happy encounter with an alien

Some Thoughts on the Prompt:

As we’ve been thinking and talking about this idea for a theme for the last month or so, I’ve found it to be a somewhat tricky word/concept.

On the one hand, when I first heard it, I thought “Right! The opposite of a “xenophobe”, that’s a great thing!”, and I do think that having an interest in and curiosity about things that are “foreign” to you is obviously a healthier attitude and approach in life than to be fearful and intolerant of difference.

But then, as I read more about the word and talked to friends about it, some expressed reticence about proposing this prompt, saying things like, “Well, just make sure you don’t wind up with a bunch of people contributing visuals that are weird cultural appropriations” and “at what point does xenophilia turn into a fetishization of the “other”, and isn’t that bound to be potentially harmful or offensive?” Some very valuable things to consider and chew on, I thought. This word is slippery.

There seems to be a range of expressions of xenophilia, from the rather sweet and innocent openness to and fascination with something/someone that is very different from yourself, to an unhealthy “takeover” of that with which you find yourself drawn toward in the “other”. I find it fascinating that often a misunderstanding of another culture can lead someone with xenophilic tendencies to sort of invent a whole new culture based on their misunderstanding of that culture (such as “tiki” kitsch or Martin Denny’s “Exotica” records—though the roots of these “inventions” have a dark side, too).

For a moment, I began to shy away from this theme due to its slippery nature and the potential of something that when expressed seems innocent but could easily turn off course into something else, but I think it’s a worthwhile idea for us to think about. We currently live in a world of snap judgments and pronouncements, and thinking about the nuances of how we approach each other, different cultures and people (or even species) than we are familiar with, and how we learn from each other respectfully — it is so worth navigating! It leads to growth and at its best I think it leads to personal and even cultural progress.

Do you consider yourself to be a xenophile? Where and how does that show up for you in your life?

Do you watch Star Trek and imagine how exciting it would be to boldly go where no human has gone before to meet beings that are very different from yourself?

Do you just plain love, for example, all things French and collect tokens of French culture and listen to French music, even though you’re from Nebraska?

Do you observe animals or birds and try to imagine what it’s like to be them, so utterly different from who you are?

Have you observed examples of xenophilia that are somewhat fetishistic in yourself or in others, and what do you think about that?

Have you witnessed “otherizing” of your own culture or of a culture you feel close to, and what is your response to this?

Do you experience “Cultural Cringe”? (this is defined via one of the links below as: “when individuals view their own native culture as lesser than foreign cultures.”)

Just some things we are thinking about over here. We would love to see what you do using either visual or literary expression to play with this idea, should you choose to accept this mission. Thank you so much for considering it!

~Hannah