Objects of Stereotype

The Objects of Stereotype

Stereotyping is a powerful and potentially devastating mode of understanding. Arguably, stereotypes say more about those in power than those who are being subjugated. Babha writes that the stereotype is a “form of knowledge and identification that vacillates between what is… already known, and something that must be anxiously repeated… that which needs no proof, but can never really, in discourse, be proved” (Babha 95). The fact that stereotypes are based on tiny grains of truth that are elaborated upon and distorted to the point that they become untruths implies that the success of the stereotype largely depends on the ignorance of those in power. The gaps in knowledge about a particular group or ethnicity are just as important as what is known, or thought to be known. These gaps help to perpetuate the mystification surrounding the stereotyped, and uphold the perceived differences between the dominant and the subjugated—differences that are either lauded as civilized and superior or dismissed as primitively inferior.

The values placed on different societies are reflected in the valuing of those societies’ traditions, technologies, and art. For example, the naming of the “fetish” by Dutch merchants was a consequence of encountering the “lesser” West Africans and their ideas about materials that were “uncontrollable objects that burst the bounds of capitalist calculation” (Pels 93). In other words, the fetish was something abnormal and mystifying. In contrast, the Orientalist works by artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme, which depicted “Otherness” in ways that conformed to the dominant stereotypes about the Orient, were accepted and even praised for showing the exotic lifestyle of an inferior culture. Because works like Gérôme’s served to reinforce and perpetuate the ideas of Oriental inferiority and Western superiority, they were valued as objects despite their association with “primitive” and “uncivilized” peoples.

Paintings are an interesting medium for the perpetuating and reinforcing of stereotypes because of their aspects of performance and surveillance. Representational paintings are like windows into another world, or a moment, or a person. Three paintings by Gérôme—The Slave Market, The Moorish Bath, and The Snake Charmer—are telling examples of how Orientalist paintings affirmed the West’s position of the observer and the East’s role as the observed performer. All three paintings depict scenes that take place within enclosed spaces, implying secret places closed off from the rest of the world. It also implies an intimacy, especially the moment depicted in The Moorish Bath, which the Western observer is able to transgress upon. The supposed superiority of Westerners lends them the authority and access into the most private, although largely fictitious, moments of Easterners. At the same time, the painting as a voyeuristic medium also emphasizes the distance between East and West. The observer watches without being a part of the scene—the scene is distant, miniaturized, and manipulated by a Western artist.

These paintings also support notions of Eastern inferiority and Western superiority through their methods of simplification. Instead of portraying the East accurately, and including heterogeneous aspects of the lifestyles, cultures, and peoples, the portrayal is distilled into stereotypical images such as mid-day laziness and hyper-sexuality. Homogenous notions of sexual perversity and social irresponsibility served to justify the West’s belief that the East was in need of colonization and occupation.

Bibliography

Pels, Peter; 1998. “The spirit of matter: on fetish, rarity, fact, and fancy,” in Border fetishisms: material objects in unstable spaces. Patricia Spyer (ed.). New York, Routledge: 91-121.

Bhabha, Homi; 2004. "The other question: stereotype, discrimination and the discourse of colonialism" in The location of culture. London and New York: Routledge, 94-120.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Slave Market, 1867. Oil on canvas. Size 33 3/16 x 24 13/16 inches.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Moorish bath, 1870. Oil on canvas.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, The snake charmer, 1889. Oil on canvas. 33.07 x 48.03 inches