How convincing is Shaheen’s argument about the representations of Arabs in Hollywood films?

Shaheen’s presentations contend that stereotypes do not exist in a vacuum and have an impact on the innocents. He studies portrayals of Arabs and Islam in American media by looking at how Hollywood vilifies people such people. He surveyed more than 900 film appearances of Arabs that include different representations of Arabs. Shaheen found out that seen through Hollywood’s distorted lenses, Arabs look different and threatening. He contends that the movies with the most anti-Arab content are: Rules of Engagement (2000), The Delta Force (1986) Death before Dishonour (1987) and True Lies (1994). He concludes that these films have very disturbing representations of Arabs that influence a negative view of the Arabs and this may lead to people attaining negative attitudes towards Middle Eastern people.

Why do you think that this representation has been so negative over the years?

The attitudes towards Arabs has been negative over the years because of the three historical events such as the oil crisis in 1973, Iranian revolution in 1979 and the Palestinian and Israeli conflict which began in 1967. There have been other recent incidents such as the twin tower (world trade centre) attack in 11 September 2001. These series of events have launched a stereotypical image of Muslims-Arabs portrayed as being terrorists; dangerous and threatening.

Do you agree with Shaheen that these representations are not just entertainment and actually have a serious affect?

These stereotypical representations of Arabs are formed to be part of entertainment to people, but because of the constant negative presentations of Arabs, this has led to people growing and developing negative attitudes towards Arabs. This will have a serious affect on Arabs as it will create a stereotype generalising the whole of Arab and it may also be used often to ridicule and mock the Arabs, Middle Eastern people.