Criticism of cultural appropriation shouldn't be applied at all.

tbh

People will feel offended regardless if the term is "culture appropriation" or not, and whether it is used for art or other media specific purposes. I agree that art should be limitless and stuff, but when people's culture comes into play, I guess they do have a right to be a offended if someone uses their culture inappropriately.

How is white ass Ellie Goulding wearing a bindi, or whiter ass Katy Perry wearing some disrespectful mishmash of a kimono and a hanfu art though?

I think ppl use that term to much .

It depends on the art and who the artist is.


If you're talented enough or your product is genuinely good, it can be overlooked or forgiven.

Art is a very broad, very subjective term. I personally define "art" as "anything intentionally done or made by someone in order to provoke a reaction in an audience." That can be a rather specific definition, too.

Art can still be offensive, and people can react to art however they want. I'm only asking if the label should even be applied to art, since doing so automatically creates implied limits.

Yes.

Would you care to give explanation?

They have a right to be offended but that should never stop the artist from doing what they dream of/aspire. Art is limitless and people are free to do what they want.

What's the problem with her "white ass" wearing a bindi? South Asians have no problem with it.

I'm more concerned with how she wore it. Why is it in the middle of her forehead? Does she think she looks cute like that?

So white/black people getting offended at white people for wearing things from non-white and non-black cultures is the real problem here?

You are neither Indian nor Japanese. You don't really have a say in this regarding these two examples

I feel this thread is only about things like who wears what to the VMAs but I'll post another related example.



Picasso and a bunch of other artists in the early early 1900s had a movement called Primitivism that borrowed art/motifs from non-Western countries, primarily Africa. They did this in part to anger the general population of affluent white citizens in Europe (aka to be edgy) but also since they romanticized all of Africa to become the idea of humans without civilization, what we all revert back to without laws governing what we do. When they borrowed from "African art" they weren't studying it, they just made up **** based off what the media said and other people thought. So they used caricatures and were wildly off base from what they thought they were doing, even if they thought it had a positive effect.

Even the name of the movement, Primitivism , we can see as pretty racist and an example of harmful cultural appropriation since it continued and spread the notion of an uncivilized Africa (as a singular place filled with only one type of person) filled with noble savages. It's not hard to see or imagine modern parallels still happen.

For a more extensive read, click here.

That's the tea

Great post. Cultural appropriation is especially a problem in postcolonial spaces, y'all should read 'Orientalism' by Edward Said to grasp how Western ideas and appropriations of the "other" can damage cultures through negative association and stereotyping.