The Greek Slave of American Orientalism

Quoting the art historian Bernard Berenson, Walter Lippmann once wrote, "'what with the almost numberless shapes assumed by an object...What with our insensitiveness and inattention, things scarcely would have for us features and outlines so determined and clear that we could recall them at will, but for the stereotyped shapes art has lent them.' The truth is even broader than that, for the stereotyped shapes lent to the world come not merely from …

…Kasson notes: "Observing that the Turks considered this Greek woman to valuable to be thrown away, Powers suggested that other things of value might be in danger of being reduced to the status of a commodity and even thrown away in a conflict with another culture. ...When cultural differences suggested that gender identity and sexual practice might be relative rather than universal, the very basis for Western civilization seemed to be at risk." Kasson, 169. [31] Majid, 68.