Jackets, Jeans, and Jasmine

It's always been a staple of my life to lose various items, in fact one basketball season in Junior High I lost three pairs of shoes in one season. My reputation seems to have followed me to Jordan and over spring break I lost my jacket at a farm I was volunteering at. When I got back to Amman, I realized that the weather still required me to have a jacket, which meant that it was time to finally face the markets downtown.

I met my friend Aaron downtown for our shopping extravaganza on a Saturday. Down town is full of shops upon shops upon shops. There's big shops, street vendors, back alley shops, food shops, shoe shops, jewelry shops, dress shops, dessert shops, and shops containing things I don't know how to describe. In these shops you'll find thousands of people milling about looking through the plethora of options presented before them.

I had been to downtown once before, during our orientation week, and I hadn't really gotten to experience it in all of its glory. The sheer amount of stores gave me a lot of chances to buy a jacket, but since I had made my friend with me I decided to take him through the agony of walking past multiple shops with perfectly acceptable jackets. I was on a quest to find a jacket that gave me the looks of Arnold Schwarzenegger with the cost of a thrift store.

After getting Aaron sprayed with cologne from a street vendor and taking the time to explore alley shops and gawk at street vendors I finally found my jacket. I bought it for the cool price of twenty dinars, a price good enough for me to overlook the fact that I don't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger when wearing it.

If Aaron would have had his way while shopping, we would have found a nice denim jacket for me, but I reserve denim as a material exclusively for jeans. In the orientation packet I received before coming here I was told that most people here didn't wear jeans to school, and that was going to be a big shift for me. I went out and bought a couple pairs of khaki pants so I didn't end up being the odd one out at school. I have since learned that most people here wear jeans to school. On the days I come to school in Khakis I'm usually one of a handful of students doing so. When I think back to my pre departure now I think it's funny how worried I was about what pants I would be wearing here in Jordan. I was focused on not standing out because I was wearing jeans to school. In fact the gray jacket that I lost during my trip made me stand out much more than a pair of jeans ever has. There are lots of big and little things you learn once you get to the place you're going, and often times it's something as simple as what jackets and jeans people where.

On top of not encountering many people who wear khakis to school here, I have also yet to encounter Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. Admittedly, I'm a huge sucker for Disney movies. I have fond memories of watching them with my sisters growing up, and I've spent some summers belting out Disney songs while washing dishes at a camp. Despite this soft spot, I also have to recognize Disney doesn't necessarily have the best record when it comes to how it portrays characters. The movies I watched growing up portray princesses with unrealistic body types, had songs with racist messages, and often times only offered single perspectives of non-white characters.

I don't think Disney ever intended their productions to be representative of entire cultures or populations, but when the only movie you've ever seen with a person from the Middle East is Aladdin, it's hard to picture anything else. As I've grown up I've left behind my stereotype of princesses with tigers and lamps with genies, but they aren't the only problems with what happens in Aladdin. Just about every character in the story who isn't the Sultan, Jasmine, the Genie, or Aladdin have over exaggerated features making them look not too appealing. Not only are they ugly on the outside, but many of them are rude or gritty. I think of big bodied men who are ready to chop off others hands, or Jafar and his scheming ways.

I don't think many people believe that the story Aladdin portrays the real world in any way, but it can still be distressing to think that somebody at some point and time made the active choice to give these characters their characteristics. It's in situations like this that I have to remind myself of how different a world can look when you're there. Whether it's putting on jeans or watching Disney movies, being here serves as a great reminder of how great it can be to get to know people for who they are, instead of how they're portrayed.