My culture is not a costume
With the endless and creative halloween costumes, comes some not so great ones...
A video by Teen Vogue covers the topic on how cultural appropriation can be seen as disrespectful to ones culture.
The video is important, because almost everyone celebrates halloween and dresses up and we need to educate ourselves on what is and is not appropriate to wear.
A video by Teen Vogue covers the topic on how cultural appropriation can be seen as disrespectful to ones culture.
The video is important, because almost everyone celebrates halloween and dresses up and we need to educate ourselves on what is and is not appropriate to wear.
In my experience with Halloween costumes and cultural appropriation, I have always seen these costumes whenever I went to different costume stores back when I was younger, and have questioned its choices. I have not really thought of it deeply back then, but reflecting to now, its very wrong.
The costume of the culture we are trying to make fun of or dress as even if it isn't, has deep cultural meaning to its history, so when we put out these costumes that are not done right and made of the wrong materials, it is offensive. If cultural appropriation was a sign of flattery, why isn't the cultural aspects of a costume not done accurately or positively rather than conforming to a comedic stereotype.even if halloween is about dressing as another person, there is a boundary between what you can and shouldn't do. There are other ways in which you can appreciate and immerse in a different culture.
If we expose others to our culture and educate them about what is and isn't offensive, cultural appropriation would be less of an issue.exposure to diversity is key, especially at a young age while we are still developing.Some may be oblivious to its offensive connotations, but it is our responsibility to educate them so that way it won't be done again and they therefore can spread what they learnt for someone who is going to do the same as they did in the past.I think that as a society, we are becoming more aware and respectful to everybody, including rather than excluding, and I believe that someday this may not be an issue that occurs frequently.
I really liked your points made on cultural appropriation. Some of the points that I am glad were highlighted are: cultural costumes would be made with accuracy if they were to be flattering, they would not be worn on a day meant for funny and- for lack of a better word -weird costumes, and that the majority of people who do wear these costumes do not intend to be insulting or disrespectful. I particularly liked the last mentioned point because these people can be misunderstood and regarded as disrespectful when they may not realize the discomfort which they cause. To dissuade people from wearing these costumes, I think that the idea of educating and exposing the issue to people is very important. Also, I liked that this idea is stressed through saying that people should be taught this at a young age, and when they are aware of the problem, to share what they know with others.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you have claimed how you have stated your realization about the costumes of halloween that are capable of harming the identity of multiple cultures. It must feel quite embarrassing as in the past, what you knew about halloween was just all of joy and laughs with your friends as you dress up, but now after seeing this video , it makes you question deeply if any of the costumes you had worn before had offended somebody else. I liked how you said in this post that for the people who have created these cultural costumes and had offended someone badly, you show that it isn't too late for that individual to make up for their mistakes. Within all this is respect, as you say is a great progress in our society.
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