This film was racist, so racist towards Muslims. Portrayed them like violet, immoral cavedewlers and the american as the beacon of Good. It made me feel sick. The main charcter was creepy towards women, and the women were only portrayed as sexual objects.
For me, This film portrayed a negative, vacuous, ultra-capitalist and xenophobic view of america.
"Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It's contrast."
I'm not American and I think Iron man kicks A$$
shareThis is not a statement that a person who hasn't faced racism can understand or is able to relate to.
Yes, they tried to create a balance in cultures here...yet...this was supposed to be set in Afghanistan (where once again, the villains are Muslim), but they also spoke ARABIC. Afghanis speak a completely different language. So...yes they DID stereotype in the movie, as per usual. Being an Arab-Muslim, it gets me every time but I try to ignore that feeling deep down inside of me -where I am insulted and where I am completely aware that it will feed the racism in our society - and enjoy the movie for what it is.
--I wish people on these boards can have real discussions and not just piss each other off or insult each others grammar. Who started that trend anyways? :)
^This. Afghans do not speak Arabic, we do speak a variety of languages such as Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, etc. But Arabic is not one of them. There are unfortunately many people who do not realize we are not Arab.
I'm an Afghan myself, so I just also want to clarify some misconceptions that people have about Afghanistan. This isn't really specifically directed towards anyone, I'm just speaking in a general sense.
1. Afghans are NOT Arabs. Being brown and/or Muslim is not the same thing as being an Arab.
2. Afghans do NOT speak Arabic. Dari and Pashto are the primary and official languages of Afghanistan, and there are also many other languages that are spoken in Afghanistan such as Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi, Pashayi, etc. However, Arabic is not spoken. Some Afghans may learn Arabic if they're super devout Muslims and want to read the Qu'ran its native language, but other than that it's not spoken.
3. Afghanistan is NOT in the Middle East. It is in between Central Asia and South Asia (Afghanistan's geopolitical lines make it difficult to pinpoint which of these two regions it belongs to). Seriously, I blame the dumbass Bush administration for perpetuating the misconception that Afghanistan is in the Middle East.
4. Not all Afghans are Muslim or even religious. I am an agnostic and I know plenty of other Afghans who are agnostic/atheists as well, we just don't make a huge spectacle about it and prefer to keep it to ourselves.
his was supposed to be set in Afghanistan (where once again, the villains are Muslim), but they also spoke ARABIC. Afghanis speak a completely different language.
Seriously?? I only speak Arabic and English and I actually understood them! That's why I was so shocked that they were supposed to be afghani and yet they spoke Arabic in the movie. Weird! I guess some of those Hindi/Urdu words are similar to the Arabic words??
shareUnlikely. I'm Indian and I don't understand a word of Arabic. Well, maybe a few words here and there but on the whole it's unintelligible to me. Hindi and Arabic have little in common in spoken terms. They were mostly speaking in very simple Hindi which, since I understood it, was kind of a distraction.
shareI thought the whole point of the film was Tony realizing what an idiot he has been his whole life and trying to turn around things for the better at the end. He is supposed to be a jerk in the first half.
share[deleted]
I don't care to touch on the racism parts, but I'd like to comment on the sexism accusation. First, Pepper Pots is one of the strongest characters in the movie. She is brave when the situation demands it, extremely intelligent, and saves Tony's life on many occasions. Not only did she help him install the new arc reactor, but she didn't throw out the old one like he said to. By giving it to him as a gift, she inadvertently saved his life by keeping a backup for him to use when Obadiah removes Tony's reactor; without that, he'd have died. Finally, she helps defeat Obadiah by overloading the huge arc reactor. Considering Tony's suit was pretty beaten up and he was almost out of power, she again saved his life, in addition to killing Obadiah. As for the main female journalist, she confronts Tony about his weapons being in the hands of terrorists, which alerts him to Obadiah's double dealing. If it's sexist to portray one woman as making the choice of her own free will to have sex with a man and for a few women to choose to dance like they did on the plane, then it's sexist to show a man (Tony) being a hard-partying, womanizing boozer who makes compulsive, selfish, self-destructive choices. Neither is sexist however, since the movie shows the main male and female characters as strong and three dimensional.
shareAren't xenophobia and racism the same thing? Kind of discredits the rest of your post
shareRacism is the categorizing of the human race into "races" and believing that certain ones are inferior or superior were as xenophobia is being scared of different races....
So in my post i was saying that the film has categorized Arab as a race and propogating fear and discrimination towards the 'Arab race'
Which is not wrong. That's the reality of the situation. So why are you complaining?
shareFirst, I have to point out what several other people have pointed out in this thread, the terrorist in this movie are never actually specified to be Muslims. So the fact that you all keep arguing that "Muslims were once again portrayed as Terrorists" is actually you all sterotyping and being Racist yourselves. You've assumed a trait that was never actually given. All those terrorists could have been agnostics or atheists like afsana_bahar says he is.
Yes, they tried to create a balance in cultures here...yet...this was supposed to be set in Afghanistan (where once again, the villains are Muslim), but they also spoke ARABIC. Afghanis speak a completely different language. So...yes they DID stereotype in the movie, as per usual.
On the plus side, it means the board isn't full of nutjobs crying about 'The Liberal Agenda' and whatnot. A fair trade-off.
~.~
I WANT THE TRUTH! http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/