Still I Rise tattoo - inappropriate for a white woman?

[teawamutu]

Probably stupid middle class navel gazing, but...

Maya Angelou's poem is the most inspiring piece of writing in the world to me. Beautiful and uplifting and universal.

I've been toying for ages with getting a line from the poem as a tattoo, but concerned it would be cultural appropriation. I know MA was a self-declared feminist but that's not the primary focus of the poem.

Would you? And MNers who are POC, would you find it disrespectful?

Well here is the great woman herself reading the poem. It is anything but clunky, to the pp who said as such. It is meant to be spoken aloud, in the tradition of people who had no means of writing down their stories, and had to pass them on through spoken word alone. It is beautiful, undulating and hypnotic

Each to their own. I didn't find it "beautiful, undulating and hypnotic", but I'm not a fan of Maya Angelou's writing although that's irrelevant to the OP's question.

I'm still of the view the "me, me, me" element in appropriating one line for a tattoo, as Flosime said, places yourself at the centre of the struggle when you're not.

From the Google results I got it's also desperately unoriginal. Of course mass repetition does not diminish a truth or Angelou's sincerity and experience in any way but from the point of view of having a tattoo copying thousands of others seems an odd choice.

but from the point of view of having a tattoo copying thousands of others seems an odd choice.

There is almost nothing in any art form that is original (much of tattoo art is particularly guilty of this, but the motivation behind a tattoo is often far less about individuality than it is about mutual group signifiers).

The search for newness in art is how we’ve ended up with modern and post modern art that illicit the ‘but a five year old could do that!’ reaction 😂

Yes indeed, each to their own. It's a wonder that anyone who doesn't care for, or indeed really know, someones work, will get heated about how another person might express their appreciation of it. A bit like people who get into vapours about Shakespeare plays with an all black cast, when they have zero interest in Shakespeare or any of his works otherwise. I think most artists release their work into the world knowing that people from all different backgrounds will interpret it in their own way, with regard to their own personal experience. I am listening to MA's own words at the beginning of the video, and to me, this is what she is saying.

from the point of view of having a tattoo copying thousands of others seems an odd choice.

Why? I am not someone into tattoos, so I don't understand this. Is the value of a tattoo objective or subjective? Are they meant to be sending out a message to all and sundry or are they for tattooed person alone? If it means something to the OP, does it matter if a million other people have it? If a million other people have it, should they now all be getting them removed if they are not black?