Illustration of Edward Said, by Allyssa Etoile.

Illustration of Edward Said by Allyssa Etoile.

PART V: ORIENT-ERTAINMENT

The spectacle of brown bodies.
Edward Said is goals. The academic basically shut it down with his book Orientalism (1978) in which he delivers the call out of the century, aimed at Western representations of the Eastern world (’spesh Middle East) for terrible representations of their people and ways of life. These renderings of people as uncivilized, weak, and irrational in literature and images (see: “The Snake Charmer” by Jean-Léon Gérôme) justified colonial and imperial interests in the Middle East and Asia. So much of what he describes in Orientalism are classic examples of columbusing, aka the thrill of discovering something that already existed and then establishing that “discoverer” as a guru and storyteller of that place, artifact, or people. He was like, “Who are y’all to be spinning a web of lies, calling them our stories, and controlling our people with them?” Respect!

PART VI: TODAY’S GAZECHANGERS

Illustration of Luna by Allyssa Etoile.

Illustration of Queen of Luna by Allyssa Etoile.

From 1978 to infinity! Here are some people smashing Orientalism with their creative practice.

I have to give love to yung hijabi makeup artist extraordinaire Saraswati aka Queen of Luna for breathing life into my Instagram feed. Circling back to those brain nuggets on Orientalism, hijabi women are often perceived as…any number of crappy things I don’t need to give airtime to! Enter: A woman who uses her face as a canvas for miraculous displays of painterliness and explorations of visual effects. She’s super inspired by DC and Marvel comics, and sees makeup as a way to escape reality.