Orientalist fantasy can breed sympathy that erodes colonial boundaries

Evidence

Yet, the product of orientalist fantasy could provoke identification and sympathy, ultimately undermining any clear boundary between the colonial subject and the ‘oriental Other’ and casting doubt on the moral integrity of repressing the Other, even as it underlined its practical necessity. — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 202

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Overturns the assumption that orientalist stereotypes simply dehumanize — here the fantasy of danger produces identification, doubt, and sympathy in the same gesture.
• XREF: Echoes Said’s Orientalism but complicates it, and rhymes with The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s ambivalent sympathies toward the feared Other.