According to RaceRelations, cultural
appropriation is when “members of a dominant group exploit the culture
of less privileged groups-often with little understanding of the latter’s
history, experience and traditions”. That’s pretty all there is to it yet the
definition still escapes people’s mind, as some believe they are helping the
cause by "contributing” to the culture by having bits of it sprinkled all
over media and thinking they are saviors to the underprivileged, especially to
girls/women of color. Yet the media and other supporters of mainstream media
aren't full aware of the damage they cause to these girls and women who try to
find themselves in the magazines and television shows or even at luxury events.
Using someone's culture with little to no knowledge isn't a stepping-stone;
it's actually serving as a barrier to underprivileged women.
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| Vickie Nam explains the struggle in her book |
In Vickie Nam's, YELL-Oh Girls!, she discusses how it was hard for her to find a representation of
herself (aka Asian culture) in mainstream media or in the magazines she used to
collect as a child. This sad song is something I found myself, as well as many
of my friends, relating to. It's when you finally find that one piece that
speaks to you but 90% of the time, it's whitewash propaganda that you settle
for because you know that's the most of your culture you'll ever see. Nam
expresses this same dismay in her essay, "Then one day I found
something of myself represented in a magazine, but not in the way I'd ever
expected". She goes on to explain that she found an advertisement of a
white model wearing geisha makeup, which annoyed her enough to write a
letter to the magazine about (sadly it was never published). But these
instances happen and women are supposed to accept people using their culture as
a trend for the sake of fashion. However Nam's persistence didn't stop there as
she began working for a magazine once she completed school, as she realized
that you have to work from the inside to change the world. She seem discovers
that the publishing industry was taxing to her character and lonely, "At
school, at least 50 percent of the faces in my classes or in my dorm were
nonwhite. Here, I was a lone woman of color". This poses the question,
how can one change the way people (or in this case, women) of color are viewed
when they are normally the odd one out? Well, it's deemed as impossible due to
celebrities (such as the ones I'm about to mention) are adding more negative
stigma to the scene than helping the cause.
 |
| Katy Perry's AMA Performance |
On the right, I placed a
photo of Katy Perry, completely docked out in Geisha attire and makeup,
performing at an award show. I remember going through my Twitter feed during
the performance and finding some of my Japanese friends upset (and rightly so)
over Katy's performance look. One of my friends told me, "When I dressed
up as a Geisha for World Culture Day at school, I dealt with racist remarks
everywhere I went because of my face makeup. They would try to devalue my character
and someone even told me to go back to China. I was like, "This isn't even
part of Chinese culture!” Yet Katy Perry does it and all I saw was positive
feedback for Katy and how she is "really making a difference" in
bringing awareness to Japanese culture. I was mortified." There has been
some serious debating in the comment section of Vulture.com as to whether Katy
crossed the line but one thing is for certain, this performance falls under the
definition of cultural appropriation and that’s something the public shouldn't
ignore.
 |
| ~trendy, cute, chic~ |
Another example of
cultural appropriation is the photo on the left; these well known celebrities
are proudly (and some seductively) "embracing" Indian culture
with traditional nose jewelry, bindis and headdresses. This is not appreciating
or honoring anyone's culture yet they can get away with these looks because
they aren't women of color, they aren't naturally armed with the double burden
many of us are faced with.
As a child, I grew up in
a predominantly Indian/Asian community so I was taught tolerance of other
cultures at a very young age. It wasn't until I was in middle school that I
began seeing this negativity towards my friend's cultures. One of my friend's
proudly wore a hijab since she was thirteen years old and she faced backlash
from that very moment on. Many of her privileged friends felt sorry for her and
treated her as a sheltered outcast because of her hijab. But one day, she
invited her friend over to her house where she tried on a hijab for the first
time. Her friend enjoyed the look enough to post a picture of it on Facebook
and within hours, she got a flow of support for representing "brown"
girls and "looking better" than most of them. Facing this type of
cultural appropriation is disheartening enough when you see it pass off as a
trend in magazine but it can be extremely discouraging when your white friend
can get away with your culture better than you according to society's standards
and ignorance.
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| They strip you of your culture only to use it themselves |
Overall, there is a fine
line between appropriation and appreciation and many people miss the mark by a
long shot. You may be asking, what does this controversial and underground
topic of cultural appropriation have to do with women and the media? Well, it
has everything to do with women and the media. By letting all these outlets
sensationalize cultures without any lines to do so, it is serving as a barrier
to women of color everywhere. The privileged can get away with
"experimenting" yet women of color are scrutinized and suffer from
backlash because of their culture. By letting advertisements and articles
promoting cultural appropriation run in magazines and TV outlets, it's
whitewashing cultures and making it harder for these women to rise above and
strive in these industries.
Stopping these major companies may be hard to do
from the inside out as a minority but that's why the Internet is a wonderful
outlet for the voices of the stressed and oppressed. There is a wonderful and
insightful movement called #ReclaimTheBindi trending on Tumblr
where brown girls embraced their culture and decided to fight against bindis
being used as a fashion accessory at the infamous music festival, Coachella. Another
social media trend that has been making headlines is the movement of embracing
black culture and lives; it's called "BLACKOUT for Human Rights".
These are seemingly
small steps in educating the world and bringing awareness to this taboo
terminology but it is catching fire through the blogging community. The first
step to stopping cultural appropriation understands it and below, I'll provide
some links to help people further understand this complex and "new"
idea.
Links
for Better Understanding
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