The Role Of Cultural Appropriation In Pop Culture

Disclaimer: In the absence of any dedicated and focused institutions or organizations for this emerging and very sensitive social issue, which is often misquoted and misunderstood, I have had to rely upon and draw conclusions from my interpretations of contemporary writers voicing their thoughts about the issue. A person is born from their culture. It is the first thing they identify with, the first thing they learn about. It is in the first things they say, in the first things they understand. It is the beginning of a person, it is what shapes them. A person’s culture cultivates them, it shapes their viewpoints of society. It becomes a part of who they are, essentially defining them in the end. A person is a culmination of their cultures, …show more content…
By doing this, the person is effectively appropriating culture, and simultaneously makes the culture seem bad. The act of cultural appropriation in society does not stop at various practices. Consequently, it is echoed in pop culture. Likewise, pop culture is another place where society encourages cultural appropriation. Pop culture is the culmination of all the trends going on in society, where everything is considered to be ‘mainstream’. Cultural appropriation in pop culture is strongest in music, where artists resort to demeaning cultures in an effort to be current. A recent example would be Miley Cyrus, in her song, “We Can’t Stop”. Hadley Freeman of the Guardian describes the song as a, “…perfect illustration of just how the celebrity world appropriates black culture” (the Guardian). It demeans African American women, who are objectified in the video. It also takes African American sounding music and turns it into a mocking homage of hyper sexuality, drugs, and twerking. Selena Gomez is another example of cultural appropriation. In her recent song, “Come and Get It”, during the live performances, Selena performs wearing a bindi. Bindi, meaning dot, is a forehead decoration from …show more content…
She turned this symbol into a fashion statement, one meant to make her seem exotic and current. The music and performance also have other connotations of South Asian, specifically Indian culture in it, with Indian background music, complete with a barefoot performance featuring Indian dance moves. Despite urges from the Hindu community for her to stop using the bindi, Selena refused and went on to do a few more performances with the symbols. Nevertheless, the largest amount of appropriation occurs in the fashion industry. Finally, the fashion industry is a treasure trove of culturally appropriated items. Fashion is a multitude of trends, one after another, season after season. However, one style that never seems to go out of style is the ‘exotic’ style, which is a style that has heavy international tones. Saana Hamid, a photographer, explored cultural appropriation in fashion by means of a photo essay. She took pictures of a person wearing a cultural appropriated item, and a picture with a person who wore it as a symbol or their culture, and shows their views on it, covering Sikh turbans, Indian bindis, Arabic keffiyehs, Christian crosses, and African print. All the people using them for their traditional values were confused as to why others would use them as an item of fashion, saying that they felt defined by their articles. The wearers defended themselves, saying that they were comfortable wearing it because they were appreciating the culture, or