Hollywood and Wicked Other: The Identity Formation of “Western Us” Versus “Muslim Others”

Abstract

An image on a screen can produce a greater effect than thousands of words in conveying a message and in popular culture, movies with images as a representation, create a discourse. Out of many, Hollywood which has become a flagbearer of western cinema, plays an important role in constructing identity and images including the stereotyping of Muslims. This paper attempts to identify the discourse of ‘US’ verses ‘THEM’ through Hollywood and in which ways Hollywood has constructed the stereotypical identity of Muslims. The main research question is whether the stereotyping of Muslims in Hollywood is a result of 9/11 global terrorism or has it been shaped by the historical discourse of western orientalism. The case study method has been employed to derive the insights of the discourse with the theoretical lights of Orientalism. A number of Hollywood movies have been cited to validate the identity formation process led by Hollywood in pre and post 9/11 American society and illustrate how the image has been used by Hollywood to construct ‘US’ verses ‘THEM’ in popular culture. This paper argues that Hollywood has depicted Muslims as barbaric, wicked others as a result of the civilizational mission of the West, orientalism and post 9/11 Hollywood cinema advocate these roots, yet with 9/11 Hollywood cinema plays a pivotal role in the securitization of ‘Muslim others’ and politicize Muslims as a threat to western society by stereotyping Muslim society in a post 9/11 epoch.