Visual Portrayals of the Other in Popular Fiction and Nonfiction
Article on the phenomenon of the Other in fiction.
The Other represents our inability to relate to someone or something we perceive as radically, insurmountably different from ourselves. The Other is often personified as a villain in stories (see image at right), but we also see people with psychological disorders as Other when we treat them as if they're completely different from us. Whenever we call someone "a schizophrenic" or "a nutcase," we've made him Other; we've reduced him to an alien category we can never imagine ourselves sharing.
Why We Create Others
The Other in fiction: Jigsaw from the Saw films. Could you relate to this guy? Would you even want to?
In society, we create Others for a lot of reasons--because we're scared of another person or group, because we're competing with that person or group, or because we see something of ourselves in them and want to emphasize the differences.
Others in Propaganda
The images below are examples of the kinds of "Others" propagandists create when they want to demonize a person or group. We can use these same techniques in fiction to create characters our readers really hate, but in the real world these same techinques can become dangerous. When we're exposed to these kinds of images in real life, we start to believe the stereotypes and discriminate against the people in question.
Historical Others
The article noted above has more examples of the Other in fiction, but let's look at some historical examples. One of the most common uses of the Other is in racial and cultural propaganda, so historical images are good examples.
- Early in the history of the United States, as settlers moved West in search of gold, they were angered by Chinese immigrants who were doing the exact same thing. The competition produced hatred, and the hatred produced some nasty anti-Chinese propaganda.
- During WWII, the Nazis produced similar anti-Jewish propaganda.
- Meanwhile, the Axis powers were making the Allies into monsters, and the Allies were making the Axis powers into monsters. Even Superman got involved.
Gold Rush anti- Chinese propaganda |
 WWII anti-Semitic propaganda |
WWII anti-American propaganda |
WWII anti-American propaganda |
WWII anti-Nazi Propaganda |
 WWII anti-Japanese propaganda |
More Information
- Visualizing Otherness: The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies has dozens of examples of discriminatory images used to make Outgroups seem more monstrous than human. At least one of the images above (the second one) is from this site.
- CineMania attacks stereotypes about violence in people with mental illness. Among other things, includes media images that really drive the point home.