as a general rule. if what we’re calling ‘cultural appropriation’ sounds like nazi ideology (i.e. ‘white people should only do white people things and black people should only do black people things’) with progressive language, we are performing a very very poor application of what ‘cultural appropriation’ means. this is troublingly popular in the blogosphere right now and i think we all need to be more critical of what it is we may be saying or implying, even unintentionally.
There is nothing wrong with everyone enjoying each other’s cultures so long as those cultures have been shared.
Eating Chinese food, watching Bollywood movies, going to see Cambodian dancers, or learning to speak Korean so you can watch every K drama in existence is totally fine. The invitation to participate in those things came from within those cultures. The Mexican family that owns the place where I get fajitas wants me to eat fajitas. Their whole business model kind of depends on it, actually.
If you see something from another culture you think you might want to participate in, but you don’t know if that would be disrespectful or appropriative, you can just…ask. Like. A Jewish friend explained what a mezuzah was to me, recently. (It’s the little scroll-thing near their front doors that they touch when they come into their house. It basically means “this is a Jewish household.”)
“Oh, cool,” I said. “Can I touch it? Or is it only for Jewish people?”
“You can touch it or you can not touch it,” she said. “I don’t care.”
“Cool, I’m gonna touch it, then.”
“Cool.”
It’s not hard.
You want to twerk, twerk. I’ve never heard a black person say they didn’t think anybody else should be allowed to twerk. Just that they want us to acknowledge that they invented that shit, not Miley fucking Cyrus.
this is a good post.
Thank you, I was trying to sort this out in my head but you explained it very well.
Also there’s the issue that a lot of these cultural practices from marginalized groups are either banned, ridiculed, hated, etc. until a person from a privileged group does the same thing (even if it’s a poor attempt) then it’s appreciated, seen as amazing, artistic,etc.
A prime example is Black hairstyles when Black ppl wear our hair in protective styles we’re told we look “unprofessional”, like “criminals”, told we have to change our hair styles or else we can be fired, kicked out of establishments/schools, etc. but as soon as the Kardashians do a crappy version of our hair styles then all of a sudden it’s “artistic” and white people will wear them and won’t face any negative consequences for wearing them. In fact they’ll receive praise for it.
Thats also why cultural appropriation is a big issue and why so many people from marginalized groups may feel a little wary of sharing their cultures.
when my friend found out her boyfriend of three years was cheating on her she went through his phone, took pictures of every interaction he had with another girl, printed them out, wrote down where she had been at every instance and what lies he had told her about where he would be, and put them in a folder. when she confronted him and he denied everything she pulled out this big ass folder and just said “lets review” and Honestly, that is the most iconic thing anyone has ever done.
when you think you have nothing left you still have the moon, sunsets, your favorite music, paper to write on, warm clothes, new starts and your cute self
friendly aggressive reminder that the “mmm whatcha say” chorus was written by imogen heap for a song of her own that came out in 2005, and jason derulo both named his own song after the chorus he sampled from her and improperly credited her in 2009.
mmm whatcha say was written by a female artist and taken by jason derulo and now he gets credit for it. pls reblog bc not enough people know this. the original song is called hide and seek
it is also a singularly beautiful song, head’s up
Worth mentioning, “Hide and Seek” is an abstract story of a girl reflecting on her parent’s divorce and how it changed her life, while “Whatcha Say” is about a guy who cheated on his girlfriend and is trying to convince her to stay with him anyway.
i think my age group is just going to have to live with the fact that half of us are always going to be burdened by the glee covers. we’re never going to be able to listen to a bunch of songs without thinking of the glee version. i envy those who don’t have this curse. those who don’t hear rachel berry and finn hudson singing together in the background of so many songs, while mercedes hits a high note and kurt or puck sings a verse with one of the unholy trinity. those who can hear jump without thinking of the mattress commercial. those who can listen to a song as iconic as bohemian rhapsody and don’t have flashbacks to vocal adrenaline performing it at regionals intercut with shots of quinn fabray in labour. who don’t close their eyes at night and hear “this one’s for you artie!” vogue by madonna is forever tainted by “will schuester, i hate you.” i’m never going to willingly listen to run joey run but if i ever heard it in public i know that the only thing i’d be able to thing about is rachel’s terrible music video. there are people out there who are able to listen to rumour has it without hearing naya rivera as santana lopez cut in with lines from someone like you and you know she keeps glancing at brittany s pierce played by heather morris as her life falls apart. walking on sunshine played on the radio the other day and i was surprised when i didn’t hear halo mashed up with it and ALSO ANGELS. don’t even get me started on faithfully, any way you want it/lovin’ touchin’ squeezin’, let alone don’t stop believing. this show and all it’s covers are burned into my mind and i envy those who don’t face my struggle.
1900 as a whole century is so wild to me like it started off without people having sliced bread and it ended with seinfeld on TV
This usage drives me mad.
1900 is not a century. 1900 is a YEAR. It’s the year after 1899 and before 1901. ‘The twentieth century’ is SO MUCH clearer. Or, if you prefer, 1900-1999.
I wish people would stop saying ‘Tolkien was from the nineteenth century’ but ‘from 1800′ is so much worse, more wrong and more confusing.
Tolkien was born in 1892. So he was a child at the end of the century, and his entire working life was spent not in Victorian Britain, but in the era of decolonisation, the move to universal suffrage, two world wars, and the creation of the Welfare State. That’s the context his work fits into. If you try to interpret him in the context of the British Empire at its zenith, you might as well give the man a smartphone and a Youtube account.
Im sorry did Tolkein write Seinfeld? No? Yeah I thought so. Because he wasnt a good enough writer to do it. Get off my post or ill send you back to the century of 1700 with my (real) wizard powers.
Gregorian monks singing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND LISTEN TO THIS RIGHT FUCKING NOW
Why is this a thing that exists?
THIS IS BEAUTIFUL
“on the boooooolovarrrd of brooookennnn dreeeemmsss”
I turned this on and at that moment my roommate opened the curtains, and I immediately had this epic video in my head of us cleaning our apartment, and raising a castle around it with hammers and magic.
I’ve introduced so many people to Gregorian: the best way to do it is to slip it into a normal playlist.
This is the soundtrack of an angel that was thrown out of heaven unjustly and is existing on earth, and being tracked by an adversary, while an angel friend is preparing to come rescue him.
tom holland just posted a video on instagram like “I’m sorry that there’s no new news on the spiderman sequel but I just got the script I’m about to read it!!” and he held up the script and it said “spider-man: far from home” so yeah he just spoiled the spider-man sequel title while announcing he had no news on the spider-man sequel,, good job tom
my grandpa saw my gemsona on facebook and now he wants me to draw him a gemsona
he want’s to be an opal!!!!!
i did a quick one we’ll see what he thinks about it tomorrow!
GEMPA OPAL YAAAAAAH
AH my twin sister DREW FANART AHAHA!!
GRAMPS’S REACTION TOMORROW STAY TUNED!
Here is my grandpa lookin at the post! My sister went over to his house (since I live in a different city) to show him how much you guys love it (and to tell him how cute you think he is!!) I did call them but I wanted my sister to actually show him all the nice tags and how popular he is!
HE also wanted to show you his pug Mordue! They so cute…
He loves it and he’s very happy about how much everyone loved it and so does my mom! Thank you guys so much!!! It really made his day!! He wants to print it out and hang it on the wall so my sister will help with that!
one time i went to see my grandma in the hospital when she was just waking up from surgery and the first thing she said (really feebly) was “neil… what does… your shirt say” and i had to say “skate and destroy” in front of the nurse and my whole family
Go to your nearest target. Buy a two pack of pushup bras(24$ for 2), and target’s bra inserts (12$). Then go to your nearest Walmart and buy the Vasserette Control Shapewear Panties (2.50 each), they do wonders for helping your tuck. There you go! You just saved yourself a lot of money, you can afford to buy enough to wear every day, and best of all you look fabulous. -@twidx
recs for trans women are so rare on tumblr!! spread this, people.
Please reblog this, in total it’s about $38.50 to make a huge difference for a trans woman/trans feminine person.
I’ve honestly been tucking with that kind of thing ever since I started and it’s so useful
