Cultural Appropriation Controversies
Dressing up has become one of the most entertaining past times with holidays like Halloween becoming increasingly popular and people spending much of their money, efforts and attention to creating or buying the perfect costume. We are given plenty of different costumes to choose from; the obvious ‘scary’ costumes which wow everyone with gallons of fake blood, SFX makeup and spooky contacts, the sexy flesh baring costumes or the funny costumes which often lead to you finding a picture of yourself on a strangers Facebook page because they just had to show their friends that hilarious costume they had seen.
But even with this abundance of different costumes, we still get those who just can’t seem to resist the urge to dress up as different races or cultures.
Cultural Appropriation is defined as a sociological concept which views the adoption or uses of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon. The term also refers to a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. Those guilty of contributing to this always seem to come out during Halloween or fancy dress parties, where apparently it’s okay to dress up as another race or culture because “it’s just a costume”, for example, people who dress up as Native Americans, Indians or those who don blackface.
And it’s not just us normal people who do it; celebrities are guilty of this too! Those in the public eye often have to be careful of what they say and/or do on a regular basis for fear of negative backlash, but that hasn’t stopped many of them from contributing to this trend of throwing on another culture and claiming it as a fun costume. Heidi Klum for example, often praised for her outlandish Halloween costumes, shocked everyone by dressing up as Hindu Goddess Kali for her Halloween party in 2008. She caused outrage in the Hindu community with Indian-American community leader Rajan Zed commenting, "Goddess Kali is highly revered in Hinduism and she is meant to be worshipped in temples and not to be used in clubs for publicity stunts or thrown around loosely for dramatic effect."
"Hindus welcome Hollywood and other entertainment industries to immerse themselves in Hinduism, but they should take it seriously and respectfully and not just use the religion for decorating or to advance their selfish agenda." But she’s not the first (or unfortunately the last) celebrity to be found guilty of perpetuating this trend of culturally offensive costumes but perhaps if everyone was more educated on why people of said cultures find these costumes offensive, maybe we’d start seeing fewer of them.
More recently, singer Beyoncé faced backlash after featuring in Coldplay’s latest video, Hymn for the Weekend, which uses India as a backdrop, as she was dressed in traditional Desi adornment while playing the role of a Bollywood actress.
Many celebrities have come under fire for appropriating Desi traditions including Iggy Azalea for her video 'Bounce' and Selena Gomez for 'Come and Get It'.
So what exactly makes a costume culturally inappropriate and how can people realise this without having to be berated for it first? Also how do people learn the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation? Here’s a quick ‘how to not wear a racist and cultural appropriating costume for your next fancy dress party or at Halloween:
Don’t wear anything that people of that culture were once mocked/punished for:
An example of this is the trend of wearing bindis to festivals or using dreadlocks as a fashion statement.Those of Asian or Hindu heritage are often the subject of ridicule because of the bindi but in recent times, it is seen as a fashionable item instead of a cultural one by people like Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, and Kendall Jenner etc. Black people are often ridiculed for having dreadlocks, as shown when actress Zendaya debuted the hairstyle at a red carpet event and comments about how she looked like she smelled like patchouli oil whereas when socialite Kylie Jenner was photographed with the hairstyle she was called edgy and fashionable.
Don’t wear anything that is supposed to be showing ‘love’ to a culture while prejudicing the people
The use of ‘Blackface’ has become increasingly popular with college students and many celebrities thinking that it’s okay to actually walk outside or take pictures with it and post them online. Blackface is using makeup or face paint to cover your face to resemble a black person. This trend has also developed into people doing ‘Brownface’, colouring the face to resemble someone of Latino descent and ‘Yellowface’, colouring the face to resemble someone of Asian (in particular East Asian) descent. Not only is this incredibly racist and dehumanising but it perpetuates the stereotype that all people of a certain race look and behave exactly the same and so all people really have to do to be from that race is colour their face in.
Don’t wear anything that allows the wrong people to get credit:
Many of our favourite celebrities are able to take an aspect from a culture that they are not a part of and profit from it making them look like they are creative or forward thinking. Examples of this are Coldplay using both China and India as backdrops for their videos, Katy Perry dressing up in the traditional kimono and performing as a geisha for a show that had nothing to do with Asian culture or Miley Cyrus ‘creating’ twerking, something that has been a part of black history for many many years. Ultimately it sends the message that things that are apart of someone’s culture are not considered acceptable until a white person (usually) adopts it.
The bottom line is: if you are wearing or profiting from something that is not a part of your culture, that a member of that culture would be ridiculed or prejudiced against for, it is cultural appropriation.