Aladdin x The Manichean Allegory

We can show you the world…of the pervasive colonialism in nostalgic Disney movies! In this episode, Marcelle and Hannah talk all about the Disney classic Aladdin. With the help of Abdul JanMohamed’s manichean allegory—an aspect of Orientalist literature—Marcelle leads us through a conversation that digs into the history of the “Disney vault,” the American values implicit in the movie, the relationship between exploitation and representation, and much, much more!

Whether you remember renting the movie on VHS from your local video store or you first watched Aladdin on streaming, this episode is for you.

Related listening:

Pirates of the Caribbean x American Exceptionalism

Barbie x Petro-Capitalism

Sweet Potato Fries x Food Imperialism

Witch, Please: Book 1, Ep. 2 | Orientalism

Works Cited:

“Aladdin (1992 Disney Film).” Wikipedia. 2 June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(1992_Disney_film)#. Accessed 3 June 2026.

Cunningham, Andrew. “The Ultimate Collectors Guide To Disney VHS Tapes.” Our Departure Board. March 20, 2025. https://www.ourdepartureboard.com/blog/disney-vhs-ultimate-guide. Accessed 3 June 2026.

“Disney Vault.” Wikipedia. 23 April 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Vault. Accessed 3 June 2026.

JanMohamed, Abdul R. “The Economy of Manichean Allegory: The Function of Racial Difference in Colonialist Literature.” Critical Inquiry 12, no. 1 (1985): 59–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343462.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. Vintage, 1979.

“VHS.” Wikipedia. 2 June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS. Accessed 3 June 2026.

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To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode!

Material Girls is a show that makes sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.

*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both.

Music Credits:

“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020

Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.

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