Photograph Review: Edward Said’s Orientalism

Edward Said’s Orientalism
As Applied in Photographs
[name]
[school/course]
[professor]
[date]I - INTRODUCTION
II - BODY
III- CONCLUSIONI - INTRODUCTION
Edward Said is a famous Palestinian historian and literary analyst. He was born in 1935 and died in 2003. As a literary professor Said went through many works from the past that had gotten his attention. His close analysis of works from the western people exposed the discriminatory idealism of the eastern countries in the west. Thus, Edward Said coined the term orientalism to refer to the portrayal of the east in the creative and literary works of the west (Behdad, 2010). Siad saw a distinctive portrayal which seemed to define the east, or the "orientals", as the inferior and "lesser" to the west. That is to say that the west would view the east as a savage, less educated, and uncivilized part of the world as compared to the west which is the opposite (thinking, civilized, and well-educated). Orientalism is a kind of lens that looks at western creations, most commonly from the 1800s, and how they picture the people, culture, and practices of the east (Behdad, 2010). In this paper, we will look at the five photographs that depict orientalist idealism. We will point out the elements present in the photograph that suggest orientalist modification of the east. With these elements, we will draw the assumptions and images that the west tried to paint about the east.
II - BODY
Edward Said's orientalism believes that the wester people had a particular belief of what the east looked and acted like. From what we can draw from the introduction, orientalism is the discriminatory portrayal of the eastern side (Behdad, 2010). However, the Muslims and the Arabs were the images that the west used to define eastern people. They believe that the women of the east are the belly dancer and the hijab users (Behdad, 2010). Orientalism sees women of the east as both covering and exposing skin. Also, orientalism generalizes the east as those who hold and manipulate snake, dances to it, and make a profit out of it. They also negatively portray these images as savages and uncultured compared to how the western live and work (DeVito, 2011).
Of the five images we have, three images include women. While there is a distinct portrayal of women from two of the images, one image of a woman depicts a different image. The first solo image of a woman shows her to be wearing a covering that only shows her face. This is the depiction of the wearing of the hijab and other covering of women. It suggests the Arab or Indian image especially when we look at the wrist bangles and the jar she is holding. However, as what her ornament over her forehead suggests. Such ornament is seen among belly dancers as their decorative jewelry. Such decorative elements, like the wrist bangles, can be seen in the second image of a woman who is clearly portrayed as a belly dancer. Here, the woman is in the belly dancer's clothing, dancing to the music of the man's string instrument while sitting at the back.
Let us now look at the third photo of a woman being carried by a man. This picture will explain why the belly dancer image of the eastern women is antagonized in the past in contrast with the western w...