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There are too many of these pages ran by white sapphics* who repost orientalist work cause "omg wlw". It's tiring. Historically, white women played an integral role in objectifying & dehumanizing WOC. 1/?
*before anyone tries it: yes, i checked.
*before anyone tries it: yes, i checked.
European women played a huge part in the way orientalist paintings depicted African & southwest asian women. We all know how male travelers weren't allowed in harems and how they based their paintings on speculation & hearsay. However, this doesn't end there: these accounts 2/
of the harem were recounted by, (ta da!), european women who went on tours to the 'orient'. And yes, the way they described these women was riddled with objectification, dehumanization, fetichization, racism, you name it. Here's one example: 3/
European women didn't stop at spreading these speculations - they actively participated; bringing back home ottoman costumes to 'tantalize' their guests. European performers/actresses capitalized off this, playing the roles of "arabian" beauties for their white male audiences 4/
Why does this matter today? Well, first of all, scroll back to the first slide and you'll see a prime example. But also, white women are still socialized with this kind of imagery; WOC are sexualized younger in cartoons they grew up with (aladin, pocahontas). 5/
Within white sapphic circles, we are still fetichized and dehumanized. Still "preferences". And if those IG pages are anything to go by, too many white women remain blissfully ignorant of their historical role in subjugating WOC. We need them to do better. 6/
A part of this is to listen to us when we try to bring awareness. Because myself and many African/Southwest asian ppl brought this to the page owner's attention and they responded that they, i loosely quote, "want to reclaim the portrayal of women" in an orientalist work. 7/
The post is still up, with an added paragraph on the importance of "encouraging conversation" 
. My apologies if the tools used to colonize and sexualize my people aren't something I'm interested in "discussing", on Instagram of all places. Anyways, that's all. 8/
. My apologies if the tools used to colonize and sexualize my people aren't something I'm interested in "discussing", on Instagram of all places. Anyways, that's all. 8/
Everyone who asks for clarficiation despite me making this as clear as i humanly could is legally obligated to watch this before: https://twitter.com/yimmygee/status/1329666056965787648?s=19
