Mar 29, 2017
On how the fashion industry exploits non-white cultures in order to appeal to white consumers
Using their privilege to look the culture, without actually experiencing it.
It is apparent that cultural appropriation has become a an important topic of discussion it a time like now where there seems to be a rise in attempts to become more diverse in different aspects of our society. However, when society tries to introduce more diversity typically some context of the cultures they are trying to bring more attention to is lost. This is when we usually see cultural appropriation, as non-white cultures are othered, seen as something “different”, and used a spice to “liven up the cull dish that is mainstream white culture” according to bell hooks.
Perhaps the most common context we see cultural appropriation is through media, and consumerist scenes such as fashion. It runs rampant when white men and women use aesthetics of non-white cultures on themselves, in order to appear to be part of this “other” culture. Whether it be because of of white culture’s attempt to ease their “contemporary crises of identity” as described by bell hooks, or because they feel it is an attempt to add some characteristic of excitement or intensity to their appearance, it does not go deeper than the surface.
When fashion incorporates parts of a non-white culture, whether it be Native American patterns used on clothing and accessories such as the way Urban Outfitters has done, white women wearing box braids, or even using non-white culture as nothing more than a backdrop to emphasize the contrast in the white model being used. bell hooks’ description of a fashion catalog that used scenes of Egypt as a backdrop, as well as Egyptian people who’s faces were even blurred out, perfectly represents the discourse going on with cultural appropriation. The blurred out faces of the Egyptian people used in this catalog’s photo shoot represents the erasing of the contexts and histories behind these bits and pieces of the cultures used. bell hooks describes this as consumer cannibalism, as white cultures utilize this exchange in order to add some sort of “primitiveness” to their culture while denying the culture they are exchanging with any kind of real voice on the context of that piece of their culture. This can be described as white culture’s attempt at becoming more diverse, thus easing the guilt of their history of racial dominance, as well as feeling as though they have now gone through some sort of initiation into a non-white culture that would then add some kind of intensity or wildness to their static lives.
The attempt of white culture using non-white culture to spice up their lives and, in this case, fashion can best be summed up by a fashion show described in this article. Not only does the designer use the “primitive” look of Native Canadian/American cultures to add something different to the fashion line, but the fact that it uses Old European aesthetics to contrast with the “tribal duds” represents in itself both colonization and how white culture incorporates non-white culture as nothing more than something extra to liven themselves up while still maintaining their whiteness. The description of the fashion line by the designer uses the word “enchantment” to describe the aesthetic of Canadian Indian tribes, which reflects bell hooks’ statements on how white people have a desire for the Other, in that is something so exciting and different that they must commodify it. This description of non-white culture, as something so other worldly yet enticing, continues to other those cultures, as they are then only used as instruments of different form for the benefit of white culture.
Although there are many aspects of non-white culture that makes it’s way into white culture, there is very much a lack of the contexts behind these things. Even though white people take and use bits and pieces of these cultures in order to seem like they have some part of it or some understanding of it, there is still a lack of attempting to actually understand the importance of what they are wearing. In fact, they even become critical of non-white cultures’ attempts to make themselves known when parts of their cultures are being used. bell hooks uses the example of black nationalism as a response to white people trying to possess and violate black culture. However, she also describes how this black nationalism is criticized as being an attempt of ethnic purity in their own culture. This failed attempt at trying to understand the histories behind the aspects of the Other that white culture tries to possess, can also be seen today in more subtle ways in regards to cultural appropriation. It is very common for white people who are accused of cultural appropriation to quickly become defensive over such an accusation. The common response becomes either that of of accusing the non-white person of being overly sensitive, or making claims of cultural “appreciation”. This kind of interaction represents how white culture can claim that their desire to take some part of someone else’s culture is that of an attempt to add some kind of diversity that can reject their history of oppression, but also how through this exchange of culture, the white voice still becomes more important. Such can be seen in this article, where once cultural appropriation has been identified, no matter how much of a non-white culture white people can take from, they will always still have that privilege that gives them more power and and more of a say on matters that doesn’t even involve them.
So although there exists the common argument that cultural appropriation actually appreciation, we must still be wary of the ways in which non-white culture is used in comparison to white culture. Non-white culture cannot be appreciated or understood when they are described and used through the perspective of white people, and thus erases the histories and voices that were behind those fashion choices you may be using. The fact that cultural appropriation can so strongly be seen in something such as the fashion industry shows how prominent it can be in our daily lives, and leaves us to be critical in every aspect of our society.
