Cultural appropriation in all its glorious wonder, has been a part of pop culture since the dawn of Hollywood. Of course in the "Golden Days" the appropriation was much more along the lines of overt racism (i.e. black face) while modern appropriation is a lot more sneaky.
So what exactly is cultural
appropriation, how does it rear its ugly head in pop culture, and why is it so
damaging?
The definition of cultural appropriation
is listed as "the
adoption or use of elements of one culture by
members of a different culture".
However I would amend this further to specify that cultural appropriation comes
from a culture of privilege disregarding the significance of the cultural
signifiers that come from the groups they have previously oppressed or as YouTuber, Kat Blaque phrased it "seeing something [white people] like, taking it and in
the process removing all cultural significance to it". While that
might not be the more eloquent or white-sympathetic way of putting it, it
remains true that for the most part, cultural appropriation comes from white
people believing that the cultures they have dominated, owe them the ability to
select aspects of culture to adopt, without feeling the weight of actually being in a marginalised group.
Cultural appropriation makes itself
known in every facet of pop culture from fashion, to hairstyles, to performance
themes. "Katy Perry" (unofficially deemed the queen of appropriation)
has used her power and privilege to offend an awe-inspiring number of different
cultures in all these areas. However, one of the clearest examples of cultural
appropriation hiding in plain sight of pop culture is corn rows. Corn rows, and other natural black hairstyles are used to keep textured black hair tidy, unknotted
and more manageable. Black hairstyles have always been at the core of black
culture and furthermore have a cultural significance and importance that white
cultural hairstyles definitely do not have. One example of how black hair
represents black culture is through hip-hop and rap. These music styles stemmed
from rhythm and blues and looking further back, from the music created by black
slaves as a way to "retain humanity in the face of adversity" and
maintain a voice/identity as a people (Amandala Stenberg). Because black culture is a cumulation of a range of different signifiers, something as simple as corn-rows which could be deemed "just a hairstyle" really symbolises the black struggle. Even the term "corn rows" came from the hairstyle resembling the fields that black slaves worked in. It is clear to see why black
hairstyles mean more in black culture than simply a point of functionality; in
actuality, they represent black power, black history, black excellence, and
black identity.
Corn rows came into the mainstream following pop cultures absorption of hip-hop and rap styles. With black culture in the forefront many different aspects of black culture were adopted by white celebrities. When this happened, the media commented on the white celebrities new look as "urban", "fresh", "original" and "innovative" having previously commented on those styles as being "ghetto" and "tacky" when on black women and men. This is the major issue with cultural appropriation; its not so much the physical action which people often focus on, but more about the repercussions that come from white people using and abusing black culture.
What makes the appropriation of
black hairstyles even more disturbing is the way that it highlights the blatant
racism that underpins modern societies. It is embarrassingly common for black women to be subject to commentary on their natural hairstyles in relation to their employment and education. There have been many cases in which young black girls have been told their natural hair is "distracting" to other students and black hairstyles have been banned in many schools for being "untidy". As well as this black women are often told in professional environments to straighten their natural hair in order to get/keep a job. This all occurs while white women are getting praised for the "revolution" that in actuality, is the same exact hairstyle black culture created. This truly shows the weight of cultural appropriation and why it needs to be taken seriously. Amandala Stenberg eloquently explained in response to an image of Kylie Jenner wearing her hair in corn rows; "while white women are praised for altering their body, plumping their lips and tanning their skin, black women are shamed although the same features exist on them naturally". That, in a nutshell, is why I feel cultural appropriation is such a dangerous form of inferential racism; it perpetuates and normalises the racial inequalities hidden within the walls of society that lead to the much more severe consequences.
Links:
First off let me say, your title = genius. Secondly, love this post. The cultural appropriation of the fashion industry is a long a tedious conversation which seems to always have one consolation; we need to stop undermining cultures in order to look trendy or cute. I had this same discussion with some girls in tutorial the other day, talking about how often this happens. I think another fantastic example of this is bindis, and how they have become “so festy” over the last summer, with every group of teen girls that ever stepped foot in a music festival wearing them.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me started on Kylie Jenner and hair. You may have already seen it, but I think it’s interesting that she followed up the corn rows incident and put herself in the spotlight again by wearing Yaki extensions to NYFW. Now in my eyes hair is hair, fake hair is fake hair and its all the same, but I've never even touched an extension. So I was kind of shocked when I first read the article and saw how aangry people were about it, but it does make sense. Its just seems odd that when you've already upset so many people on social media and been called out once for cultural appropriation that you would do something like this that surely you (or someone on your stylist/publicity team) knew people would notice. The fact that it doesn't match the texture of her own hair makes it obvious that it wasn't a mistake and didn't just happen, and even if she wanted more volume, texture, or whatever the reason, you think you’d just play it safe and do what you can to avoid upsetting more people and putting yourself in the firing line.
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/02/103239/kylie-jenner-ponytail-reaction?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=tweet&unique_id=entry_103239
First off let me say, your title = genius. Secondly, love this post. The cultural appropriation of the fashion industry is a long a tedious conversation which seems to always have one consolation; we need to stop undermining cultures in order to look trendy or cute. I had this same discussion with some girls in tutorial the other day, talking about how often this happens. I think another fantastic example of this is bindis, and how they have become “so festy” over the last summer, with every group of teen girls that ever stepped foot in a music festival wearing them.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me started on Kylie Jenner and hair. You may have already seen it, but I think it’s interesting that she followed up the corn rows incident and put herself in the spotlight again by wearing Yaki extensions to NYFW. Now in my eyes hair is hair, fake hair is fake hair and its all the same, but I've never even touched an extension. So I was kind of shocked when I first read the article and saw how aangry people were about it, but it does make sense. Its just seems odd that when you've already upset so many people on social media and been called out once for cultural appropriation that you would do something like this that surely you (or someone on your stylist/publicity team) knew people would notice. The fact that it doesn't match the texture of her own hair makes it obvious that it wasn't a mistake and didn't just happen, and even if she wanted more volume, texture, or whatever the reason, you think you’d just play it safe and do what you can to avoid upsetting more people and putting yourself in the firing line.
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/02/103239/kylie-jenner-ponytail-reaction?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=tweet&unique_id=entry_103239