Seeming unusual, interesting, or exciting because it comes from a distant or foreign place. It can also describe plants, animals, or styles that are not native to a region.
From Latin *exoticus*, from Greek *exōtikos* meaning ‘from outside’, from *exō* (‘outside’). It originally just meant ‘foreign’, without the modern sense of glamour or beauty.
Calling something ‘exotic’ often reveals more about the viewer than the thing itself—it means ‘far from me,’ not ‘far from everyone.’ What feels exotic in one culture can be completely ordinary in another.
“Exotic” has a long history in colonial and orientalist discourse, used by Europeans to describe people, cultures, and especially women from colonized or non‑Western regions as alluring, strange, and other. It has often sexualized women of color and reduced them to aesthetic or erotic objects rather than full subjects.
Avoid calling people, their bodies, or their cultures “exotic,” as it others and often sexualizes them. Describe specific qualities instead (e.g., “spiced,” “vibrant,” “rare,” “unfamiliar to me”) and center people’s own names and identities.
["unfamiliar to me","rare","unusual","distinctive","vibrant","diverse"]
Women from colonized and racialized communities have repeatedly critiqued the term “exotic” for its role in fetishizing and dehumanizing them; amplifying their language and self‑descriptions respects their agency over how they are represented.
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