Othering analyses fail when the ‘othered’ trait is claimed as positive by the group.

Evidence

There is, however, a limitation to such analyses of Othering or racialization, namely that sometimes there is a lack of agreement between those doing the Othering and those being Othered about whether certain features are necessarily negative. Most people will agree that to describe a group as less intelligent is to say something negative about it. But is this the case with religious strictness and moral conservatism? … In recent years, we have seen this most starkly in Europe, in the dominant society’s view that the wearing of the headscarf or the burqa by Muslim women is a sign of oppression. Despite the dominant society delivering this judgement through the popular and intellectual media, the numbers of women engaged in such practices has increased and the increase has been accompanied by the women in question saying that they are donning such clothes out of choice, and not in compliance with the demands of Muslim men. — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 591

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly supports and extends the article ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’: the headscarf controversy is a live instance of cross-cultural moral judgment about dress, here with the crucial twist that the judged group refuses the negative framing.
• XREF: Connects to Runnymede’s closed-vs-open view framing and to feminist critiques of Western feminism’s reading of the veil as oppression. — connects to: Some Othered traits are rejected as negative by the minority themselves. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 596; A group’s protective shield fails when the setting redefines its members as outsiders; Racialization assigns presumed negative traits to define a group. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 594

Related

• Some Othered traits are rejected as negative by the minority themselves. (similarity 0.92)

Broader Connections

• Racialization assigns presumed negative traits to define a group. #qualifies (0.80) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 594
• A group’s protective shield fails when the setting redefines its members as outsiders #expands (0.75)