Festival and creative outfit styles have long decorated the pages of magazines, and more recently social media, and will continue to do so in the near future. And thus so will the styles that have been appropriated featured in these images. Cultural appropriation is a widespread issue affecting the numerous members of numerous cultures and religions. One definition of cultural appropriation is where cultural outsiders use or borrow artistic styles that are not original to them (Matthes). Though often times the “borrowing” that the members of a different culture does is, in fact, more closely related to stealing and often times the culture stolen from is not given credit when it is needed. Majority of the time the cultural appropriation is done by a large, dominant culture to a smaller, marginalized culture or group that is not well represented or has faced prejudice in the past. Cultural appropriation is a major issue in American fashion and beauty trends …show more content…
This also could be given the catchy name of ‘white women do it better’ which would be catchy with the youth of today. This is probably the basis of cultural appropriation in North America, mainly the United States. It can affect everyone from marginalized groups in ones own community to the celebrities who are not white or of a traditional white family culture.
Catelyn Williams in her paper, Why Is My Black Culture Only Accepted When A White Person Is Appropriating it?, uses the example of the public response to both Kylie Jenner and musician Ciara who each at one point wore cornrows. Kylie was praised for it while Ciara was called discriminatory and rude names. This goes to show how that, Kylie, a white women received positive feedback from a hair style she appropriated while Ciara received negative feedback for wearing a style traditional to her
“Hollywood is an industry that gravitates toward trends, but the natural hair movement has gone unnoticed and unaddressed on small screens all across the country” (Gordon, 2015, para. 4). Recently, the shows that are rated high, black women are wearing weaves and wigs instead of their natural, unprocessed hair. When analyzing Olivia Pope from scandal or Gabrielle Union from Being Mary Jane we all see that they obviously wear weaves and wigs. Even though natural hair is missing from hit TV shows, some stars, such as Lupita Nyong’o, the 12 Years a Slave star has strutted the red carpet with their natural hair on display. Only time will tell when more roles will feature women like Tracee Ellis Ross; starring in ABC’s new comedy Black–ish, sporting the big natural hairstyles that more and more Black women have been embracing. I believe actresses have fear of being limited by their natural hairstyles and that’s why weaves and wigs continue to dominate the
Rogers from defines cultural appropriation “as the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture” then it divides cultural appropriation into four different categories which is cultural exchange, cultural dominance, cultural exploitation, and cultural transculturation. Then it includes how other people define cultural appropriation. I would like to use this article to help my reader understand not only what cultural appropriation is and how it is bad but other people’s point of views and how they see it.
In the article “What is Cultural Appropriation and Why is it Wrong? By Nadra Kareem Nittle and article “The Difference between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation” by Jarune Uwujaren. It talks about how cultural appropriation and about people wearing and using other cultural things such as the style of the clothes. It is usually known as borrowing but now it is not just borrowing since people who wear things/ objects with meaning and significance from other cultures do not even know the meaning. However, in cultural exchange it is much different when someone uses or does something that other cultures do for example, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the U.S, but it is the Latinos that live in the U.S who are celebrating and they are proud
It is this form of prejudice that has more to do with skin tone rather than race. This mentality oppresses and criticizes those with darker skin tones and those that deviate from one desired appearance. It is for this reason that many Black women have gone out of their way to assimilate to society’s beauty standards or attempt to be “white”. What this simply means is that these Black women have gone to extreme lengths to appear light skinned and to make their natural hair as “white” looking as possible. This is partially due to the racist and colorist mentality in this society but also because there is a huge market in making Black women feel as if they are unworthy of being called beautiful because of their skin tone and hair. In Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” he states that within his own community each individual spends an average of five thousand dollars a treatment on an attempt to get “good hair” and that the industry that is responsible for pushing this upon Black women is worth about nine billion dollars. The effects of this colorist mentality can be seen throughout history take for example during the Supreme Court case “Brown vs The Board of Education” (1954) in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to enact laws that created segregated schools solely for Black Americans. One of the pivotal
However, there is an argument on whether or not the significance of cultural appreciation or appropriation is true. DAZED magazine’s Dounia Tazi says, “Although it seems like a fairly easy concept to grasp, many people still argue that being able to ‘express’ themselves in imitation dreadlocks and e-Bay purchased bindis is more important than the consideration of the culture they’re jacking from.” More precisely, these people would rather not have any knowledge of what they wear; they want to look cool. Expressing yourself can be done effectively without disrespecting anyone in the process. As far as imitation dreadlocks go, there are White people who make the claim that since Black people wear their hair straightened or have a blonde wig or weave, they should be accountable for appropriation of White culture. At the same time, this is untrue. Black people were forced to assimilate into a society that did not accept them with kinky or curly hair. Assimilation of a culture is defined as “to cause (a person or group) to become part of a different society, country, etc. (Merriam-Webster).” The argument of this does not make sense nor does it have factual evidence to say Black people are appropriating White culture. By wearing blonde hair, there is no appropriation because White people are not the only race with naturally blonde hair. Furthering this claim, Black people cannot appropriate something they were forced
“Good” hair has become a prerequisite to be considered for a job or to be allowed in some schools. Institution policies have violated black bodies in many instances where black people were not considered humans unless they conformed to chemically or manually altering who they are. Black hair is not a crime and a black person wearing their natural hair should not be a revolutionary act. For generations, the dominance of the white culture has been reflected through the way blacks wore their hair. African Americans have constantly been forced to compromise their authenticity to fit the white man’s standards. One group of people should not have to compromise their behavior and appearance to gain human rights. The dehumanization of Black American females has contributed to internalized racism, self-hatred and self-policing seen today in black women and needs to come to an
Cultural appropriation can be defined as the process of borrowing and changing the meaning of cultural products, slogans, images and elements of fashion. In todays society we see more and more of this, especially in the celebrity world. This essay will give insight as to what cultural appropriation is and it will examine the reasons and consequences of celebrities that “borrow” from other cultures.
Fashion is dressing a certain way to express how a person really is. Imagine coming from African descent and using a hairstyle to represent your culture, and the results are being judged and told that they are probably some
Malcolm X wrote of his “conk”: “This was my first really big step toward self degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that black people are ‘inferior’ –and white people ‘superior’ –that they will even violate and mutilate their God created bodies to try to look ‘pretty by white standards” (X 356). Many black men and the majority of black women have diverted themselves from the wearing of unprocessed (natural) hairstyles from the fear of losing approval from whites and fellow blacks as well.
Cultural appropriation has been a controversial subject of debate for decades; hence it is not something “new” as society likes to think. The issue of cultural appropriation seems to have recently emerged in the 21st century because technology has allowed information to be more widespread and easily accessed. The borrowing of cultural elements of minority cultures, particularly black culture and indigenous culture, (hairstyles, music, fashion, art, etc.) by fashion labels and designers, celebrities, and the dominant culture often elicits unforgiving backlash from liberals. For example, Kylie Jenner has frequently been called out by the black community for continuously
This paper will argue that to be a Black woman with natural hair, is deviant in the eyes of white culture. Natural hair is regarded as unkempt, unclean, and unprofessional (Thompson 2009). American society seeks to demonize the hair of Black women because natural hair disregards Eurocentric beauty standards (Robinson 2011). To rebel and wear one’s hair naturally comes with a price - especially in the workplace and school environment - because there are discriminatory dress-codes that prevent Black women from meeting institutional requirements (Klein 2013). Black women face discrimination for their natural hair due to the power imbalance of white men in work and educational structures.
She states, “Individual preferences (whether rooted in self hate or not) cannot negate the reality that our collective obsession with straightening black hair reflects the psychology of oppression and the impact of racist colonization” (Hooks 540).
Hair is not just a part of you, hair is also a way for people to judge you. When Ifemelu cut her hair, people asked her if it “meant anything, like something political” (p211), or if she became “a lesbian” (p211). The way of wearing one’s hair has influence on people, good or bad. In Americanah, wearing an Afro may probably not make it easier to get a job. In a conference, Adichie said: “If Michelle Obama had natural hair, Obama would not have won [the presidency of the United States]”. Indeed, the image people would have had of Michelle Obama and thus of Barack Obama could have been different, as if something might have been “wrong” with
Clothing has always been an important part of society, with evidence from the earliest human civilizations. In history, climate, religion and political factors played a role in the fabrication, styling and even color of the garments that people wore. Today, the fashion industry is multi-faceted, and while climate and religion are still some factors in how we dress, there are many more influences in what we choose to wear. Time and time again, designers reference historical styles and push them into modern trends. Subcultures illustrate how a particular way of dressing can transform into a lifestyle. Ethnic fashion ties in with a specific culture’s values and beliefs. By looking at clothing in other societies around the world, as well as the many global subcultures, we can learn a lot about the depth and complexity of the members that make this world colorful and diverse.
To begin with, I shall look at what fashion is; it is a currently popular style or practice involving clothing, footwear or accessories. It mostly refers to the current trends in looks and dressing style of a person (Cumming 234). In most cases, fashion is confusedly related to costumes; when a person talks of fashion they are seen to mean fashion in terms of textile. Fashion is seen to originate from the Western world and it is copied by other places. In this paper, we shall look at how fashion affects lifestyles and the group of people who are affected most. The paper further investigates how media is used to transmit fashion from one region to the other. Although it has been seen to affect people’s lives many people have different perspectives on fashion and dressing.