This article takes up one of the questions posed by the U.S. government in the wake of September 11, 2001: What does a terrorist look like? Using Internet images of Osama bin Laden that have been circulating online ever since Bush named him as the prime perpetrator behind 9/11, the author explores the techniques and conventions of identifying an Other, with reference to historical practices within the United States. Significantly, all of the images presented here (and these images represent a small percentage of what can be found online) are hypersexualized and rely on tropes of primitivism and misogyny to signify degeneracy and effeminacy. The author's argument here consists of examining the ways in which racialist discourses combine with sexism and fascism in both the official and popular imaginings of the terrorist identity.
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