White Muslim women in medieval texts expressed white male authors’ desire, not reality

Evidence

White Muslim females do not represent “a realistic portrayal of the medieval French view of the Saracen body but illustrate desire on the part of the white male authors of the text.” These characters are not realistic portrayals, but rather expressions of desire for the exotic Other, which was often situated in fantasies about racial and sexual difference. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 200

Categorization

• XREF: Complements the reader’s own article on ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ - the projection of desire onto the racialized female body is the mirror side of the moral panic over dress.
• SEED: Possible essay angle: how the same culture produced both the monstrous dark-skinned female giant and the desirable white convert - the split-image of the female Other in one imagination.