Exotic

When choosing a topic I wanted to create a piece that spoke to my identity as a mixed race woman because it’s something that people can’t immediately identify from my appearance or how I outwardly present myself, but feels more relevant to who I am than any single components of my racial makeup.

The concept of my broadside came from my experience with orientalism and fetishization, specifically in romantic relationships. “I love exotic-looking girls” is only example of explicit racial fetishization/objectification I’ve received in a romantic relationship. I’ve heard things like “I only date [latina/asian/white] girls” and most recently, “when I found out you were Asian you got 100 times hotter.” Ironically, a lot of these comments were from biracial men. Most of the time I’ve forgiven comments like this because I know most people who are guilty of this type of fetishization perceive what they’re saying as a compliment, which can be true in a lot of instances of inadvertent racism. I think the message is important because I’m sure a lot of people can identify with the experience of not knowing if someone loves you because you’re you or because they love “your type.”

-Hannah Travis, Scripps College '20