Also it’s not quite the same given the violent colonization and subjugation that went and continues to go along with Orientalism isn’t present in Occidentalism.
The other big difference here is that it’s squishing together surface level aspects of Western cultures. It’s more akin to Westerners places pandas along Japanese cultural aesthetics. Whereas Orientalism was creating things out of whole cloth to reflect Western cultural and political hangups (there’s a reason the obsession with harems and gieshas starts during the Victorian era).
I thought that framing eastern things as though they are reflections of western things is Occidentalizing, and treating them as totally alien and mysterious is Orientalizing, so it’s sort of a spectrum where appropriate behavior is in the middle and the two negative practices are on the extremes. At least, that’s what I was taught, there are probably many different definitions and I admit that it’s not really my field . . .
Exactly, and it’s not like Westerners aren’t familiar with the concept of cultural appreciation without chauvinistic othering and attaching “mystique” qualities to the “Eastern world”, I’m thinking along the lines of Kung Fu Panda and ATLA.
When it comes to anything remotely Arab, Islamic or both, they just can’t help but portray us in the worst way imaginable (e.g. arab/muslim = terrorist, arab/muslim women need to be heroically saved from the “barbarians” of the “Orient” keeping them locked in, every arab is a rich khaleeji with 5 wives and has at least 7 different Ferraris). In typical Western fashion, women in this case are especially targetted by deranged hypersexual, pornographic fantasies from Westerners who don’t understand the role of the abaya in Arab/Muslim culture (or that for a long time it’s been completely normal to not wear one!)
I think I’d labor the point since it’s already been said here in this thread, but Orientalism necessarily exposes the insecurities of Westerners, goes as far as projecting them at times (their accusations = confessions etc…) but at the same time reinforces their superiority complex somehow…
The other big difference here is that it’s squishing together surface level aspects of Western cultures. It’s more akin to Westerners places pandas along Japanese cultural aesthetics. Whereas Orientalism was creating things out of whole cloth to reflect Western cultural and political hangups (there’s a reason the obsession with harems and gieshas starts during the Victorian era).
Yes,good points!
I thought that framing eastern things as though they are reflections of western things is Occidentalizing, and treating them as totally alien and mysterious is Orientalizing, so it’s sort of a spectrum where appropriate behavior is in the middle and the two negative practices are on the extremes. At least, that’s what I was taught, there are probably many different definitions and I admit that it’s not really my field . . .
Exactly, and it’s not like Westerners aren’t familiar with the concept of cultural appreciation without chauvinistic othering and attaching “mystique” qualities to the “Eastern world”, I’m thinking along the lines of Kung Fu Panda and ATLA.
When it comes to anything remotely Arab, Islamic or both, they just can’t help but portray us in the worst way imaginable (e.g. arab/muslim = terrorist, arab/muslim women need to be heroically saved from the “barbarians” of the “Orient” keeping them locked in, every arab is a rich khaleeji with 5 wives and has at least 7 different Ferraris). In typical Western fashion, women in this case are especially targetted by deranged hypersexual, pornographic fantasies from Westerners who don’t understand the role of the abaya in Arab/Muslim culture (or that for a long time it’s been completely normal to not wear one!)
I think I’d labor the point since it’s already been said here in this thread, but Orientalism necessarily exposes the insecurities of Westerners, goes as far as projecting them at times (their accusations = confessions etc…) but at the same time reinforces their superiority complex somehow…