I think you're shifting the terms of the discussion a bit, and your analogy implicitly engages in reification, through making the analogy between a single individual and millions of people. To use your analogy properly, the real problem would be if your mother's preferences were allowed to stand in for the billions of 'third world' women throughout the world (although the act of negation is also very problematic.)
robert wood
P.S. although I've never been terribly fond of the term 'master narrative', it would be better understood in precisely the opposite terms that you present... that is to say, the person who reads her as the exotic other is the one who is involved in a 'master narrative.'
P.P.S. I also want to acknowledge that this is a really messy problem, and isn't necessarily easy to negotiate. there's some interesting stuff on this by the subaltern studies collective (particularly, Chatterjee and Chakrabarty)
> 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.
>
> --ravi
>
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