Cultural Appropriation being taken too far

[KitBumbleB]

DD is early secondary age and is exploring her hobbies and interests like other kids her age. One of her friends has discovered that she loves cooking and especially likes making Chinese food.
Last night DD was furiously typing on her phone and when I asked what was up she said one of her friends was having a go at the other for "cultural appropriation" because apparently cooking food of another culture or country is wrong.
The girl who likes cooking was incredibly upset and terrified of anyone else finding out as apparently this is the worst crime a tween can commit.

DD also tells me that according to TikTok, learning a language is also appropriation, especially Japanese as it is seen as fetishism

I know this is not AIBU, but am I the only one who thinks this is nonsense and is turning harmful, its like a mindless pile up.

DD and I are not white btw

Oh ffs.

Tell her to get used to it cos her generation are gonna get worse I guess.

@chickenpestopanini

OP- my son is in Y11 and doing GCSE Food Tech. One of the questions for this coursework was to demonstrate his knowledge of Italian cuisine and culinary tradition so he's spent the last few months practicing how to make ravioli, focaccia etc. The thousands of teenagers who have completed this task aren't culturally appropriating, they are learning about another culture which can only be a good thing.

@chickenpestopanini

I guess at least they can use that as an excuse to get out of doing the class.

It is all extremely harmful.
What you have described with your DD shows how amplified the potential harm can be. Imagine the hobby if foreign cooking or learning a language being called cultural appropriation!

I have also read how girls can start to feel there is something wrong with them if they are ‘cishet’ ( non trans heterosexual).

Certainly no fish and chips, unless you're of Jewish ancestry (if I remember my food history correctly).

You only get the fish (fried in matzo meal) if you are of Sephardic Jewish ancestry, @110APiccadilly. You would need mixed Huguenot Sephardic Jewish ancestry so probably no one to be able to eat the chips too, as I think it was the Huguenots who brought chips to the East End. So, if the Times of Israel article is correct and the first fish and chip shop was owned by an Ashkenazi Jew, he "culturally appropriated" both the fish and chips.

There is a fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation but that line is nowhere near cooking Chinese food at home or eating fish and chips.

Its a relief to hear this as I have huguenot ancestry which means I can still enjoy chips.

Your poor DC.

I’d contact the scjool and explain that some of the children are so confused by political correctness that they believe it’s immoral to learn a foreign language, and ask if the school could maybe do an assembly or lesson on the fact that exploring other cultures is a good thing and is not “appropriation.”

Bever had any time for this cultural appropriation bollox personally. It started as a way to bully white straight authors and frighten them away from certain topics, and then escalated into full on nationalism from there.

I actually wrote my thesis partly on the idea of appropriation in food.

So long as she's not mocking the food, stealing a recipe/ claiming she invented it or saying it's X when it bears no resemblance to X then of course it's appreciation rather than appropriation. People can cook and eat whatever they like.

@bellac11

Its a relief to hear this as I have huguenot ancestry which means I can still enjoy chips.

Not exactly as chips are potatoes and they come from South America originally.

Cultural appropriation is usually supposed to be about taking something from a more subjugated class and not crediting them with it. Or copying a subjugated class in a way that seems patronising or mocking.

It has gone too far often though, when you think that in the past some of the greatest cultural movements come from the melting pot of cultures.

And tell your DD’s friends they’d better stop having potatoes, tomatoes, tea, coffee, chocolate, pasta, pizza .,,. What an endless list.

@bellac11

Its a relief to hear this as I have huguenot ancestry which means I can still enjoy chips.

Huguenot ancestry also plus Irish so possible honorary spud rights for heritages. Jewish ancestry also so can have the fish too. But no Peruvian so maybe can't have the spuds (chips)?

@Calandor

I actually wrote my thesis partly on the idea of appropriation in food.

So long as she's not mocking the food, stealing a recipe/ claiming she invented it or saying it's X when it bears no resemblance to X then of course it's appreciation rather than appropriation. People can cook and eat whatever they like.

The problem with someone thinking they invented a dish/food combo, is that for years I have put stuff together and came up with something nice and felt it was my own invention (arent I clever and smug) and then later years on reading cookbooks or looking at something find out it was already someones family favourite or national dish or whatever.

Good job I didnt put it straight on social media and say 'look at this fantastic dish Ive invented' and get people getting angry and accusing me of all sorts because it already existed even though I didnt know about it and had never been exposed to it.

WalkerWalking How the hell is it cultural appropriation if you make money from it ? The world has gone mad.

Kids should be banned from TikTok

I’m hardly surprised or shocked to see young kids getting carried away with a concept like this. It’s a fairly new phenomenon that ideas that have only recently made the leap from academic and activist discourse into the mainstream are everyday topics for children, and they aren’t equipped to understand the subtleties. But it is sad to see some posters implying that there are reasons for learning a foreign language that are worthier than others.

I tend to think even if your interest in Japan is very superficial, engaging with the language is probably the best opportunity to cure you of that.

I’m learning a language at the moment for no particular reason, and the fact I knew very little about the culture at the outset was a draw for me. And I’ve learnt that it is quite different from my culture in some ways - which is part of what makes studying it so interesting. No particular plans to travel to the country and I’m definitely not learning it for work. Innocent hobby or distasteful fetish?

Give me a fucking break! 🙄

innocent hobby or distasteful fetish

Bizarre I always thought that the more people learned about each other and shared ideas and stuff the better we would all get on

Understanding someone from a different culture is much easier if you both speak each other's language

Profiteering from another culture in a way that the people of that culture couldn't due to racism is off but building barriers to each other is the fast track to war

The power of TikTok over teenagers and young people is worrying.
My ds decided to go vegan because of it. Thankfully it only lasted two weeks until the lure of a proper cuppa and chocolate biscuit became too much! Hardest 14 days of parenting ever. 😂

It’s great that the next generation are more aware and having these conversations but unfortunately it sounds for sure that it’s all gone too far here OP. I hope your dd is ok.

If cooking food from other cultures is bad then surely expecting people from other cultures to make it for you is even more problematic, which means we'd have no way of eating it which then surely leaves us all in the (extremely problematic) position of being little englanders avoiding all "forrin" food?

I agree @mudgetastic - this thread is the first I’ve seen of the idea learning a language could be ‘fetishistic’!

And quite funny that Japanese and viewing it as ‘cute’ was selected as an example since kawaii and cuteness is part of popular Japanese culture that has been exported around the world.

I specified we aren't white because I was expecting some responses asking if I was or assuming I was

I thought that was the reason, but it really shouldn’t matter to anyone except racists.

@mudgetastic

innocent hobby or distasteful fetish

Bizarre I always thought that the more people learned about each other and shared ideas and stuff the better we would all get on

Understanding someone from a different culture is much easier if you both speak each other's language

Profiteering from another culture in a way that the people of that culture couldn't due to racism is off but building barriers to each other is the fast track to war

In my experience most people like it when people ask them questions about their culture or display a deeper than usual understanding of their culture.

Making other cultures off limits (unless that culture asks people to leave it alone) creates barriers and division and I think that the world is a better place when people know more about other cultures.

OP- what does your dd think about the fact that some restaurants have a regular menu for locals and secret menu for people who want the truly authentic menu items? (Eg Chinese restaurants) The food on the normal menu are items that people think that locals would enjoy and wouldn't be popular back "home" If her friend is learning the authentic recipes then shouldn't she be praised?

Hang on. If we shouldn’t be eating pasta then neither should anyone of Italian heritage. Didn’t Marco Polo steal that from china in the first place?

So fully intact men wearing dresses and size 11 high heels and calling themselves Trixibelle are culturally appropriating womanhood, yes? Perhaps you DD’s friend could answer that for us OP? If she says this is altogether different I’d love to hear her reasoning 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Belkell

Hang on. If we shouldn’t be eating pasta then neither should anyone of Italian heritage. Didn’t Marco Polo steal that from china in the first place?

Yes I made that point right at the start, along with tomatoes of course which were from the new world

Wouldn’t it be good if we could just switch the internet off for a month, and let all the kids reset?