Sexularism & Orientalism
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The relationship between sexularism and Orientalism lies in how both addresses construct and perpetuate hierarchical binaries between the West and the East with distinct main points. Sexularism, as described by Joan Scott, ties secularization to a teleological narrative that equates modernity with gender equality and sexual emancipation. It says religion, particularly Islam as inherently oppressive to women and non-heteronormative sexualities. This very binary associates the West with modernity, freedom and progress while portraying Muslim societies as traditional, patriarchal and sexually regressive. This idea aligns with Said’s notion of Orientalism, which depicted the Muslim world as "other" to justify Western cultural and political superiority. Although classical Orientalism portrayed the Muslim world as a site of sexual excess, sexularism reimagines it as a space of sexual oppression that threatens Western ideals of freedom. Making the West the keeper of sexual and gender rights, supporting a moral and cultural superiority that underpins Western national and geopolitical projects. By making sexularism a "reconfigured Orientalism," deeply trapped in Western sexual nationalisms. It operates as a political myth, creating a self-narrative for Western nations that justifies government over racialized and religious minorities and it naturalizes tensions about national identity and survival, especially in contexts like Quebec, where the constant debates over accommodation frame Muslims and other immigrants as threats to the nation's values.