exoticism

The temptation to frame Buddhist art that way is surely a function of the religion’s unfamiliarity, its “exoticism,” except in shallow pop culture terms.

Given that a digital camera is now in most every pocket, queer photography’s bracing fusion of the personal and the exotic is pretty threadbare, since exoticism no longer applies to being queer in American life.

Cady, the protagonist of “Mean Girls,” was raised and homeschooled in Africa, lending her a whiff of exoticism compared to most of the student body at North Shore High School.

Mostly, she is there because it strategically isolates the character, limits her choices and gives the movie a dank whiff of Old World exoticism.

She went on to cite the “cultural exoticism depicted in author James Clavell’s bestseller ‘Shōgun’” as adding to America’s fixation on Japanese culture.