Representation of the Other is an act of domination without consent

Evidence

There is very little consent to be found, for example, in the fact that Flaubert’s encounter with an Egyptian courtesan produced a widely influential model of the Oriental woman; she never spoke of herself, she never represented her emotions, presence, or history. He spoke for and represented her. He was foreign, comparatively wealthy, male, and these were historical facts of domination that allowed him not only to possess Kuchuk Hanem physically but to speak for her and tell his readers in what way she was “typically Oriental.” — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 60

Categorization

• DEFINE: The Flaubert-Kuchuk Hanem example is the canonical illustration of how the West speaks for the Orient rather than letting it speak — the prototype of the ‘Other’ who cannot represent herself.
• XREF: This is the concrete case the reader will carry into Islamophobia readings on the presentation of Muslim women as needing Western rescue. — connects to: Every dominant image of the human is defined against the possibilities it excludes — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 162; Leaderless movements that cede representation get represented by opponents — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 443; Rights-based inclusion admits others only insofar as they resemble the dominator — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 646
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 60