Is it ok for WASPy (white anglo saxon protestants) to adopt aesthetic choices from other cultures?
Cultural appropriation - wikipedia
Internet wormholes have led me to many articles adressing cultural appropriation in the last few months. People way more educated and eloquent than I have attempted to either a) chide people for wearing bindis or crosses for fashion, or b) say that it's ok if the wearer dresses with deference to the culture and understands the item's meaning.
Jean Greige
Rookie
hexgrrrlfriend
Vice
The subject of most of these discussions is the bindi, but it could be kimonos, overalls, plaid, tattoos, saris, turbans, jade, or anything that you have seen in another country or place besides non-person-of-color united states. The opportunities to both offend and appreciate are exhausting.
I think it's obnoxious to seek permission from someone else to wear anything, so I'll make my own decision to wear what I want and leave you to do the same.
One thing to think about in regards to this - which I think about often, especially at Urban Outfitters - is that you can't really separate aesthetics, in this case fashion, from the culture in which it is produced, and the historical context by which that culture is shaped. So if the US has this ugly colonial history and present of appropriating land and sovereignty from indigenous people and people of color, why then should we, as individuals who are keenly aware - as you point out - of our social location (as the privileged class in this country) also participation in appropriation of aesthetics? And I guess that I really have two things to say, because cultural appropriation that "understands the item's meaning" is really a form of multiculturalism that says, we are all our own special snowflakes, and elides a critical engagement with the real inequalities that produce those differences... so in other words, it's kinda tokenistic.
ReplyDeleteI cannot tell you how difficult it is for me to go shopping!
I love your blog.
* also participate in appropriation of aesthetics
ReplyDeleteduh me
My sister's comment was difficult for me to read.
ReplyDeleteI think it's weird to see Justin Bieber wearing a cross around his neck. Because, is he religious? Christian? Talented? No!
I tend to assume one's accessories reflect that person, what they tend to believe or accept or whatever. But I still think everyone can do whatever they want with their own bodies, inside and out. You go girl.
i like the special snowflakes part!
ReplyDelete