AIBU to ask you to explain cultural appropriation and why it is bad to me

[ConfusedWife1234]

So I am a white woman of mixed European ancestry and I think most of the things I typically wear are European or US American in origin, apart from polo Shirts and khakis (which I learned are Indian in origin, but I did not even know this until recently).

So I am not sure what cultural appropriation is. Is it cultural appropriation:

-If a rich person dresses down
-If a poor person dresses like a billionaire
-If a civilian wears clothes of military origin
-If a white European dresses like a white American
-If a white European dresses like a Afroamerican
-If a young person attends a re-enactment group and dresses up for a historical event that happened before he or she was born

Or is is just cultural appropriation if a person from another culture chooses to dress in a dress worn for special occasion... like this girl who wore a Chinese wedding dress for her prom.

Also why is cultural appropriation bad. Not asking to be snarky here. Really interested to learn.

Is it that the dress is seen as sacred, like maybe a Christian would be offended if someone wore a cross as part of his dress... or is it the idea that a certain style of dress must be earned.

Bumper1969 Excuse me? Er are you for real? You do realise that Irish people study history and can read right?

It isn't so much the Irish, as the Irish Americans who have a distorted view on British/Irish history

And maybe we don't need a history lesson from you. Victorian England did not suffer on a par with the Irish under Britsh rule.

English people did suffer on a par under British rule. They were subject to the same laws, they underwent the same agricultural enclosure of land, they underwent the same kind of evictions. They were subject to the same penal laws regarding religion

Ireland was represented in 'British' parliament btw

The famine was as much a consequence of Britishlaws as it was the blight.

I think you might have a good point here, but which laws are you referring to?

I am shocked at your comments about Ireland and irish people, and don't bother with a useless history lesson, I have aPHD in it. Shocking. Racist to boot!

Do you know the 'race' of everyone commenting on this topic?

So Yehudi Menuhin didn't really get German music?

confused wife you claim I "blamed" you - yet in your reply you didn't address a single thing I said.

& there you have it - as I said, cultural appropriators want to talk ABOUT those they appropriate they want justification for their appropriation too. But they don't want to talk TO those they appropriate. All they're interested in is the 'cool' factor of whatever style they're sporting at the moment.

You don't see and hear any other narrative, because you've chosen not to

Your whole premise here is false. & you chose to ask your question on a mainly white board, for a reason.

Carry on.

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Saw this and thought of this thread...

Take a look at Rihanna etc dressed up a bishop at the Met Gala. A party with a theme of Catholicism. How disrespectful. And all the 'stars' lining up to show off their fancy dress. Apart from Madonna, I doubt many of them know much about Catholicism or dressed with much knowledge or respect for the religion.

The event was endorsed by the Vatican

I find this idea of only x and y group can wear/eat/do x and tv really divisive and quite unhealthy as PP have said.

It seems like more of an argument against exploitation in capitalism (which is a reasonable concern) than a genuine argument that cultures can’t or shouldn’t respectfully change, adapt, take on new things.

What are we saying, that people from x culture that is well known for y, should only ever eat/wear/listen to y? Otherwise they are somehow not really x? That seems very reductive and exclusionary. Also, taking the piss out of or fetishing y because x is known for it, would be wrong as well.

But Everything we do is culture. There isn’t any neutral non culture anywhere in the world that there are people. So I think we need to just accept cultural mixing, borrowing, taking without credit if that happens through ignorance, and we should celebrate and promote the end result even while educating about history and meaning.

Things are not people and we should always respect people but clearly hats, hairstyles and food etc aren’t the same as people.

If ‘the wrong’ people like these things or do them ‘wrongly’ and they eat and wear them ‘wrongly’ what are we really saying? People mixing, learning from each other, appreciating others things all support broader tolerance and understanding between cultures.

If you look back far enough into history everyone has taken something from everyone else culturally somewhere along the line.

Earlier in the thread I talked about didgeridoos-and I think they are a good example. My ds learned to play one at a Festival when he was 6 (we're not a trendy lefty middle class family -oooh no, not us!) and has played ever since. He busks with it a lot. It is only relatively recently that I have become very uncomfortable with this. I used to think that it was wonderful to embrace other cultures and learn from them. I still do, of course. But i don't now think that a posh boy earning money playing the sacred instrument of a practically exterminated people is wonderful or respectful. It has symbols on it that we have no idea of the meaning. And he has never even been to Australia, never mind met a native Australian. This is a tiny example of what I think is problematic. And an example tht is relevant to me because I am the only member of my family for several generations not to be born in Australia, and I have no idea whether my own ancestors were a party to the extermination. They presumably at the very least turned a blind eye to it.

And an example tht is relevant to me because I am the only member of my family for several generations not to be born in Australia, and I have no idea whether my own ancestors were a party to the extermination. They presumably at the very least turned a blind eye to it.

You are not your ancestors and you are not responsible for anything they might have done

I'm not responsible for what my lot did - good or bad.

"You are not your ancestors and you are not responsible for anything they might have done"

Not responsible, no. But a level of sensitivity and a knowledge of history is simply good manners.

Responsibility is not the same thing as sensitivity and consideration. And while we may not be responsible for what happened in the past, we are responsible for what happens now.

I definitely agree there are times when the accusation of cultural appropriation is ridiculous. But there are some times when it carries some weight.