ORIENTALISM + WHITE WOMEN
Orientalism was a book published by scholar Edward Said in 1978. Since then, the term has been used to describe the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world.
Scholar Mari Yoshihara’s Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism specifically explores “the important role of white women in the construction of Orientalism. Mari Yoshihara’s study examines a wide range of white women who were attracted to Japan and China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and shows how, through their engagement with Asia, these women found new forms of expression, power, and freedom that were often denied to them in other realms of their lives in America”(https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-East-White-American-Orientalism/dp/0195145348).
As part of its mutli-layered exploration of race and culture, FORK MOUNTAIN demonstrates how orientalism affects May’s relationship with her white best friend Courtney and even her white Mother, Trudy.