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Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation

omgthatdress:

When differentiating between cultural exchange an cultural appropriation, this first and most important thing that you have to acknowledge is that it’s fucking complicated.  While there are no hard-set rules about what isn’t appropriation, there are a lot of things that definitely are appropriation. 

            One of the first things you learn about when you take an anthropology or sociology course is cultural exchange: the flow of goods, information, and ideas from one culture to another.  One of the best examples of cultural exchange comes from the first European settlers to the Americas and the Native Americans.  The Europeans gave the Native Americans horses, and the Native Americans gave the Europeans the corn and potatoes that would eventually become diet staples.  In an ideal world, cultural exchange would always work like this, with both cultures coming off the better for it.  Unfortunately, the horses given to the Native Americans came with smallpox and even more White people.  Four hundred years later, the young descendants of the European settlers would decide that it’s cool to wear the war bonnets traditionally by warriors of the Plains tribes of Native Americans.  This is cultural appropriation.

            Believe it or not, it’s quite possible to create fashion inspired by other cultures without appropriating them.  It just has to be done right.  Alexander McQueen once said something to the effect that racism in fashion comes down to the clothing of other cultures being regarded as a costume.  When creating a garment based on one from another culture, you have to know what that garment is and respect it.  Every single culture on earth has garments and objects worn for the simple purpose of being fabulous and serving no function beyond that.  When McQueen created his iconic Asian-inspired ensembles, he borrowed from the rich silks and embroideries of China and Japan, lovingly re-creating them on new and innovative outfits for the West.  Both cultures were combined into something beautiful and never seen before. 

Unfortunately, not every designer in the world is as sensitive to other cultures as McQueen.  One of the most notorious examples of cultural appropriation is John Galliano’s African goddess shoes.  Galliano crossed the cultural appropriation line by taking something sacred, a statuette of an African goddess, and turning it into a mundane shoe.  To Westerners, this may look unique and exotic, but to Africans who worship the goddess, it’s a desecration.  The Native American headdresses so popular among hipsters are hard-earned badges of honor worn by warriors and leaders who have proven their bravery and earned tremendous respect.  They are worn during times of war, so when a Native American chieftain comes up to you wearing his war bonnet, you know he means fucking business.  Wearing this tremendous symbol of prestige to a party degrades it into something you wear to a party.  It becomes a cartoonish racial stereotype similar to the blackface that white entertainers would put on for “negro minstrel” acts. 

Privilege also comes into comes into play in the world of cultural exchange.  I’ve heard it complained before that it’s not fair that non-Scottish people get to wear plaid while non-Native American people can’t wear headdresses.  Just because Scotland was subjugated by England 300 years ago doesn’t negate the fact that legal segregation in America existed only 50 years ago.  As someone of Scottish descent, I enjoy all the perks of privilege that the English who drove my ancestors from their homeland enjoyed.   Yeah, it may not seem fair that you can’t wear the war bonnet you didn’t earn, but colonialism isn’t fair, either.

Sometimes, the debate between appropriation vs. exchange falls into an awkward spot.  One of the most famous western practitioners of orientalism is Paul Poiret.  Poiret operated in a time when racism was a fact of life and the idea that the Eurocentric point of view might have something wrong with it was absolutely unheard of.  He used oriental (which at the time meant anything from Islamic culture, India, and East Asia) design elements for their exotic and risqué factor.  His designs are beautiful and a pinnacle of western design, but criticism of racism is warranted.  But Poiret’s use of exoticism is still felt today.  Most notably, Poiret was the first major designer to create outfits meant to be worn, in true oriental style, without a corset.  At first, it was a scandal, but fifteen years after he began designing, corsets had been abandoned as a symbol of antiquity.  While it may have had mostly to do with the radical social changes that came after the First World War, Poiret certainly got the ball rolling.  So, technically, not wearing a corset is cultural appropriation.  This is why, sometimes, you can’t just weed out every single little fucking thing that may have at one point been appropriation.  I’m sure as hell not putting on a corset just to leave my house anytime soon.  When another culture has a good idea, sometimes you just have to go with it.