From class today, I remember Mrs. Snyder saying that "a room full of women was very appealing to European men!"
well I thought more about that and found a painting from 1892 by a French artist J.A.D Ingres.
this is a typical or very classical(?) example of how the Europeans romanticized the so-called
"Orient". The room is filled with naked women, who I guess are considered as beautiful in the eyes of the French back in the 1800s, with alluring eyes and postures.
Another example where Orientalism is associated with eroticism can be seen in pornography as Edward Said mentioned in his book. Many people understand of "orientaism" as being "exotic".
I don't believe that "Orient" people associate themselves with being sexual. It is rather the foreigners (Westerners) who defined Orientalism with eroticism and probably the "basic instinct and desires............"
1 comment:
Obviously from the number of pictures people have posted expressing the sexual or exotic ways of the orientalism, this is how it is viewed by many (Westerners). As Sun mentioned, this would have attracted men. It is hard to tell if it just Westerners who think and depict Oriental women like so, or if oriental women think of themselves in this way as well. I agree with Sun when she says that she does not think that Oriental people associate themselves with being sexual, but it may have come about from the way they are depicted.
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