Post-colonialism: final blog tasks

1) Summarise the three theorists we have looked at: Alvarado, Fanon and Said.

Fanon: 'putting on the white mask'

Alvarado:humorous/exotic/pitied/dangerous

Said: Exotic East vs Superior West

2) Watch the opening of Yasmin (2004) again. Does it offer a positive or negative view of British Muslims? To what extent does it reinforce or challenge Edward Said's theory of Orientalism - that the west is superior to the exotic or uncivilised east?

The opening of the film Yasmin offers a mixture of views regarding Said's theory of orientalist. The vandalism on the door shows the ideology that the west is superior. Furthermore we see how the character Yasmin has to change the way she looks in order to fit into society- when shes at home she wears a headscarf and is covered whereas when she leaves to go work she changes into jeans and doesn't wear a headscarf. In the pub she was stared at due to the fact that was a pakistani woman in a pub full of white people and was later pulled over by police which we can assume was due to the fact that she was wearing a headscarf. This is suggested to be a regular occurrence as before she was asked anything she already had a list of things to say which indicated she knew what was going to be asked anyway. On the other hand, we see the two men seemingly of retirement age still working, suggesting that they are hardworking and the film is from the perspective of Yasmin which potentially offers a challenge to the negative views of British Muslims as we are not sewing issues such as racism in a positive light.