Stockton's arguments were realistic, I could see where he was coming from, but I couldn't really find where he was making any new statements. Everything he said was, pretty obvious, from the cartoon references, to the similarities between stereotypes. The Camel cigarrette part was interesting, but again, marketing has always been a major part of clichés. Stereotypes have been implied to be negative, wrong, and part of an agenda. Although the part with the GI Joe punching the Arab could have been correlated to Indiana Jones shooting the Arab in well, one of those movies...

I think that stockton's theory is pretty well stated. he discusses how in the past the first sort of perception of black people by westerners was one of "beast-like" etc. and how jews were viewed as an "introverted" and as the "source for social disorder" etc. This is very similar stereotyping that occured with arabs. The images/perception westerners have of arabic people have been greatly effected by certain people and situations (crusades, ottoman empire--saddam hussein and osama bin laden).the portrayal of the latter two in the media today definitely bolsters stockton's theory. The images of these men are shown in a particular manner, different from the way in which terrorists/dictators from other countries would be depicted.

I also had difficultly with Stockton taking the big lip- big nose thing for granted. I think it wass mostly just established over time by white Europe's hatred of the other and dark skinned people in general. The asspect of sexual depravity and uber-libido that is a common thread (along with dirtyness) in pan-racial stereotyping I think comes less from a fear of sexual assualt than from a weird combination of fantasy, impotence and an established fear and loathing of miscengeration(sp?). However, as this has become by research paper topic i have come across a few things that may be relevant. I would recommend visting AK comics web site. Ak is a comic book company based in Cairo and has " all Middle Eastren super hereos" It is interesting more many reasons, but I paid most attention to the character of Jalila, the buxsom defender of the city of all faiths. I find it intriguing that although Jalila challanges ALOT of stereotypes about Middle Eastren women, she is visually portrayed in the conventional American female super hero style. That is, she is as much action hero as sexual fanastsy object.

also never ever use webspace for anything important!!! webspace= sad

To a certain extent Stockton is right when he mentions a probable reason for the emergence of these images of Arabs . He states that most of the views that Americans/Europeans have concerning Arabs is as a result of the thousand year conflict between the Europeans and the Crusades and the Ottoman empire. Since there was already a 'system' in place stereotyping "Brutish" Africans, and "habitual [Jewish] murderers" it was much easier to assign the now hated "brutes" that category as Stockton noted, "Once in place, images can be delibrately exploited in multitudes...."
Something he fails to state clearly is the reason for the emergence of the stereotypes about Africans. I agreed with Stockton's theory until the conclusion, "The cost of hostile images". He answers the question he posed about why it might be alright to have stereotypical assumptions about "foreign or alien peoples, especially those from regions with whom our nation may have tense relations". It might seem natural to want to assume, in this case, negative stereotypes about people one has tense relations with but that is not a solution to the problem.
Not sure if this counts but there was an episode of "Without a Trace" where a certain Arab-American Doctor was innocently killed because a nurse misread an argument with a fellow Arab as a possible bomb threat.

Stocktons illustrates his argument well, although I didn't find the correlation between different group stereotypes as evidence that they were necessarily transferred antecedents. It seemed rather that these were just generally duplicitous and negative basic themes which served as a consistent stock; there isn't too much room for describing negative characteristics, so many stereotyped groups could easily and logically in enough time be portrayed with similar characteristics. As for big lips and noses, these physical traits are specifically easy to attach to an other, Mr. Potato Head stereotyping if you will, and therefore serve as group identifiers. Moreover, considering earlier prevalent ideas of physiognomy, such characteristics could be construed as primitive and bestial..."What big teeth the Arabs have! All the better to eat you with!" In a way, exaggerated physical features also negate mental aspects, or at least dwarf them. I thought it was interesting that certain positive or suspected hero Arab figures in the article had a more western appearance. For example, El Rachmi on page 371 who had been a supposed ally is light, lacks significant facial hair, and does not have an abdsurd nose. This seems something of a trend -whenever an exception is needed for a stereotyped group, it generally reflects the dominant group appearance. The 'harem girls' follow this trend as well, enforcing the dominant group tale of Arab sexuality revolving around preference for other women since their own were not as suitable.

I agree with most of what Stockton states, his theory seems well supported and he presents it clearly. I agree especially with the links he draws between Jews, blacks and Arabs as far as sexual depravity because I have heard many times before that black men preferred white women and were seen as a sexual threat to white women. For Jews, the Nazi propaganda created so many negative connations about Jews that I have no doubt that they presented Jews as sexual preditors as well. As far as Arabs following this pattern, many people associate Arads with bellydancers and women being covered and forced to obey men, which would fit into this idea of sexual depravity. I thought his weakest arguement was the hatred of Israel, because, first of all, there isn't a strong connection between black prejudice and hatred of Israel, but also I would argue that hatred of Israel isn't such a universal sign of evil as one of his other examples, like sexual depravity, as I mentioned before, or deceit. I think Stockton has a good arguement but that he stretches it a little far.
Saddam and Bin laden fit into the Arab stereotypes that Stockton mentions. They are displayed certainly with the exagerated physiological traits Stockton talks about, they are presented naturally as deceitful and having secret power, two more of Stockton's stereotypes. certainly the war theme runs throughout stereotypical images of Saddam and Bin Laden, and the savage creature section in Stockton's writing prevails in these images as well, so all in all they do match up to Stockton's assessment of Arab stereotypes.
So I thought it was rather funny that when I went to look up Arab images on google, the very first hit is a characture of an Arab man, in the white robes with the sandals, headress bushy beard and pulling back his robes to reveal a knife. Another humorous thing I found while looking for Arab images was that if you search for Arab actors (I was trying to find films) and go to www.arabbay.com, the "most popular superstar in the Arab world" and the celebrity of the month is Arab, yet she has dyed blond hair, her skin is set in light that makes it appear completely caucasion, she is wearing American clothes and if I didn't know she was Arab, I would not have guessed. Way to represent the Arab world! I guess that has to do with wanting to look American and be fit for Hollywood superstardom. Anyway, thought those two were funny anecdotes.
-Lucy

I find Stockton’s argument very convincing because he uses a collection of archives (a broad survey of racial stereotyping dating back to the Middle Ages) to support his theory of image and generalized theme transfer. Though Stockton’s methodology appears to be based on empirical findings, my only objective criticism is that he interprets the symbolic meaning of the images using loosely defined criteria of what constitutes negative imagery (I don’t object at all to his interpretations, and I also cannot cohesively define WHY big lips or prominent noses have been stigmatized and correlated with ‘pestilent members of social order’ or “inverts”).

On another note, and perhaps this isn’t novel to everyone, but I found Stockton’s conclusive statement resonant. The function of stereotyping is to implicitly define the morally elevated ideals of “we” by defining what we are not, which is the “other”, indicating more about ourselves (though not positively) than those we stereotype.

Just to see what was floating out there, I googled images of “arabs”, and I found no shortage of offensive caricatures. You will see, despite your political persuasion, that in the first link, Arabs are depicted consistently with Stockton’s analysis as violent:

http://www.science.co.il/Arab-Israeli-conflict/cartoons/lurie_israel_wal...

On the next link, focus on the correlation the cartoon artist attempts to draw between character weakness (lying, violence etc) and physical features (monstrous lips, rat-like teeth, asymmetrical eyes, curved nose and flabbiness):

http://www.wittyworld.com/images/Editorial%20Political%20Images/Middle%2...

-Sarah