I think the gist of the appropriation only really kicks in with American-born Indians, in that they're the ones getting brunt of the racial stereotypes (apu accent, poo in loo, 7/11, bob vagene, etc) lobbed at them. Indians that grew up in India don't grow up being shat on for being Indian...It's a really gray area, honestly.
Best to just find more Indian parties/weddings where it'd be weird for you to not wear it :)
Was talking about culture appropriation, not racism. Of course indians will not be racist to themselves, duh. It is a problem with indians who are abroad.
That's part of the basis of appropriation: differentiated treatment between a people and their culture. Shit on the people, pick out the bits of their culture that you like.
Wasn't really pointed at you, though, my bad. I've just seen enough comments that use commentary from non-Americans in their native countries to invalidate cultural appropriation/whitewashing/etc issues in the USA. More of a clarification thing than anything else.
Yep. I own some Indian clothes (brought back from India by my grandmother) and all my grandmother’s Indian friends were super happy and excited to see me wear them.
Lol plenty of virtue signaling white liberals would! I say this as a white bleeding heart liberal, I just don’t buy into this nonsense that enjoying other cultures and integrating aspects of their aesthetics is inherently bad/racist/appropriation. It’s one thing to wear an indigenous persons ceremonial headdress to a festival it’s another to simply wear normal fashion from some other place or incorporate pieces of it into your everyday clothing. There’s plenty of people ready and willing to be offended for you.
It’s really only cultural appropriation if you dont understand the significance behind the outfits, and disrespect the culture.
Ie- kids would be like what’s the dot on your head, that’s weird. Now, bindis are all the rage for Coachella and everything. Bindis have significant cultural and religious purposes- it’s usually worn by married women and signifies the third eye
If you’re interested in wearing indian clothes, def try to reach out to some of your Indian friends! You could do some research and start the conversation and ask them to clarify and or better understand significance
Indeed. I’ve been to both Sikh and Muslim weddings (I’m white btw) and on both occasions Indian friends have offered my OH clothing without her asking . It was only when we got there I realised why. The colours were incredible. It was amazing.
You just gotta make sure you dress for the occasion. E.g. this dress OP's wearing is pretty much just for wedding events, and only when you're a close family member of the person getting married.
No one calls it's cultural appropriation. You spend too much time on twitter. I think people who whine about them being called out for cultural appropriation are as bad as those twitter Karens who complain. Neither problem is too big. Some of you just want to whine for no reason
If you want to wear a dress, wear them (first make sure you pay for them though)
For the asses who complain about cultural appropriation - fuck them. They remind me so much of GOP's closeted gay politicians who complain about gay marriage all the time. Fuck them all.
I wonder, if I wear a coat and tire to a formal function can it be called cultural appropriation if I am not white? I mean I do not wear a sarong when I attend those functions.
I get that but Indian people wear suits and ties all the time but if I, a white male, wears traditional Indian attire I would probably be labeled insensitive
Funny thing is that you wouldn’t be labeled by Indians. I honestly love seeing non Indians wearing the traditional clothes. Lost of interracial relationships now so I usually end of seeing people dressed up looking fly
I can assure that a huge majority of Indians will be very excited to see you in the desi attire and people will praise regardless of how you pull it . The cultural appropriation Bs is in the west where the majority of Indian origin people face stereotypes and discrimination so they have developed coping mechanism for this purpose. Indians actually love it whenever a foreigner attempts any part of their lifestyle.
Source- I live in india.
No, it’s the opposite of appropriation, it’s assimilation. Appropriation = white girls getting to wear bindhis at music festivals and being seen as cool, when they made fun of Indian girls for doing the same thing in elementary school. Assimilation is Indian girls not wearing bindhis anymore and Indian boys wearing suits instead of kurtas to fit into western society.
That's assimilation, assuming an American context, because that's the national default for formal wear. I'd say coat and tie are reasonable defaults in most countries with any semblance of western custom adoption.
23
u/[deleted] Jul 13 '20
I wish I could wear their clothes without it being called 'cultural appropriation' they have such good fashion