I am tired of reading episode stories, where the author appropriates another culture and is excused because they didn’t know or they worked hard on their story or they are showing “appreciation” to the other culture.
This is not okay because if the roles were reversed you would be upset too.
Yes, very true.
While I understand how it might be upsetting to see religious items being misused. I think some people are overly dramatic and aggressive with “cultural appropriation”. I don’t see where the matter is if someone of another cultural background learn to love another culture and decide to honour it by wearing it as long as it is done in a respectful way? Are doomed to be limited, restricted to what’s coming from our cultural background only, when there’s so much to learn from each other? Wouldn’t it be another way to end discrimination and raise knowledge about how an item can be used correctly if everyone were allowed to use it (that way why would someone laugh about something that’s becoming part of their regular life?).
The “cultural Appropriation” terms are a really American way of seeing the world, and are for that really foreign for me. Never in my life I have heard about it before login it on episode forum, and never heard it outside Americans website. And quite frankly I’m growing tired about how agressive, tyrannic people becomes with this issue that doesn’t nescesserly has to be one.
I’ve seen many videos of people all around the world finding nothing wrong with foreigner embracing they’re culture, and even enjoying it.
And I’m talking as POC, who have experienced racism, bullying, mockery, and scorn for my background, but I would love to see people with other background showing they’re love for my culture by wearing pagnes boubou or even embracing braided hairstyles, as long as it is done with respect
I feel the same way. For me, culture appropriation would be wearing, for example, a traditional piece of clothing without knowing its cultural significance and usage. If a person is respectful, I have no problem with it and it’s actually quite warming. It’s like learning someone’s language; being able to communicate with them in their native language is pretty cool.
However, in Episode stories… it’s very visual, so it’s all about the appearances. If a person that is not of that culture wears a hairstyle, clothing, etc., it’s not like the author will add a note saying, or rather justifying: this character is very interested in said culture, and is actually respectful towards it! OR this character is actually of – descend!
And so we as readers are, as well, quick to jump to conclusions.
I wanna add a note saying that i’ve seen glimpses of this happening in stories: girl wears a qipao top at party as if it’s a crop top, braided characters… it’s never specifically promoted either, so I mean the author probably has no bad intentions. But i agree, we should be aware of it happening, and it’s normal to be a bit upset.
There is a difference, though some people don’t even like the people whose culture they are appropriating, but still feel like they are entitled to wear something that belongs to another persons culture. If they cannot acknowledge the racism that people go through or how they are seen as lesser than in society, then they should not be appropriating that person’s culture.
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To me, I never got the big deal about cultural appropriation. I’m half black half Indian, so I maybe I have no business in speaking about this topic, but I feel like I need to say a few things.
I have naturally very curly hair. Very. It’s a monster trying to wrestle with it during the morning. Since I am mixed, I don’t wear fully “black” hairstyles, but my hair itself is high maintenance. A lot of times, I would get made fun of in school for my curly hair, when the straight-haired kids would always touch my hair like it was an object. I would get upset, but that’s how this messed up world works.
Now back to cultural appropriation… it doesn’t make sense… at all. The whole purpose of culture is that you’re supposed to share it. No one owns a culture, so why are you preventing white people from wearing conrows, braids, or dreads? Or any other natural black hairstyles? It have never made sense to me. If I see a white person wearing braids, I don’t give a flying crap. If I see a white person wearing a traditional Indian sari, I don’t care. Sometimes, I even smile when I see people of other cultures wearing items from my culture. It makes me happy, you know? Wear what makes you happy, as long as you don’t mock it.
Back to my curly hair situation… many people might think that since I was made fun of back in my elementary school days, I would not support “cultural appropriation”. But honestly, it’s the opposite! I get happy when I see people representing my cultural in a respectful way. Why, you may ask? Well, because honestly, other people wearing natural hairstyles doesn’t affect me in any negative way, because it’s just fucking hair. Preventing other people from wearing braids or dreads because I was previously made fun of my curly hair about 8 years ago makes like 0 sense. Why am I not letting others wearing black hairstyles unoffensively because I was made fun of my curly hair in school? What kind of logic is that?
In conclusion… feel free to wear other cultural clothing, as long as you don’t mock it or any part of the culture. It’s not a fucking big deal.
Cultural appropriation is an issue I’ve seen come up quite frequently these days, and I agree, it is upsetting when people appropriate your culture. I think that people fail to realize that there is a very fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. The line is fine, but it is still there. People have to be mindful when they create their characters and dress them up in cultural clothing or use cultural hairstyles. You can’t just put someone from culture 1 in the cultural clothing of culture 2 “just because.” If the character genuinely appreciates the culture, there are other ways to show their appreciation, and if they do dress in cultural clothing, I’d appreciate an explanation if there is no sensible reason for their dress choice. Culture is meant to be shared, yes. That is why I have no problem with cultural appreciation (although I have some personal thoughts on “sharing” certain things). But I need to know that you understand the meaning behind what you are wearing. Otherwise, that is just cultural appropriation, in my opinion.
There are still spaces where black hairstyles are considered “unprofessional” on black people (and are considered “stylish and trendy” on non-black people), so I personally don’t believe that “hair is just hair.” Although it should be, it simply isn’t, which is why I do take issue with non-black people wearing box braids, dreads, and the like. Especially since some of the non-black people who do wear these styles hold some questionable opinions about black people and clearly do not understand the cultural significance of these hairstyles.
I agree that culture is meant to be shared, but those receiving must also understand the culture that is being shared. That is why I’m for cultural appreciation, but not appropriation. Appreciation for a culture that is understood is not a problem to me. I just think that on a storytelling app like Episode, the appreciation must be stated, otherwise it looks like appropriation.
I wish people won’t always have the same default small eyes, olive skin for certain Asian characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, for example) and then tell me that “it’s because the character is Asian”. I myself have fair skin and big eyes.
Black and Hispanic children were told they couldn’t go to school because their Headwraps were so-called distracting. Black women and men are still being told to this day that “black hairstyles” are unprofessional. But if a non-poc wears these hairstyles they’re seen as cool and exciting, so people have a right to be offended because the same thing they were mocked for is the same thing a person of another race is being praised for.
I’m not trying to invalidate ANY opinions here, just to make that clear.
On one hand, I agree. I’m only 15 so I’m clueless about my natural hair being unprofessional because I haven’t held any job yet, so I can’t relate there. But yea, people have the right to be offended at their natural hair being called dirty or ghetto or unprofessional.
On the other hand, that’s not really a valid excuse to ban other people of different races from wearing these ethnic/cultural hairstyles. A non-Poc doesn’t have control of what the media thinks of their cultural hairstyles, so why refuse to let them wear it? It is my firm belief that culture is meant to be shared, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t limits or solutions we can’t come up with, instead of limiting these hairstyles to pocs only.
A better solution for POCs and non-POCs is getting the modern world/media more invested and knowledgeable about POCs hair and their textures and how not to offend them or their hair.
To some extent, I agree. “Hair is just hair” isn’t all that true because of all the struggles black women and children go through from society just wearing their hair natural. Unprofessional, dirty, ghetto, ratchet, and ugly are words that get thrown around a lot when referring to POC’s hair.
I don’t personally take issue to people who aren’t black or hispanic wearing their hair in braids, dreads, cornrows, or anything similar, because, at the end of the day, they are for cultural appreciation 90% of the time.
My definitions of appreciation and appropriation are as follows:
Cultural Appreciation: Appreciating and respecting the culture you are wearing/flouting/talking about. I’m all for appreciation, and it’s one of my favorite parts of culture sharing.
Cultural Appropriation: I’m kind of ehhhh on this one. Appropriation is wearing/using a culture with no respect for it, and mocking it. Saying “ew, braids are disgusting” then wearing them is cultural appropriation. Even saying something like that is considered cultural appropriation to me. So obviously, I’m against this type of culture sharing.
I agree/disagree with you in that aspect.
I would love to see someone outside of my culture wear a Vietnamese Ao Dai!
However, I think many people are so aggressive on this topic is because of the history in oppression.
I’m not rather an aggressive person, but I can see why people would be so strict on it.
For example, if I see a white person sexualizing an Ao Dai, I would be angry. They have a history in oppressing asian people. Also, in America it seems that racism and disrespect towards Asians seems so normalized
How I see it is the context of why they’re so mad. Another example is black people. It will be much more heavy to see a white person wearing box braids than to see a Hispanic wearing it because of the history in slavery. It all depends
But I definitely see where you’re coming from. As long as they wear the cultural asset respectfully, I don’t see the problem with it. I would love to see all people embrace my Ao Dai because it’s such a beautiful dress, and it shows respect towards my people:))
The media will never take the time to understand because a large percentage of the media is ran by white people, most of them are racist. Black people only run around 7% in America alone. This plays a big factor in why poc are so disrespected and are seen as animals in the media so I doubt they will take the time to educate people on why disrespecting someone else’s culture
Now about sharing culture I believe that if a person wears something from an oppressed group then they need to address things like African Americans facing police brutality or how Hispanic children are separated from their parents or how some east Asian kids are being bullied because people think they eat rats or bats.
If a non-poc cannot speak out about these issues, then they should not be allowed to wear another person’s cultural assets.
Is bad
I hope I don’t offend anyone by asking this here, but I don’t know where else to ask it and it seems to be that you guys are up for talking about it.
Again, I mean no harm in asking this and if it is rude, please tell me
What ink and limelight hair styles would be wrong for a white character to have without stating it’s out of respect. As an example, I have a white male character in one of my stories who starts off the story showing that he has straight hair (Boy Bun). However in the next season, his hair changes to cornrows because that was actually how I originally designed him. I didn’t really think anything of it, because I’ve seen tons of white people in my real life have cornrows.
Then I saw a post that was calling out a problematic author - and most of their reasoning for why this author was problematic I understood. But then a slide came up about hair styles on white people that are for black characters such as the ink Cornrow Faux Hawk. As I come from a predominantly white state (98% white people), I didn’t know this was even an issue until it came up in that post. By no means am I trying to state that as a defense, I’m simply adding context.
I also want to state that I actively try to include POC in my stories of all shapes and sizes and I know that typically white characters should not have afros, but that’s about as far as I do know.
