Case Study: Tourism, Fashion, and 'The Other'

The idea that struck me the most while reading this case study “Tourism, Fashion, and ‘The Other’” was how little has changed throughout photographic history when it comes to the representation of non-Western countries and people, people of color, and especially women of color. The juxtaposition of the Wild East and the Civilized West is prevalent rhetoric in media even to this day. So often we hear of people who travel to Eastern countries to “find themselves,” or quite literally using these countries as their personal playgrounds before returning back home. It’s not somebody’s home country to many tourists; it is simply a vacation spot for them.

The discussion about fashion, the ‘Other,’ eroticism, and sexuality reminded me very much of Jean-Paul Goude’s recently famous “Break the Internet” photoshoot with Kim Kardashian. In one particular photograph, Kardashian is posed to the side with her backside pushed out, a champagne glass balancing on top, as a bottle of champagne bursts in her hands. This particular image is almost a carbon copy of a photoshoot Jean-Paul Goude did with a Black model earlier in his career, from a book titled Jungle Fever (a proper name for a book that contains nothing but fetishized images of Black women). Furthermore, the bodily proportions of these women very much resemble Saartjie Baartman, better known as the Hottentot Venus, a woman from a South African tribe who was exhibited as a sexual object in freak shows in 19^th century Europe. Baartman was paraded around, jabbed, and caricaturized until her death in 1815, even before the popularization of photography. It is fascinating to me, in a strange way, how the exploitation and sexualization of women of color is so established and accepted, today and throughout history, that criticism of it transcends the public voice and exists primarily only in academics and feminist analyses. Even this particular case study’s language doesn’t seem to denounce this practice; it’s almost as though it’s presenting the facts but not taking a side. To me, though, there’s a pretty clear side to take.