Taylor Thompson


                                               The Nightmare of Halloween 


       It's that time of year again, Halloween! You and your friends have been planning your costumes for weeks, you all have the best costumes picked out for the costume contest at school, Native American chiefs. You feel that you and your friends definitely have the number one most authentic and creative costume of the night when you show up to the contest, only seeing others in costumes like Vampires, Superheros and Goblins. Everyone starts looking at your costumes as soon as you walk in, they must really like it! But as the night goes on, nobody has complimented you or your friends on your awesome costumes, not even the teachers. It's later in the night when your teacher pulls you and your friends over to talk, she explains that she has gotten many complaints from other students about the Cheif costumes. Immediately you feel embarrassed, how could this happen?

    Unfortunately, this happens every year, people are insensitive to other's culture and don't even realize it most the time. Culture is the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group. This also means that food, clothes and certain hairstyles are considered to be apart of someone's culture.
    Cultural Appropriation is when someone who is not apart of that culture takes something like a hairstyle or native dress and tries to make it their own, this occurs the most in fashion magazines, celebrity performances and most of all Halloween. some of the biggest celebrities from Beyonce to Katy Perry and big names in fashion such as Victorias Secret and Gucci have all misappropriated culture in the past at performances and fashion shows and all were called out rightfully so.


                                   Wear a costume, Not someone's culture   

                Cultural Appropriation is a very confusing topic, we use many things from many different cultures every day such as language, music, and art. But there certain ways to appreciate a culture, such as in an educational and respectful way. We see people who think they're funny, dressing up in kimonos, hair in a bun and squinting their eyes. This worryingly adds to horrible stereotypes and will more than likely offend people from Asian or Japanese culture. Appropriating culture is a problem, wearing a costume that is "funny" at someone else's expense is NOT COOL, but appreciation and education of culture is totally fine, being respectful is KEY. 


                                                  The Importance of this Blog 
             
           Nobody wants to come off ignorant or offensive, this blog is to educate and inform readers on how to stay away from misappropriating cultures that are not their own. So many people face harsh stereotypes every day and work hard to break them down but when someone who is not educated or just plain ignorant throws on a "hilarious" costume, the people at the end of that joke have to start back at square one facing more stereotypes. The topic of whether you are appreciating or appropriating is complicated, but if you can't tell if your costume is going to offend someone or not, don't wear it.  






Gaertner, J. (2017, June 28). Cultural Appropriation: 10 Times Celebs & Brands Took Things Too Far. Retrieved from https://www.cosmopolitan.co.za/style/cultural-appropriation-fashion/. 

Gaertner, J. (2017, June 28). Cultural Appropriation: 10 Times Celebs & Brands Took Things Too Far. Retrieved from https://www.cosmopolitan.co.za/style/cultural-appropriation-fashion/.

Liu, M. (2019, October 31). Perspective | A culture, not a costume. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/30/culture-not-costume/.

Soh, S. (2018, November 22). Does fashion have a cultural appropriation problem? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46297329.

Liu, M. (2019, October 31). Perspective | A culture, not a costume. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/30/culture-not-costume/. 


Soh, S. (2018, November 22). Does fashion have a cultural appropriation problem? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46297329.   

What is cultural appropriation and why is it offensive? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theweek.co.uk/cultural-appropriation.