# Cultural appropriation **URL:** \ **Category:** Reasonably serious discussion\ **Created:** [1 May 2018 12:27 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735 "2018-05-01T12:27:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gavstar](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/gavstar/32/86128_2.png) [@gavstar](https://www.sotonians.com/u/gavstar)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:27 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/1 "2018-05-01T12:27:19Z")
So this phenomenon has been doing the rounds a bit over the last however long, it would seem there is no end of harmless things to be offended about, I can only hope to god that it doesn’t start spreading to eating food from other countries or I’m well and truly fucked. What do we think? A harmless way of sharing cultural aspects of other countries (my view) or a slap in the face and hugely disrespectful? ## [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-43947959](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-43947959) ---
**Author:** ![PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/philippinesaint/32/3978_2.png) [@PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/PhilippineSaint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:37 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/2 "2018-05-01T12:37:53Z")
Its a load of bollocks. why get offended because somebody else is wearing a dress? These people have nothing else to moan about I reckon even I would look good in that dress by the way :lou_is_a_flirt: ---
**Author:** ![BTripz](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/btripz/32/75839_2.png) [@BTripz](https://www.sotonians.com/u/BTripz)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:39 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/3 "2018-05-01T12:39:57Z")
Words absolutely fail me… ---
**Author:** ![Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cobham-saint/32/99252_2.png) [@Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Cobham-Saint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:42 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/4 "2018-05-01T12:42:54Z")
Can all those who bang on about how cultural appropriation is an insult to their culture confirm that they don’t appropriate other cultures? An example, Chinese couples coming to London for their wedding photos dressed up in European style wedding dresses and morning suits. That’s taking the piss out of Whitey isn’t it? Should I be offended that my culture is being appropriated? The whole issue is an issue only because the modern media allows a disproportionate voice to those who believe it’s their right to be offended & that we have to agree with them- or they’ll be even more offended… ---
**Author:** ![Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cobham-saint/32/99252_2.png) [@Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Cobham-Saint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:45 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/5 "2018-05-01T12:45:32Z")
Up vote for you in the dress reference @philippinesaint ---
**Author:** ![Nottarf-Krap](https://www.sotonians.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/8baadc/32.png) [@Nottarf-Krap](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Nottarf-Krap)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:48 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/6 "2018-05-01T12:48:28Z")
Photo or i don’t believe you. ---
**Author:** ![PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/philippinesaint/32/3978_2.png) [@PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/PhilippineSaint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 12:51 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/7 "2018-05-01T12:51:55Z")
As I am offshore at the moment wearing a dress like that out here I would run the risk of being severly raped by a bunch of randy rig workers so not a chance my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Saint-or-sinner](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/saint-or-sinner/32/64280_2.png) [@Saint-or-sinner](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Saint-or-sinner)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 13:01 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/8 "2018-05-01T13:01:14Z")
It’s a joke surely. Jeremy Lam, tweeted: “My culture is not your… prom dress”. What culture does the name Jeremy come from? ---
**Author:** ![lifeintheslowlane](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/lifeintheslowlane/32/690_2.png) [@lifeintheslowlane](https://www.sotonians.com/u/lifeintheslowlane)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 13:02 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/9 "2018-05-01T13:02:05Z")
Today dear Sotonians I am rockin’ a pair of blue denim jeans, the national dress of mid-west America. Anyone offended can just STFU. :lou_lol: ---
**Author:** ![Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cobham-saint/32/99252_2.png) [@Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Cobham-Saint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 13:22 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/10 "2018-05-01T13:22:52Z")
I’m making a Keralan fish curry for Mrs C\_S and Young Adult for their tea. Teenage Mutant is having a ready made Lasagne and I’m reheating. Mousakka from the other day - We’re happy appropriating any damn culture especially when it comes to food & drink ---
**Author:** ![Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cobham-saint/32/99252_2.png) [@Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Cobham-Saint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 13:26 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/11 "2018-05-01T13:26:24Z")
It’s a very ancient Chinese name obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t use it would he? :lou_facepalm_2: These offendees are only offended where / when it suits them… ---
**Author:** ![CB-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cb-saint/32/95251_2.png) [@CB-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/CB-Saint)\ **Post date:** [1 May 2018 13:51 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/12 "2018-05-01T13:51:09Z")
As someone who comes from a country with culture of oppressing millions of people in the name of empire, I shall exercise my cultural values not to give a fuck about Mr Lam’s feelings ---
**Author:** ![Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/barry-sanchez/32/76_2.png) [@Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Barry-Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [3 May 2018 15:53 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/13 "2018-05-03T15:53:47Z")
I’m always offended me, just wear a Tibetan one then and really fuck the Chinese off, how about a Taiwanese one? ---
**Author:** ![Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/barry-sanchez/32/76_2.png) [@Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Barry-Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [3 May 2018 15:59 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/14 "2018-05-03T15:59:28Z")
Its fucking cultural appreciation anyway, liberals/feminists should be looking for real arguments like the subjugation of women in certain cultures and slavery instead of picking a supposed easy target, cowards. ---
**Author:** ![Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cobham-saint/32/99252_2.png) [@Cobham-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Cobham-Saint)\ **Post date:** [3 May 2018 21:06 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/15 "2018-05-03T21:06:33Z")
Yeah but that’d be too much effort for armchair radicals @barry-sanchez Easy targets are, well…easy. ---
**Author:** ![dinger](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/dinger/32/142_2.png) [@dinger](https://www.sotonians.com/u/dinger)\ **Post date:** [4 May 2018 18:11 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/16 "2018-05-04T18:11:31Z")
As always, it’s a lot more complicated than this one example would suggest, as I’m sure you’re all aware. Things it’s worth remembering when discussing the ‘culture of offence’ include: - If you’ve only just heard about this thing that someone is offended by, it’s far more likely that they’ve always been offended or upset but only recently been given a platform to say so thanks to the democracy of social media and the rising tide of cultural discourse, than that they’ve only just decided to take offence because that’s a fashionable thing to do. - If you’re not personally offended, it might be because you’re in a cultural position that’s relatively unassailable (take your pick of white, western, male, cis-gendered, heterosexual) Cultural appropriation (as I understand it) isn’t borrowing from other cultures. If it was, we’d never get the vibrancy of art and culture that we enjoy, or ever really learn to understand each other. It’s the taking of cultural accoutrements without acknowledgement of what they mean, without a concomitant representation of the people you’re taking from. If you’re from the dominant group in your culture and you’re taking a thing from a group that has been oppressed or undervalued within that culture, is it part of a cultural exchange? Have you considered what the thing you’re ‘borrowing’ signifies in its original context? Or are you (deliberately or unthinkingly) just taking it to adorn your dominant position, like trinkets in the British Museum? It’s a tricky thing to navigate, obviously. And like the notion of political correctness things can can tip one way and another until they find balance. But it’s just another facet of trying to show respect and level out ingrained societal imbalance. I’ve always felt uncomfortable about white kids with dreadlocks. That’s something so heavily freighted with politics and religious significance, yet all the middle class white kids I knew who wore them just saw them as a reductionist shorthand for being chilled out and smoking pot. Almost like the hard-won victories over colonialism and racism in Jamaica were footnotes to some trustafarian’s rebellion against their parents. ---
**Author:** ![Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/barry-sanchez/32/76_2.png) [@Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Barry-Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [4 May 2018 18:50 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/17 "2018-05-04T18:50:46Z")
There’s racism and homophobia in Jamaica now, they also look upon the their fellow smaller islands as backwards and smallfry, you may be surprised to learn Jamiaicans aren’t that well liked by their Caribbeans, it may also be a surprise to note Africans and the Wolrd in general were fighting and hating each other long before Europeans arrived, societal imbalance could stop if money from this Country earned didn’t go to nations that accept homophobia and the like, if you ask I can add examples. Why are dreadlocks so heavily owned by a colour? Africans enslaved African before the white man there’s a fact, without the African there could have been no slave triangle there is another fact, and slavery for diamonds, copper and other goods goes on now and there is another fact. I am here all night till 2030. ---
**Author:** ![dinger](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/dinger/32/142_2.png) [@dinger](https://www.sotonians.com/u/dinger)\ **Post date:** [4 May 2018 18:58 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/18 "2018-05-04T18:58:45Z")
Yeah, I clearly wasn’t espousing some sort of ‘noble savage’ idea that a specific culture was perfect and beyond criticism before white people ruined it. There’s ways of ending cultural oppression and one of them isn’t shouting, “but dad, he hit me first!”. ---
**Author:** ![Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/barry-sanchez/32/76_2.png) [@Barry-Sanchez](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Barry-Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [4 May 2018 19:05 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/19 "2018-05-04T19:05:40Z")
No specifc culture is perfect, the better ones have introspection and allow criticism though, thats a mature culture, ours as much as the liberals and nation haters would disagree is such that. We’re good when compared to others. Again I can give many many examples of that. ---
**Author:** ![dinger](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/dinger/32/142_2.png) [@dinger](https://www.sotonians.com/u/dinger)\ **Post date:** [4 May 2018 19:07 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735/20 "2018-05-04T19:07:48Z")
But that’s so utterly besides the point I don’t even know where to start. Aren’t we discussing the betterment of our own culture? [Next page](https://www.sotonians.com/t/cultural-appropriation/1735.md?page=2)