Beyonce vs. Cultural Appropriation
I read an article today in TIME magazine about why "Beyonce as a Bollywood star is not cultural appropriation."
Straight after that I made the mistake of reading an article by Huffinton post with a similar title and as with the first article, I was not too impressed. I'm not going to waste my time talking about what these stupidass articles said, those interested can read it themselves and form their own opinion on the matter.
I am however going to put my two cents into this discussion.
I've been a huuge Beyonce fan for as long as I can remember, and while Im not about to disregard all her achievements and drag her for this one video- I am going to say one thing: It appropriated my culture.
Cultural appropriation= “Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It's most likely to be harmful when the source community is aminority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects
The music video I am referring to- “Hymm for the Weekend” included:
Taking intellectual property,
cultural expressions,
artifacts from someone else's culture
unauthorized use of another culture's dance,
unauthorized use of another culture's dress,
unauthorized use of another culture's music,
unauthorized use of another culture's folklore,
unauthorized use of another culture's religious symbols
HOW CAN YOU STILL ARGUE THAT THIS ISN’T APPROPRIATON??????
TIME and Huffington post spoke about how because Beyonce is coloured it technically is not appropriation, how South Asians didn’t stand up for the black Americans when their culture was appropriated (soz what??), how us South Asians appropriate rap culture and even how Beyonce is actually doing my culture a favour by dressing up in Indian outfits despite being black as this gives the darker skin girls in South Asia an idol........?
THIS IS UTTER BULLSHIT
-no you cannot dress up like that unless you’re going to an Indian wedding- the clothing she wore has religious/cultural meaning to us.
-it is still appropriating a minorities culture therefore iT IS APPROPRIATION. this is a song by a band of white men (who are equally if not more to blame for this) featuring a woman who yes is coloured but no is NOT INDIAN. and when you fetishize my culture and reduce it down to 4 minutes of stereotypes- you are doing harm.
-the internet exploded when Kylie Jenner wore corn rows. we all stood together and we educated the world. so now when its my culture under the radar- instead of standing with me, you accuse South Asians of ridiculous and unsupportable bullshit about how we didnt stand with you?? hOW CAN YOU PROVE THIS??????
-as for us appropriating rap culture- this isnt a war of us against you. its a war on wrong and right. when we are wronged dont turn and point out flaws. nobody said it was ok for us to appropriate rap culture- that was NEVER the point of THIS argument.
-do not try to manipulate us by telling me that Beyonce is giving dark skin South Asian girls a style icon when she dresses up in culturally appropriating outfits. we are not out here today to create idols for dark skin South Asian girls- yes our society is obsessed with light skin and yes that is a bad thing but so is someone who isnt part of our culture dressing up/dancing in an in-“appropriate” manner.
so please,
when we get mad at Beyonce for appropriating our culture, dont give us your double standards.
instead maybe educate yourselves.