exoticization

Exoticization is the representation or treatment of a person, group, culture, or place as inherently different and alluring, emphasizing novelty or otherness while downplaying complexity. It often relies on essentializing stereotypes that reduce diverse practices or identities to a singular, picturesque form. The phenomenon can occur across media, art, tourism, fashion, and scholarship.

In practice, exoticization uses imagery, language, and narrative framing that treat the subject as a distant, romantic, or primitive “Other.” It frequently involves commodification—selling culture as an aesthetic or product—and can perpetuate power imbalances, particularly when dominant groups define the terms of representation.

Scholars such as Edward Said have framed similar dynamics under Orientalism, while broader critiques emphasize ethnocentrism and coloniality. Exoticization can distort realities, flatten diversity, and erase voices from within communities. It also intersects with cultural appropriation when elements of a culture are borrowed without consent or proper context.

Responses include critical media literacy, participatory and community-centered storytelling, and efforts to decolonize representation by privileging self-representation and nuanced portrayals. Ethical approaches in tourism and fashion stress context, consent, and respect for source communities.

Related terms include exoticism, Othering, Orientalism, cultural appropriation, and representation.