Vestimentary models of the Imaginative Other

Abstract

The object of this research is the analysis of the imaginative Alien through the prism of the vestimentary markers. Vestimentary is one of the basic aspects of the perception of the Other. In the modern world of the rapid development of technology and the computerization of our being, Internet has become the most accessible (and in most cases open) source of information. The author of the article analyzes the Internet queries in the search engine in the Russian Web segment (Runet) to identify the most frequent stereotypes about vestimental features of the Other. In the course of the work, several ethnic groups were chosen as objects of research, the most popular Internet queries related to the perception of the appearance and clothing of these ethnic groups and the construction of ideas about them were identified. This allowed us to identify 33 conditional features, and correlation between them was defined using mathematical methods for constructing the matrix and statistical calculations based on the Pearson formula.

This analysis helped the author to select 5 conditional hypothetical models of markers of the Imaginary Other that are very different from each other, two of which (the second and the third) belong to the Far Eastern region. Each image included both the real facts of the vestimental culture and stereotypes born out of fear of the Other/Alien.