cultural (& sexual) misunderstandings, or: occidentalism...

I was recently invited to a Latin American-themed dinner party in Tokyo. There were a couple of Latin American men there, among a vast majority of locals, but I was the only non-Asian woman present.

It didn't take me long to realise that virtually everybody at the party saw me as a clichéd "representative" of something - whether of some sort of Latin American femaleness, or of "the" quintessential Mediterranean woman (whatever that is...). I assume the pigeonholing stemmed not only from my national origin and native language - actually the main reason why I was invited - but from my looks.

My "sexy" persona was seemingly expected not only to chat, laugh, dance & sing raucously, but also to gracefully respond to the various... er... rather unsubtle advances from sticky old farts that inevitably shower on you on these occasions.

Forced by the constraining social circumstances to be a good sport while keeping the necessary, safe distance, I couldn't help musing, half amused and half upset, on the irony of the situation. That is to say, of being the object of openly sexist "occidentalism" (or shall I say "Latin-Americanism", or perhaps "Mediterraneanism"?) among people - and esp. women - who have been considered the quintessential victims of... orientalism. Precisely.

I have neither the time nor the patience to elaborate on the topic, which doesn't really interest me at all (and in fact deeply annoys me), but I must state, well, the obvious: whatever their manifestations, these -isms are based on sheer ignorance and, therefore, on sweeping and unacceptable generalisations. Only because your looks slightly resemble certain images of "the" voluptous brunette, you are automatically devoid of an intellect and become a sluttish pair of tits & legs, bah...

Unfortunately, the stereotype recurs in this country - often unwittingly among intelligent people who should know better, alas - no matter how hard you try to drive the point home: that you are not Latin American but European; that you are not even strictly "Mediterranean", but just happen to have been born in a country that has received a considerable influx of Mediterranean influences over the centuries, alongside loads of other Northern and Atlantic influences, for that matter; that Brazilian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, etc., women are all different from each other and do not all fit the "tart", "hag", "goddess", and-so-on-and-so-on clichés which only serve to insult and abuse women; that not all women who happen to be curvy and brunette are sultry tango or salsa dancers (!); that people - women and men - all have distinct personalities & idiosyncrasies, which more often than not have little or nothing to do with "national" euphoric types.

While abhorring victimology, I cannot but fiercely oppose these vilifying forms of reducing women to national and sexual caricatures. It seems that we'll never get rid of the good ol' dichotomies & misundertandings - and that they are here to stay, under ever-changing guises and manifestations. Sad.