An alternative term for exoticism; the practice of being attracted to or emphasizing exotic or foreign things.
From exotic + the suffix -ism, providing a shorter alternative form to exoticism. Both forms emerged during periods of increased cross-cultural contact.
Exotism in fashion shows how Western designers constantly 'borrow' designs from other cultures and market them as exotic innovations, often without credit or compensation!
Another variant of exoticism emphasizing the systematic nature of the colonial-era practice. Used particularly in art history to describe the 19th-century fetishization of non-Western aesthetics and bodies.
Use only in critical historical analysis of the phenomenon itself, not as a descriptor of contemporary cultural practices.
["colonial aesthetics","orientalism","cultural appropriation"]
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