5/9 Said/Maira readings

Said’s article introduces the term orientalism, which seems to be defined as the way in which the West characterizes, or in most cases stereotypes, aspects of the East or Orient.  However I found it interesting that Said argued that Islam and Arabs were hard for the West to explain in terms of orientalism because they were never quite able to appropriate them.  While many of the stereotypes within orientalism paint the East as simply inferior to the West, I think the fact that Islam and Arabs not being appropriated is correlated to the fact that they are both thought of not just as inferior, but having a negative connotation.
While Islam and Arabs were not able to be appropriated, henna, which was explained in Maira’s reading was.  Here, the ideas behind using henna were able to be shifted so it seemed more exotic and mystical somehow due to notable people such as Madonna using them publicly.  This in a way commodified henna, allowing it to be sold to people as indo-chic.

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