exoticisation
Romanticizing the unfamiliar
Exoticisation is the act of making something or someone seem exotic—foreign, unusual, alluringly different.
The term typically carries critical weight, suggesting that the portrayal emphasizes otherness in ways that are reductive or objectifying: the exoticisation of Asian women in Western media, tourism's exoticisation of indigenous cultures.
Also spelled exoticization.
Interest in Eastern aesthetics
- fetishizationIrrational reverence for something
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- primitivismIdealization of pre-modern life
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
tokenism · cultural tourism · noble savage · ethnic chic · nativism · cultural capital · mystification
Denying personhood to others
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- stereotypingOversimplified group-based judgments
- caricatureExaggerated comic depiction
- typecastingAssigning actors similar roles
pigeonholing · oversimplification · generalization · misrepresentation · racialization · cliché · reductionism · essentializing
Attractive, tempting quality
- mystiqueAura of fascination
- fascinationIntense absorbed interest
- idealizationRegarding as perfect
- enchantmentMagical influence over someone
fantasy · escapism · glamorization · enticement · charm · novelty · sensationalism · mythologizing
State of being isolated
- exclusionBeing barred from participation
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
- stigmatizationMarking as disgraceful
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
racism · colonialism · paternalism · ethnocentrism · prejudice · scapegoating · ghettoization · infantilization
orientalism
Interest in Eastern aesthetics
- fetishizationIrrational reverence for something
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- primitivismIdealization of pre-modern life
othering · tokenism · cultural tourism · noble savage · ethnic chic · nativism · cultural capital · mystification
dehumanization
Denying personhood to others
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- stereotypingOversimplified group-based judgments
- caricatureExaggerated comic depiction
typecasting · pigeonholing · oversimplification · generalization · misrepresentation · racialization · cliché · reductionism · essentializing · flattening
allure
Attractive, tempting quality
- mystiqueAura of fascination
- fascinationIntense absorbed interest
- idealizationRegarding as perfect
enchantment · fantasy · escapism · glamorization · enticement · charm · novelty · sensationalism · mythologizing · wonderment
alienation
State of being isolated
- exclusionBeing barred from participation
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
- stigmatizationMarking as disgraceful
xenophobia · racism · colonialism · paternalism · ethnocentrism · prejudice · scapegoating · ghettoization · infantilization · patronization
exoticisationnormalisation
Making something standard
domestication · familiarisation · demystification · assimilation · mainstreaming
exoticisationidentification
Establishing who someone is
self-recognition · universalization · humanization · commonality · kinship