Hollywood rescue narratives served colonial white-masculinity discourse

Evidence

Hollywood Easterns often feature a white victim who is threatened or violated by a Muslim villain and eventually is rescued by a white hero. In addition to the obvious appeal of the rescue narrative, these films are examples of colonial and neo-colonial discourse, communicating the need for white masculinity to save the day. This theme is not limited to Muslim lands. According to the colonial narrative, the entire world needs the West: Not only has the Western imaginary metaphorically rendered the colonized land as female to be saved from her environ/mental disorder, it has also given prominence to more literal narratives of rescue specifically of Western and non-Western women-from polygamous Arabs, libidinous Blacks, and macho Italians. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 616

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s established sacrificial-kingship and self-image-of-Western-rescuer thread — white saving power as the flip side of the manufactured monster.