A Look at Cultural Appropriation
Author: Anshuman Gupta
Essence of the Topic
Cultural Appropriation, in its essence, is the thievery of aspects of one culture by another dominant culture. The cultures that have their aspects stolen are usually ones that have been oppressed in the past/ are ones that are being oppressed currently.
My first experience with the concept of Cultural Appropriation, albeit on a smaller scale, was when a teenage girl posted her prom pictures on Twitter where she was wearing a traditional Chinese dress called a cheongsam or qipao even though she herself was not Chinese or of Chinese heritage. This caused some people to quote her tweet with statements such as “My culture is not your prom dress”, provoking a social media outrage and a debate on the topic of “Cultural Appropriation”.
Read the BBC article covering this particular incident here.
The debates that have emerged since have fascinated me. The harmful effects of Cultural Appropriation are pretty obvious. By taking a symbol of someone’s culture that stands for something important to their heritage and using it as a fashion statement when you have no relation to said heritage undermines the worth of that symbol and disrespects the heritage. It allows the oppression of cultures to continue as the dominant culture steals their art and presents it as their own. They take bits and pieces from the culture they oppressed, relate it to their own and let the oppressed culture lose its identity and individuality. For example when Kylie Jenner was credited for starting a new hair trend that was in fact based on black culture, people criticised Zendaya for having a similar hairstyle even though it relates to her culture, whereas for Kylie Jenner, it does not.
One Race — The Human Race
Other people’s arguments however are based on the fact that they don’t see boundaries between human beings and that all cultures together are one for them and that sharing each other’s cultures helps grow a deeper appreciation for those cultures. By wearing a Chinese traditional dress to her prom the teenage girl was in fact helping in bringing newfound appreciation to that fashion style. I can see where they are coming from however I cannot help but notice how eerily similar this sounds to the concept of people “not” seeing race and colour among people, that for them all the people irrespective of their colour are the same and we are one race, the human race. Such a concept falls apart because the fact remains, we do have DIFFERENT races and types of people in our diverse world. The differences shouldn’t be removed from consideration to form one single individuality, we should CELEBRATE these differences. One should be proud of their unique skin colour, unique culture, appreciate them and still be able to hold other people different from them in the same regard when it comes to equality and basic human rights. We shouldn’t act as if the differences don’t exist, rather we should embrace the diversity and create equality based on respecting the differences, not minimising them and forming one single individuality.
Cultural Appropriation V/S Cultural Appreciation
The girl who wore the Chinese traditional dress to her prom is very likely just an innocent teenager who wore it because she liked it. However the fact remains there is harm in such an attitude because it represents people adopting other cultural aspects into their own different lifestyle and normalising it, making it seem like that art belongs to them. The right step instead would have been to show “Cultural Appreciation” by wearing that dress while knowing its roots and showcasing it as such. Embracing it as a part of the rich Chinese culture rather than it being a cool style of clothing they are passing it off as their own lifestyle IS the difference between Cultural Appreciation and Cultural Appropriation. Especially since the dress in question, the qipao, was a dress Asian women wore for house cleaning in a time when they were silenced, slowly turning into a symbol of female empowerment for these women. To use such a powerful cultural symbol as just a ‘pretty’ dress for a prom by a person of different race is therefore problematic. It should be noted though that the intentions of the teenage girl were definitely not meant to be problematic and villanising her is just ignorant hatred, it’s just a lack of education on her part when it comes to different cultures and provides a nice example as to how Cultural Appropriation can happen so vividly and easily and often times without malice.
Another thing Cultural Appropriation does is help formulate and strengthen stereotypes of certain cultures. The Native American chief, the Japanese geisha or the Arab sheikh can be examples of stereotypes that pop up during Halloween, a festival of a different culture entirely. When people from dominant cultures ‘dress up’ like this, it reduces something of cultural significance to a costume just so the dominant group can have ‘fun’. It also keeps these kinds of stereotypes going. And when cultures have been oppressed, stereotypes often add to their negative experiences.
Presence in the Entertainment Industry
One final aspect of Cultural Appropriation that I want to touch on is its presence in the entertainment industry. Popular celebrities have been criticised in the past for their insensitivity in this regard. For example Beyonce and Coldplay were heavily slammed for their collaborative song “Hymn For The Weekend” for culturally appropriating our very own Indian culture. While one side defends it, saying the beauty of Indian traditions are showcased and celebrated in the song, the other side points out how even if that was the intention, the way the song’s music video plays out is that it takes a piece of Indian culture and uses it for nothing more than plain discography to make their song more appealing instead of actually celebrating the culture.
The article covering this issue can be read here.
In the entertainment industry another aspect of Cultural Appropriation is the “whitewashing” of certain roles wherein a white actor is roped in to play a role of a character who belongs to another culture. Notoriously “The Last Airbender”, a live action adaptation of the popular animated series “Avatar the Last Airbender” whitewashed many of its titular characters, roping in white actors to play the roles of characters who were Asian in the animated series and even had their fictional culture tied to that. While on the topic, the animated series is a perfect example of cultural appreciation, paying homage to Asian culture and Japan’s style of animation while being made by two Americans, where as the live action adaptation is an example of cultural appropriation by removing the heritage and importance of the culture and having white actors portray the characters differently.
The article covering this can be read here.
We even see many times cis actors being roped in to play trans characters instead of hiring trans actors, and similarly straight actors being roped in to play homosexual characters rather than hiring homosexual actors who are just as capable. This trend too follows under the umbrella term of Cultural Appropriation when it comes to the entertainment industry as sexuality and gender are important topics in this discussion.
Conclusion
To conclude, Cultural Appropriation is an issue that is worth debating over and is very prevalent in today’s world whether it be intentional or not. This minimizes the minor cultures in favour of the dominant ones and creates harmful stereotypes in the process as well. Cultural Appreciation is the way in which we need to learn to approach these issues and embrace cultures different from ours while still holding them in high regard and respect. The way of properly showcasing Cultural Appreciation should be followed as well to give the bare minimum respect to the cultural aspect you’re showcasing. The existence of such a topic doesn’t establish people from a different culture cannot try things from other cultures, rather that when you do, you showcase it fully educated on what the cultural aspect stands for and respect it’s roots, rather then passing it off as your own ‘style’.
Culture will always be an important identity for any community, so even if this seems ‘minor’ to a person from a dominant culture, just know that its these ‘minor’ things that end up degrading a community’s self respect and identity. Mutual respect towards communities different from ours should always be the bare minimum that we can muster.
Thank you!
