Do you sense a beauty or a danger?
Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Mount Merapi on the island of Java in Indonesia is nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) tall and is one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. Merapi means "fire mountain" in Indonesian (from Here)
Mount Merapi on the island of Java in Indonesia is nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) tall and is one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. Merapi means "fire mountain" in Indonesian (from Here)
Several American Caucasian friends married Indonesian girls
of Java. The Javanese girls were middle or high school graduates and had darker skins; they had casual appearance and hair do, or clumsy by comparison
of today’s high school girls. When one of the American was asked about her
crush on her, he said that he found her beautiful and exotic. “Look at how she
smiles, especially if you see her from her side. Her smile is gorgeous.” My
wife and I looked at each other about his answer. We did not find her smile any
gorgeous nor she was at all beautiful. Being curious if it was our misleading
perception, we asked a few other friends about their opinions. They all
confirmed what we saw and thought of her.
The next day, as I sat down enjoying my tea in my porch, I
kept thinking about that discussion. Being an insider of the Javanese culture
may have desensitized my senses to what is beautiful, exotic, and gorgeous. As
I was born and grew up in that culture, my perception of beauty has been
influenced by and filtered with the measurement and norms of my surrounding
community. As a result, I cannot see what my American Caucasian friends saw. On
the contrary, my American friends possess a fresh standpoint as a novice into
the Javanese culture and community. They are sensitive to features of
appearance and culture that are new to them. They are fascinated by particular
elements that are invisible by insiders—an insider-outsider bias. This kind of
bias is probably similar to gender bias in the sense that a woman may find one
man handsome, while that women’s male partner thinks differently about what she
thinks a handsome man. Similarly, my wife may disagree when I comment that the
girl crossing the street is interestingly beautiful.
This insider-outsider bias opens up a gateway to the saying
that “the neighbor’s garden is greener.” An adventurous insider will seek out the
excitement of variations. They expect different sauce for their spaghetti. They
want difference spices for the day.
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A local market in Semarang-Central Java, Indonesia (taken from Here) |
