Ornamentalism offers one of the first sustained and original theories of Asiatic femininity. Examining ornamentality, in lieu of Orientalism, as a way to understand the representation, circulation, and ontology of Asiatic femininity, this study extends our vocabulary about the woman of color beyond the usual platitudes about objectification.
This is a stunning critical-historical unpacking of the figure of the 'Asiatic yellow woman' as a peripheral person/object, exotic/erotic, she/it. This haunted 'theory of being' nudges and advocates a fuller critique adding to #MeToo universalism and the shorthand of 'black and brown' women and fem bodies- opening a more decolonizing internationalist theory of raced, gendered, and sexualized intimacies, differentiation, and power.