Response 17: "Orientalism Now"

“Moreover, the Eastern travelers in the west were there to learn from and to gape at an advanced culture; the purposes of the Western travelers in the Orient were, as we have seen, of quite a different order” (533). This statement suggests that while Said recognizes that the West is not in awe of Eastern cultures, he also does not seem to approve of the high regard in which the East holds the West; this can be seen particularly in the phrasing “gape at an advanced culture”. The term gape (instead of admire, aspire to etcetera) especially seems to point towards that hint of disapproval. This disapproval of not only the West, but also the passivity of the East is further implied in the statement: ““For a number of reasons the Orient was always in the position both of outsider and of incorporated weak partner for the West” (535).

Said disapproves of the almost blind adoration that the East held of the West despite the fact that “The Oriental was linked thus to elements in Western society (delinquents… women, the poor) having in common an identity best described as lamentably alien” (535). Perhaps it can even be observed that the Oriental was not just linked to elements that were seen as lesser but perhaps the Oriental was held in an even lower regard by the West than how it regarded women, the poor etcetera.  

“Orientals were rarely seen or looked at; they were seen through, analyzed not as citizens, or even people, but as problems to be solved or confined or—as the colonial powers openly coveted their territory—taken over…since the Oriental was a member of a subject race, he had to be subjected: it as that simple” (535). While the Oriental was taken over, the Oriental was also “rarely seen or looked at” and that “in discussions of the Orient, the Orient is all absence” (535). For the West, women may not have been as much of a threat because for example, during the Victorian era the trend of becoming ill and fragile perhaps subdued female observations of patriarchal structures. Women were perhaps also the weaker binary in the male/female binary hierarchy, and had been for a long time. In addition, “Orientalism itself, furthermore, was an exclusively male province…This is especially evident in the writing of travelers and novelists: women are usually the creature of a male power-fantasy. They express unlimited sensuality, they are more or less stupid, and above all they are willing” (535).

Perhaps one reason that the Orient was regarded as even lesser than these alien identities was because of the threat the Orient possessed through ownership of land and resources that the West coveted. Perhaps it was also less threatening to the West that the weaker binary in the East/West binary hierarchy to possess these desired resources.