Queering Disney: Princess Jasmine's Animal Romance With her Tiger pet Rajah

This is a section of an academic essay that I wrote for my MA Musical Theatre (producer), and I have decided to queer Princess Jasmine and Rajah. I personally find their animal-human romance quite interesting and it is a nice continuation of my last blog about the queer aspects in"The Shape of Water". Hope you guys enjoy it :D

"Animal-human romance is not new in American literature. As noted by critic Kuzniar, Rosalyn Drexler’s "Cosmopolitan Girl" and Margaret Kemp Ross’s "I Married a Dog" are examples of parodying heteronormative marriage with the theme of bestiality, and they both raise questions about what constitutes an appropriate marital-sexual relationship: “if romantic attraction is ordinarily expressed as fascination with a mysterious someone of the opposite sex, Kemp Ross and Drexler seem to ask, why cannot this someone be of an opposite species?” (Kuzniar "I Married My Dog: On Queer Canine Literature", 206). In other words, animal-human romance might be more common and less controversial than we thought. As Jasmine often shows signs of affection towards Rajah like petting, cuddling and snuggling, her behaviours challenge the hazy boundary between animal kinship and bestiality, and her affection towards Rajah can be seen as queer as it reorients the ideas of love and romance from the heteronormative understanding of coupling. Acknowledging the potential animal-human romance can continue the work of queer studies as it deconstructs the seemingly inflexible categories of species.

In the imaginary, orientalist world of Agrabah, Jasmine, as a heterosexual female princess, is expected to marry a prince as it is stated in the law of Agrabah. Therefore, the Sultan, Jasmine’s father, wants to find a suitable prince for Jasmine’s marriage. He explains to Jasmine, “It’s not only this law. I am not gonna be around forever and I just want to know you’re taken care of” (“Aladdin”). According to what the Sultan says, the presence of a masculine, patriarchal figure is preferred in the Agrabah’s heteronormative society, and marriage to heterosexual women is a sign of security both socially and financially. In other words, the heteronormative marriage in Agrabah can be seen as the husband taking over the father’s responsibility of looking after a woman, and the presence of a masculine figure is necessary to a heterosexual female.

What the Sultan fails to notice is that Jasmine has always been accompanied by a masculine figure, only it is not a human but a tiger pet, Rajah. If we follow Butler’s argument of performativity, gender and sexuality are socially constructed and animals should not have a gender due to their lack of agency and the “gender scripts” available for them. However, personifying Rajah allows the animal to transgress the category of species and, consequently, genderises Rajah. For instance, the name Rajah is already performative, as “Rajah” means “Indian prince or king”. Giving Rajah a male name makes the animal’s body a site where regimes of masculine discourses are inscribed. Therefore, even though Rajah is an animal, it can still be seen as the rhetorical presence of a masculine figure due to his masculinised, personified characterisation.

The role of Rajah, as a masculine figure, seems to be Jasmine’s “substitute husband”, as his primary role is to accompany and protect Jasmine. For instance, when Jasmine is set up for a blind date with Prince Achmed, Rajah rips Prince Achmed’s trousers, which makes him stomp out of the palace and allows Jasmine to avoid marrying Prince Achmed. Another example is, when Jasmine is upset about the arranged marriage with Jafar, Rajah accompanies Jasmine and shows empathy towards her situation. However, when Jasmine falls in love with Aladdin, it seems that she no longer needs Rajah’s company, and Rajah does not appear in the latter half of the movie. These pertinent illustrations show that Rajah is no different from a caring husband, which Jasmine and the Sultan have always wanted, and what prevents Rajah from being acknowledged as a legitimate life-long companion is his physical body of a tiger. Therefore, when Jasmine meets Aladdin, Rajah is immediately replaced, which marks the end of this animal-human romance.

From a rhetorical perspective, Rajah could also be interpreted as the doubling of Jasmine. If so, Jasmine’s affection for Rajah transgresses not only the species boundary but also the boundary between “self” and “others”. In other words, Jasmine’s animal-human romance is a metaphor of her self-love or, to put it in a queerer way, her autoromanticism and autosexuality. The correlation between Jasmine and Rajah is suggested when Jafar calls Jasmine "pussycat" (“Aladdin”), a misogynistic, derogatory term. While Jafar attempts to use this term to transform Jasmine into a sex object, his description draws a parallel to another “cat” in the movie, Rajah; which ironically “masculinises” and empowers Jasmine. In addition, Rajah always echoes Jasmine’s emotions. For example, when Jasmine is upset about marrying Jafar, so is Rajah; when Jasmine is annoyed at “Prince Ali’s” arrogance, so is Rajah. Rajah seems to be a mirror of Jasmine but in the disguise of a masculine animal figure. Therefore, Jasmine’s animal-human romance can be seen as a rhetorical depiction of her autoromanticism and autosexuality. Such “self-love” is Jasmine’s queer response to heteronormative oppression and a way to avoid any unwanted marriage.

The doubling makes Jasmine a complex of queerness, as the character has the multiplicity of masculinity, femininity, heterosexuality, bestiality, autoromanticism and autosexuality. This shows that Jasmine is a nexus of any possible gender and sexual qualities, and the deconstruction of her gender and sexuality shows that Jasmine’s gender and sexual identity is fluid and dynamic which defies any categorisation."