Orientalism refers to the relationship held between the ever-progressive West and its depictions of the undeveloped, barbaric and exotic East. The most blatant examples of Orientalism come from the mass media, where images of eastern societies are always seemingly portrayed in stark contrast to the ways of the west.

In many of these images, the eastern world lacks the civilized standards of the developed west. We are offered a window into a stagnant way of life, which is vastly exoticized and is depicted as something that is other-worldly. The west watches and studies this alien world, and through constant depictions of this sensationalized perception of the Orient, perpetuates these very perceptions.

At any rate, the cosmopolitans of today love to traverse the planet far and wide, laying claim to experiencing foreign cultures and insisting that there is a lot to take away from these other ways of life.

Sports Illustrated has long followed this line of reasoning, bringing their supermodels to other parts of the world and having them interact with the local culture. The end result, however, isn’t a progressive jump into a world where there is no more line drawn between the east and the west. Rather, what we get are photos like this:

Here, a model sits on the raft of a Chinese fisherman. The image that is portrayed is an exoticized account rural China, defined by the old way of life where bamboo rafts seem to be a prevalent form of transportation. The image poses other problems, namely that the strikingly beautiful white super model is literally sitting in a position of privilege.

Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazines are littered with pictures like this, each informing the ‘reader’ that an exotic east awaits, and if you’re young, white, and beautiful, you can afford all of the local luxuries.

Sigmund Freud coined the term the Oedipus complex, referring to a psychoanalytical theory in which a child has an unconscious desire to have sexual relations with the parent of the opposite sex.

At the crux of the theory, Freud believed young boys develop a repressed sexual desires for their mother in the early ages of childhood, once they are able to make the distinctions between boy and girl and the inherent sexual relationship between the two genders. In understanding this binary, the boy’s relationship with his father becomes one of competition, as both vie for the attention of mother, in order to satisfy their desires.

The Oedipus complex plays a pivotal role in The Doors’ iconic song, the End.

Legend has it that when the Doors were an up-and-coming band, playing regular shows in L.A.’s whiskey A Go Go, there was one night in particular where Morrison ad-libbed the controversial lyrics for the End.

Morrison was said to have been found in an acid-induced stupor just moments before the band were to play their set. His bandmates had to drag him to the stage, where he somehow managed to perform. Nearing the end of the set, Morrison insisted that they perform a song that he had written about an ex-girlfriend, titled the End. The band had never performed it live, but unwilling to contest Morrison in his state, started playing the track.

The song slows down about half-way through, and, during the live performance, Morrison began ad-libbing spoken word over the quieted melody. As his bandmates had no idea what he was going to say, they just continued to play. Morrison managed to string together the following lyrics:

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
And he came to a door, and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother, I want to, f*** you all night long

The lyrics ended up losing the band their regular slot at the Whiskey A Go Go and, despite being kept for the studio version of the song, were censored by the producers.

Morrison’s ode to the Oedipus complex has changed the way the song has been interpreted, having once been about saying goodbye to an old girlfriend to eventually becoming a song about getting in touch with ones inner self. The father represents the external world that shapes the self, or something that is alien or foreign to one’s identity but exerts power over it and ultimately forms it. The mother represents the essence of the individual, that which is within, the natural self.

The song’s lyrics symbolize ridding oneself of external pressures, removing the oppressive forces that shape ones identity and getting in touch with one’s real self.

In his Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx introduces the term commodity fetishism to his theory. Marx believed that once a good is produced and enters the market, the monetary value that is ascribed to the product works to sever its ties from the production process. Potential buyers no longer equate the product with the work that was put into it. Instead, its value comes from its price tag. The consumer, in turn, sees only one glowing perspective of the product, while a veil is cast over the hard, sometimes dreary, labour that is put into it.

The common food advertisement is one of the most glaring examples of commodity fetishism today and momentously illustrates the thickness of the veil that is cast in front of consumers.

Whether it be McDonald’s commercials or Pizza Hut ads, we tend to get up close and personal with the grease infused delicacies of the fast food era every day. Often mouth-watering, the products showcased become items in and of themselves, generating no connection to their production process. We see each Big Mac in its unique form, an eclectic mass of bun, burger and lettuce, but only recognize it as a single entity: it is THE Big Mac, and can be obtained for the reasonable price of 7.99 (that comes with a delicious coke and piping hot fries).

It’s easy to get lost in a world that is dictated by price tags since money probably the most significant lens through which we see the world. But in the process, we lose touch with whats behind the veil. For every Big Mac, we don’t get first-hand tours of the industrial agricultural machine that makes it possible. And if we did, we might not buy those burgers.