In the wake of season two of The White Lotus, a surge of interest in buying the “weird heads” featured in the show has found Semtex fuming over the collective inability to call the décor by its correct name—and how that inability is a microaggressive form of othering.
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There’s something resonant for any “ethnic” person said at the beginning of My Big Fat Greek Wedding by Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos). In a voiceover complete with a flashback, she describes her experience growing up among Anglo cunts who viewed her appearance and everything else about her as “other.” Thus, she recalls, “When I was growing up, I knew I was different. The other girls were blonde and delicate. And I was a swarthy six-year-old with sideburns. I so badly wanted to be like the popular girls, all sitting together, talking, eating their Wonder Bread sandwiches…” At that moment, one of the blonde girls disgustedly asks of what Toula has just removed from her lunchbox, “What’s that?” “It’s moussaka,” Toula answers matter-of-factly. The little bitch of a blonde girl “ripostes,” “Moose caca?” The other Aryans proceed to burst into laughter.
So no, don’t say that “technically white” people don’t get shit too. Because there’s “white” and then there’s “the right kind of white.” Greek, Jewish and, yes, Italian, is the “wrong” kind. Sicilian even more so—because “that group” gets lumped in with being too close to “Blackness” as a result of the Moor influence on the island’s culture and lineage. Side note: the Moors weren’t Black, per se (as True Romance would have viewers believe). At least not in the sense of being from the parts of Africa that Europeans would later deem as “colonizable.” Rather, they were usually Arab or Berber. Either way, still too dark to not eventually be othered and exiled from Sicily. And yes, anyone who had dark skin was called a Moor. Sometimes “Blackamoor” so as to distinguish from lighter-skinned Moors. Per Alessandra Di Maio, “The term did not imply one single culturally, ethnically or racially-bounded identity. It referred to dark-skinned people as well as to white people.”
In effect, one might call it the OG catch-all word for othering. So othered were the Moors, in fact, that the stereotype of a Moor’s head was rendered into a must-have decorative item in Sicily. This came about as a result of the legend, recently retold in the second season of The White Lotus, surrounding a Moorish soldier stationed in Palermo circa the year 1000. Spotting a hot Sicilian woman on her balcony, the Moor pursued a romance with her that she passionately returned. Perhaps too passionately for her own good, as she soon found out (supposedly from the Moor himself) that he had a wife and children back home. Upon unearthing this very important detail, the woman became consumed by the desire for vengeance as she was not one for being a cuckquean—just a queen. Hence, on what the Moor presumed would be their last night together, she decapitated him so that he could never leave her. For some men, that might be preferable to getting their dick cut off; indeed, some men might not even notice the absence of their head at all in comparison to their dick (see: John Bobbitt).
In effect, one might call it the OG catch-all word for othering. So othered, in fact, that the stereotype of a Moor’s head was rendered into a must-have decorative item in Sicily.
This Moor, however, probably did take note as his testa was soon turned into a vase. One that his paramour decided to plant basil in (funny how men can be so much more useful when they’re not sentient). Her neighbors took note of her green thumb and assumed it was the vase that was so helpful to growing luxuriant herbs and plants. So they, too, wanted vases with the faccia of a Moor in order to better grow their greenery. Or maybe just to commemorate such a “great love.” And thus, a tradition was born. One that, as The White Lotus made clear, many Americans were too ignorant of in their lack of well-traveledness and general knowledgeability of other cultures apart from their own (if one can call cars, burgers and football “culture”).
As such, it took The White Lotus to make the Testa di Moro gain some sales traction in the U.S. Namely, in San Francisco at Baldini Art Imports in North Beach. And yet, even in someplace as theoretically cosmopolitan as San Francisco, it’s being referred to as a “weird head” (see: the since-changed headline above). A branding that proves, more than ever, why language matters. Why it can still traumatize someone like Toula for the rest of their lives and give them a complex about being “different”—as though that’s a bad thing… especially if one is different from white bread Republicans. For language is still so often used as a means of othering, whether the usually Anglo person doing it claims to be aware of that or not. Even if their potential “reason” for engaging in the behavior is to appeal to pedestrian types who “need” to be kowtowed to with reductive product descriptions if they’re going into invest in something as expensive as a “weird head.”
But, if we’re being honest, those with the means to buy a Testa di Moro are likely to get off on their own “pretension.” To be clear, in America, “pretension” has been rebranded to mean: being aware of and using accurate terms for objects and any additional assorted nameable entities. Because heaven forbid someone should actually show an interest in and enthusiasm for the thing they’re pouring their money into. That would infer caring too much as a rich person. And requirement number one of being rich (apart from being born that way) is: don’t care.
“…on what the Moor presumed would be their last night together, she decapitated him so that he could never leave her. For some men, that might be preferable to getting their dick cut off; indeed, some men might not even notice the absence of their head at all in comparison to their dick (see: John Bobbitt).”
The affluent set of The White Lotus reiterated that point repeatedly in season two, with only nouveau rich Ethan (Will Sharpe) demanding of the concierge regarding the Testa di Moro-laden décor, “Hey, what is with these head things?” Although he didn’t insert the adjective “weird” in front of “head things,” his tone and expression say it all. He thinks it’s weird because it’s something he’s never seen before. Unclassifiable to his supposedly erudite brain. After all, you’re supposed to be erudite if you have money (though Glass Onion is an entire thesis statement against that myth). And if, like Steve Banerjee, you want to blend in with the mocking whites of this echelon. To this point, as Ethan laughs along with Cameron (Theo James) about the head’s origin story, it’s evident that he, as was the case with Toula, just wants to be accepted by this revered archetype of white patriarchy. Even if it means indulging in the very microaggressions that he himself has likely endured for most of his life. So yeah, he probably went along with it when Cameron later said at some Taormina purveyor of Teste di Moro, “Let’s buy a weird head to bring back as a souvenir.”