Orientalism

Orientalism has clearly made a dent in American society. You see it in movies, TV shows, but also in music. One thing that I can think of that shows itself within it is Katy Perry's music video Dark Horse. The video has everyone dressed in Egyptian or Asian like clothing to represent a certain glamour or exotic fashion. Americans are very fascinated and aroused by different cultures. However, by imitating these cultures' looks and styles, it's almost as if they're poking fun without even knowing it.

Other side of Orientalism

Orientalism thrives on word of mouth. Without the generalizations of the Eastern area of the world, the normalized structured thought would have never been passed down through generations. These structured ideologies of being an “orient” are taught as facts, rather than opinions, which allows the western world to maintain their hierarchy which was created with orientalism. By establishing demeaning traits of these oriental people, the westernized culture has been able to create a prejudice view, of the eastern countries of the world. Modernized technology has created an even larger gap between the western world, and the supposedly inferior eastern countries.

American mass media shows the public the bad stories of the middle east. CNN will show the poor living conditions, and constant fighting of the middle east, which makes Americans believe that it is like that everywhere. These media outlets are doing exactly what Edward Said states about Orientalism, which is the power of turning myths to facts, which fuels the stereotypes of oriental people which should have never been established in the first place. After a trip to Lebanon I was able to understand the outside view of orientalism. When I was there, I noticed that none of my preconceived notions of these people that have always been pushed on me where true. I now understand that the myths of orientalism can be changed just from seeing the viewpoint of the other side. I would still have false understandings of their way of life, and other cultural actions they take, in which western media outlets falsely portray.

Do We Have Any Understanding of the World Besides America?

Orientalism is a self centered mindset that does not allow Westerners to open up their minds to the Middle Eastern region. We believe that living in the Western world gives us authority over the Orient, and contributes to our thinking that Western nations are superior. We need to move past this way of thinking or we will not be able to expand our minds to other viewpoints in the world.

A modern day example that sticks out to me is when 9/11 took place. America rightfully went into a state of panic, but since that day our view of people from the Middle East is that they are all terrorists who are trying to harm America. We generalized one small terrorist group as the entire Middle East, and deemed those people as dangerous and threats to our society. I would say that many Americans have some form of prejudice against people from the Middle East, and when they see someone walking down the street (fully covered up in their clothing)-specify a sense of fear rises in them.

These stereotypes of the people and culture within the Middle East can become very toxic especially when they are portrayed on television shows and movies. Whenever you see a television show that has the Middle East in it, they are always portrayed as the terrorist threat. This constant visual reminder overshadows every wonderful part about their culture and religion that Americans seem to forget about. Everything about their culture seems foreign to us, and we focus on their differences instead of remembering that all of us are human.

I can not imagine being someone from the Middle East living in America, and the stereotypes they have to face everyday. The Western world needs to focus on including everybody, and getting rid of perception that we are the dominating region over the orient.