Gender and Women StudyHypothetical Letter

Question: Write a hypothetical letter to a relative that explains the meaning and value of Orientalism and Othering, drawing on texts by the following authors:Said, Abu- Lughod, HSU-Ming Teo, and Mikdashi. Focus specifically on gender and sexuality issues. Make sure your letter has a thesis (Your thesis is something that you should be able to defend with clear and sound supporting evidence; therefore, it is best to avoid a thesis that is grandiose, universalist, transhistorical, or overly general). [Note: you may fabricate a relative to convey this knowledge to someone with whom you feel an affinity but who may or may not be aware of the terminologies and politics surrounding it.? Answer: Hope this letter finds you in good health. Recently I have taken an interest in understanding what Orientalism is after coming across the term in a social context. I would like to share my views with you in this letter and would like to express my opinions on a specific aspect related to Orientalism. Orientalism is a common term used by literary, scientists and cultural studies scholars for the representation of features in South Asian, Middle Eastern, South African and East Asian cultures. These are mainly the eastern cultures. The depictions are usually done by the people from the western world. According to Said, Orientalism is the patronising western attitude towards the North African, Middle Eastern and Asian societies. In the analysis taken up by him, he states that the western world essentializes the Eastern societies as emergent and stationary. This fabricates a view of the Oriental culture that can be a good topic for taking up analysis and studies. According to the author, the western society is rational, developed, superior and flexible. Orientalism refers to several things and all of them are interdependent. It is factual that the term of Orientalism is not favoured by specialists today since it is general and indistinct and it denotes the high-handed executive attitu de of the early twentieth century and nineteenth-century European colonisation. Orientalism can be discussed and the analysis of Orientalism can be done in relation to the corporate institution. In short, Orientalism is the western style for robust restructuring (Mikdashi). From my understanding of what Orientalism is and what the main aspects of this term are, I find the matter of gender and sexuality issue as quite interesting and worthy of discussion. In this respect, I have the standpoint that representing, constructing and knowing self and other is reflective of and shaped by the construction of racial difference and gender differences. I would like to justify the standpoint I have. There lie privileges of certain femininities and masculinities attached to racialism. Violence against women are racialised and in this is reflected the differences between us and our world. There crops up a sense of egalitarian in this differences. The logic of orientalism is particularly and inherently gendered. It is moreover refracted through social constructions of what it counts as a difference between man and woman. As logics of othering, Orientalism and gender function side by side to create the world and the people living in it. For example, there lies a distinction between barbaric other men, oppressed Muslim women, and civilised western men. Muslim women have typically been represented as wholly oppressed, functioning as a homogenous other for a range of Western Selves to be defined against. At the same time, such representations render the Other inherently backward and barbaric. The veil in particular has become a central ico n in orientalist discourses that define the experiences of Arab and Muslim women (Abuà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Lughod). In movies of the eastern world, romantic heroes and heroines have set the benchmark for physical traits and casts. Physical traits determine the casting choices have been taken up for distinguishing between hero and villain. Ethnic and racial stereotypes are rigidly fixed and qualities like hair color and skin tone are taken up as the denotions. Blonde women are casted as the pure ones and the brunettes are casted as vamps. Moreover, dark skin implies contamination (Teo). So long fior now. I would like to know what your views and opinions are regarding this subject. Hope to get a reply from you soon. Bye. XX References Abuà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Lughod, Lila. "Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others."American anthropologist104.3 (2002): 783-790. Mikdashi, Maya. "Gay Rights as Human Rights: Pinkwashing Homonationalism."Jadaliyya (ezine), December16 (2011). Said, Edward W. "Orientalism: western conceptions of the Orient. 1978."Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin(1995). Teo, Hsu-Ming.Desert Passions. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012. Print.