherness, his difference is denied, and thecolonialism and its effect on identity. As a result of stage favours a mimicry of Western culture. Maplesdeninternalised inferiority, the colonised try to mimic the claims the heroines to be enamoured with the Americanculture of the coloniser (Pearce 2019). Language is a key Dream (Maplesden 2016: 47) which is made possibilesignifier in communicating this through the westernisationby Genie. The aesthetic of Friend like me contributesof the Genie and the contrast between him and the to the signification of this in presenting a glamourizedmagic carpet, whose silence is significant in presenting stage illuminated with neon red flashing beams whicha hierarchy and enabling the audience to see Genies outline a staircase decorated with large golden glitterycomparative and idealised whiteness. Genies lines are lamps. A line of genies follows Santa Maria down thefull of references to western pop culture such as films. steps outstretching their arms and alternating leg kicks,Santa Maria was given freedom to improvise his own jokes top hat in one hand and cane in the other, dressed in(Boehm 2003) ensuring each performance bears up-to-black tailcoats with sparkly red collars, matching shoesdate references. The nature of this acquires a taste of and bowtie. The prominence of glitter and the colour redmodernity and insight into the constantly evolving culture indicate the glitz and glamour associated with the redthat arises in the current network of the world. Borthaiser carpet. The number ends with a blackout and glimmers ofwrites There is one thing Genie cannot be exceeded in: white light resembling paparazzi flashes. The spotlight onknowledge (Borthaiser 2008). As Foucault discusses, Genie reinforces him as the showman. The nexus of theknowledge comes with power relations:number communicates a homage to cabaresque/Broadway style shows endowed with echoes of the American dreamNot only is discourse always implicated in power, discourse is one of as its familiar grandeur reads as enticing to an Americanthe systems through which power circulates. The knowledge which audience. a discourse produces constitutes a kind of power, exercised over those who are known. When that knowledge is exercised in practice, those Borthaiser discusses how American values are instilledwho are known in a particular way will be subject [] to it. This and framed in the Middle Eastern setting and convey ais always a power relation (Hall 2018: 89)nationalist accent:Despite the origins of the Genie based in Arabic folklore, Disney films represent other cultures as if they could not representand in the storyline of Aladdin Genie is trapped inside themselves - it is Saids remark on the Western interpretations on the lamp in a fictious place in the East for ten thousand the Orient. The West, referring to the central, describes, teaches andyears, the Genies knowledge, as evidenced by his language 29'