Hi! Welcome to Feminist Fridays: a series where we explore the social, the political,
and the media from a feminist and intersectional perspective...and use a lot of F-words.
On today's episode of Feminist Fridays we're gonna be discussing what has been by far the
most requested video topic...cultural appropriation. If you've ever been to a Halloween party then
you're most likely familiar with cultural appropriation even if you didn't know it at
the time. What is cultural appropriation? First we need to define what culture is. The
sociologist Nicki Lisa Cole defines culture as "the practices, beliefs, ideas, values,
traditions, rituals, language, speech, modes of communication, material objects, and performances
that are central to the social of any given group of people. Cultural appropriation is
basically when you take something from a culture that you don't belong to, such as a Native
American headdress...*cough* Coachella...and use it outside of that cultural context. Usually
without understanding its cultural significance and often times changing its original meaning.
For an example: the swastika, which we are all familiar with as a symbol used by the
Nazis during the Holocaust. Probably gonna be swastika on the screen...just...we're gonna
go with it. Originally, the swastika was used as a sacred symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism
to represent prosperity, good luck, and liberation. However, it started being associated with
rather opposite concepts in the 1920's when it was appropriated and bastardized by the
Nazi Party. This is the perfect example of an outside group taking something from of
religious and cultural significance and changing its original meaning so that it's no longer
accessible to the group that it was taken from. Modern examples of cultural appropriation
include Katy Perry performing in a modified kimono and Geisha makeup, Katy Perry performing
in a Bindi...and just Katy Perry in general. But isn't America supposed to be a melting
pot? The myth of the melting pot is an outdated model used to describe the equal blending
of cultures to create one single new and better culture. However, most sociologists have scrapped
this idea and choose to look at the blending of cultures like a salad. They all keep their
own distinct shapes and flavors and some cultures are more prominent than others. Viewing America
like a melting pot implies that all cultures are mixed and valued equally which is not
so much the case in the U.S. In the United States you see a dominant culture that was
originally established and enforced by white European colonizers onto the native people
of the land. An example of this is Christian missionaries forcing Native American children
to attend Christian boarding school where they were literally forced to give up their
cultural values and language in order to assimilate into the dominant white society. You can also
see tons of examples of this today, like the negative stereotyping of black culture or
the enforcement of the English language on American citizens. So what is the difference
between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation? Cultural exchange occurs when two groups on
relatively equal footing, meaning one isn't oppressing the other, share cultural items,
idea,s or traditions with each other in a respectful and informed way. A cultural group
or group member is willingly sharing their culture with another group and defining the
exchange on their own terms. However, we also need to look at the relationship between the
cultural groups involved in the exchanging of culture. Richard. A. Rogers states in his
paper "From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation", cultural appropriation is inescapably intertwined
with cultural politics. It is involved in the assimilation and exploitation of marginalized
and colonized cultures and in the survival of subordinated cultures and their resistance
to dominant cultures. When looking at cultural exchange, it's important to look at the power
structures involved. Is the culture being taken a dominant or subordinated culture?
According to Rogers, there are two types of cultural appropriation: cultural dominance,
which is when a subordinated group takes elements from the dominant culture. This is usually
something that is imposed upon the subordinated group and is more commonly referred to as
assimilation. When immigrating to the United States, it's usually used as a tool to survive.
The type of appropriation we're more interested in here is cultural exploitation, which Rogers
defines as "the appropriation of elements of a subordinated culture by a dominant culture
without substantive reciprocity, permission, and/or compensation. The line between cultural
exchange and appropriation can sometimes be kind of blurry and there's a lot of grey area.
So here are some questions you should be asking yourself before incorporating parts of a culture
that you don't belong to. Is it a genuine representation? Is it a sacred item like a
Native American headdress or part of a sacred tradition or ritual? Who wears the item or
participates in the tradition--is it just anybody or is it respected members of the
community that had to go through a specific process in order to gain access to it? If
it's an item you can purchase, who is laboring and who is profiting from it? Is it from a
group that has been historically discriminated against? Might that group still be discriminated
against today? And is the representation of the culture presenting an exaggerated or negative
stereotype? This is something I particularly want to highlight. Historically, stereotypes
have been used to justify racism and discrimination against subordinated groups. For example,
a couple hundred years ago black men and black women were considered dumb, subservient, brutal,
and likened to children needing guidance in order to justify slavery. By dehumanizing
them people were able to justify oppressing them. It's extremely important when exchanging
culture to think critically about whether or not we're using accurate representations
and if those representations perpetuate negative stereotypes about the culture they belong
to. Dressing up in a sacred Native American headdress for Halloween might seem like a
really fun idea but you need to think critically about what you're actually doing. You might
have good intentions but perpetuating stereotypes only simplifies and reduces those cultures
rather than celebrating them. And by reducing these cultures we reduce the people that belong
to them and make it ea sier to justify their oppression. Women's bodies are not on public
display for men to sexualize and give their opinions on.