Orientalism behind the curtains

Cultural appropriation I dream of Jeannie



Today I wanted to discuss cultural appropriation in one of the most famous series of its time i.e I dream of Jeanie.

I Dream of Jeannie was written by Sidney Sheldon from 1965-70. The show is about American astronaut Major Nelson, who accidentally rescues a genie after finding her magical bottle on a deserted island. Although Nelson sets Jeannie free, she immediately falls in love with him and chooses to stay with her new “master.”

It was one of the most viewed series of its time and was also nominated for an Emmy. And even today ‘I dream of Jeannie’ attracts many viewers.


But sadly, the show was full of stereotypes and showed negative versions of Arabs and Muslims. One survey that was conducted on the show by Katherine bullock shows that Muslims are most often offended by the show whereas the Non-Muslims didn’t notice any negative stereotyping.

So what were the stereotypes in “I dream of Jeannie”?

Scholars have stated that early Hollywood representations of Arabs/Muslims starting with The Sheik in 1921, and continuing to the present day, have leaned towards exotic and barbaric. scholar Jack Shaheen found that of 1,000 movies made from 1896 to 2000, only 12 contained positive representations of Arabs and Muslims.


“I dream of Jeannie” has depicted Arabs and Muslims dressed in turbans, bloomers with waist sashes, bare-chested with bolero jackets, or in flowing robes Whereas the women were portrayed in “harem” outfits. Whereas in Real life the harem of the house was simply the women’s quarters, where women would wear regular clothes. This is a classic example of Cultural Appropriation.

I Dream of Jeannie appropriates Arab/Muslim men as barbaric and their women as submissive. It also portrays the harem women as highly sexualized. This is one of the worst offensive stereotypes. Unfortunately, while most producers no longer consider stereotypes of other ethnic groups as entertaining or acceptable, exotic and barbaric Arab/Muslims remain normalized.

Most aspects of production in I Dream Of Jeannie call on and produce this limited set of orientalist stereotypes.

‘I dream of Jeannie’ exemplifies orientalism. She is a genie dressed as the Hollywood harem girl: a skimpy, rib-high top, see-through bloomers, and a pink gauze veil floating down from a bun on the top of her head.

Research shows that most watchers of the show who are not Muslim or Arab are not likely to notice anything wrong. Thus, if nothing is wrong, they can easily and unconsciously absorb offensive representations of Arabs/Muslims.

This will make tackling real-world discrimination difficult.