>
> On Jun 29, 2009, at 4:22 PM, ravi wrote:
>
> BTW, let me take this opportunity to reiterate that Doug's use of the word
>> "exoticize" is best applied reflectively. It assumes such a universality of
>> his viewpoint that suggesting others might have a different one is an act of
>> exoticising them. So, if my brown "third world" woman mother has certain
>> preferences, say when it comes to bathing attire, that do not gel with what
>> the West prefers, then she is exoticising herself. There is even a term for
>> this I think: "master narrative". Perhaps she exoticises herself by buying
>> into the master narrative that she is inferior.
>>
>
> This is twisted beyond all recognition. If people don't want to wear
> bikinis, it's their own damn business. If they want to wear burkas, ditto. I
> prefer bikinis to burkas, but that's me. What annoys me no end is the
> assumption that many Iranians don't want to wear bikinis, or short of that,
> wouldn't like to be free of scarves etc. when walking in public, and that
> those desires to be free of enforced modesty are somehow elitist or
> frivolous. To assume that many Iranians don't want "Western" pleasures is
> what's exoticizing.
Who has claimed that such people don't exist or aren't real Iranians? All I see is the claim that if and when people have priorities that rate higher than the possession of liberal freedoms, it's not necessarily because they're insane.