What is Culture Appropriation?

Karlie Kloss during Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Image from The Closet Feminist.

Katy Perry dressed as a geisha at American Music Awards in 2013. Image from ThoughtCo.

Culture Appropriation is an act of using somethings that from other people's culture without showing respect and understanding. Appropriation occur when a leading group of people utilizes the craftsmanship, culture or religious images, thoughts and expressions from long-marginalized groups to profit themselves. This kind of issues usually happened in music, fashion, beauty industries. For example, wearing a Pocahontas (Native American) costume for Halloween, or Katy Perry dressed as a geisha at American Music Awards in 2013. 

But this does not mean that we can not use other people's culture, Quote from TheStar.com "Cultures are fluid and we constantly appreciate and take from one another." Instead of just making money from other people's culture, we should understand and study the back story of some objects like the headdress from Native American and the meaning of Bindi, because sometimes it might be disrespectful if we use it without the knowledge of some culture. 

For my own opinion, "Cultural Appropriation" is a controversial topic,  but I felt that cultural appropriation are not a issue in Malaysia. For example, I am a Chinese, but sometimes I wore Baju Kurung during special occasions, and my friend who is a Malay, she tried to help me wear tudung during National Service. I actually felt that mix culture is really beautiful but before we tried to practice other's culture, we need to be respectful and understand why they did it, wear it, or listen to it. It is a basic respectation towards other people's culture.



Reference:

Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) Culture Appropriation [online] Available on: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/cultural-appropriation (Accessed on 29th May 2017)

Paradkar. S (2017) What cultural appropriationis, and why you should care: Paradkar [online] Available on: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/16/what-cultural-appropriation-is-and-why-you-should-care-paradkar.html (Accessed on 29th May 2017)



Image:


Yakashiro. E (2014) I'm ready for a new conversation on Fashion & Cultural Appropriation [online] Available on: http://www.theclosetfeminist.ca/im-ready-for-a-new-conversation-on-fashion-cultural-appropriation/ (Accessed on 29th May 2017)

Nittle. N. K. (2017) What is Cultural Appropriation and Wht is it Wrong? [online] Available on: https://www.thoughtco.com/cultural-appropriation-and-why-iits-wrong-2834561 (Accessed on 30th May 2017)