The complexities of cultural Appropriation
By Alina Dai
What is Cultural appropriation?
Many question what cultural appropriation is or how it works. The definition of cultural appropriation is, taking a feature of a different culture without consent, permission, or any cultural context to that item or practice merely for their personal interest, money, or of its looks. This term is easily influenced to be used against anyone for anything even if it is unintentional. Currently it is used to describe everything from hairstyles, clothing, food and music and this causes difficult controversies about the power of society and individuality which questions what is right or what is wrong. It can also create cultural stereotypes for the cultures that are oppressed, but there are people who help educate those to have a better understanding of the culture.
Cultural appreciation
When someone seeks to understand and learn about another culture to broaden their perspective and connect with others cross-culturally, it is called cultural appreciation. Before engaging with something, it should be essential to be curious about its origins, and learn as much as possible to give the proper credit. The information is taught by those who want to make change, and to show how not to disrespect something that is important to a culture.
However, there are people who have no bad intentions and just found some of the items to their liking. They probably meant no harm, but to the culture, they feel mockery since they used it nonchalantly without knowing how important the item is. It is hard to rule out what is appropriating or not because there are people of the culture seeing you as appreciating their culture or just wearing it for aesthetics. Only when you wear it for different reasons like sexually, then that is when the whole culture will be furious. There are many sides with many opinions on how they view outsiders wearing their culture. When engaging with and producing photography, fashion, and creative expressions that incorporate elements of a culture that does not belong to us, it creates a divide.
The distance between understanding the lived experience of others only grows. When done correctly, cultural appreciation can result in deeper understanding and respect across cultures. Though this is not a permanent solution for appropriation, it is an effort to lessen the possibility of disrespecting a culture. Due to our multicultural world, it’s inevitable that cultural appropriation and appreciation will happen.
Questions?
Please email
alina.dai@fontbonneboston.org