{"id":12544,"date":"2018-09-26T20:28:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T12:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=12544"},"modified":"2018-09-26T20:28:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T12:28:15","slug":"cultural-cosplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2018\/09\/26\/cultural-cosplay\/","title":{"rendered":"cultural cosplay: a broader framework for thinking about cultural appropriation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;ve never quite been satisfied with the overuse of the phrase &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/blog\/cultural-appropriation\">cultural appropriation<\/a>&#8221; in all sorts of contexts, or &#8220;cultural appreciation&#8221; as the (only?) alternative way of thinking about it \u2013 and I&#8217;ve been thinking that both fit within a larger framework of &#8220;cultural cosplay&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I like the phrase &#8220;cultural cosplay&#8221; because it&#8217;s value-neutral. Cosplay is a portmanteau of &#8220;costume play&#8221;, and I really like that. if you think about it, we&#8217;re all cosplaying all the time, 24\/7. and sometimes we do it artfully, and sometimes we do it in cringe-inducing ways<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;rules&#8221; in cosplay (both &#8220;regular&#8221; cosplay and &#8220;cultural&#8221; cosplay) are a lot like &#8220;rules&#8221; in language and communication it&#8217;s&#8230;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>organic<\/li><li> somewhat subjective but not completely arbitrary <\/li><li>consensus-based<\/li><li>evolves over time<\/li><li>varies depending on context<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it okay to wear a costume that belongs to someone else&#8217;s culture? It depends! This isn&#8217;t new, either. We already appreciate this intuitively with things like, &#8220;You shouldn&#8217;t wear white at a wedding&#8221;, &#8220;You should usually dress in muted\/dark tones at a funeral&#8230; unless the deceased wanted otherwise.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Should you use emojis in work emails? It depends! People change, cultural contexts change. Does that make it all a farce? In a sense, yeah, but if you insist on shitting the bed because &#8220;social norms are all made up,&#8221; people are still gonna disinvite you from their parties &amp; commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think generally speaking, if you&#8217;re invited to an ethnic wedding, the people will be thrilled to have you participate in their songs &amp; dances, even wear their clothes. It&#8217;s a celebration, &amp; it&#8217;s centered on them and their culture \u2013 and you&#8217;re a respectful visitor. Fun for all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you wear that same costume in some other odd context, say, at a halloween party, it can take on this whole different meaning. It&#8217;s subjective, sure, so is a mini skirt at a funeral. If you&#8217;re going to do it, I hope you know what you&#8217;re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn&#8217;t hard to understand, right? As social creatures we&#8217;re usually pretty good at this. Most people know not to swear in professional settings, or around kids. That&#8217;s not a restriction on your freedom of speech, that&#8217;s called being a decent human being who&#8217;s mindful of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a guy in cultural crosswinds myself, I *love* the idea of people from different cultures mixing, learning, trying out each other&#8217;s stuff. But this isn&#8217;t a binary thing. We don&#8217;t have to trample on each other to have a good time. Think dinner party, not moshpit. Flirting, not assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A playground analogy: we have to learn to play with other kids we don&#8217;t know, and have a good time without punching anybody&#8217;s teeth out. A bit of hurt is understandable. a bruised knee here, a bump there. No big deal. But don&#8217;t be kicking a kid in the stomach and call it playtime!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>tbc<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/2017\/12\/11\/european-christianity-as-cultural-cosplay\/\">European Christianity as Cultural Cosplay<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2017\/10\/13\/kyotos-fox-bride-wedding-kimono-makeovers-let-you-indulge-in-cultural-cosplay\/\">Kyoto\u2019s fox bride wedding kimono makeovers let you indulge in cultural cosplay<\/a><\/li><li>List of uses of the phrase &#8220;cultural cosplay&#8221; on Twitter<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1044095716308598785\">Diane Nguyen in Bojack Horseman S05E02<\/a>\u00a0<\/li><li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daumkeziah\/status\/990255923598786560\">my culture is not your prom dress<\/a>&#8221;\u00a0<\/li><li>Independent.co.uk \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/fashion\/cultural-appropriation-appreciation-difference-meaning-fashion-examples-chinese-prom-dress-a8332176.html\">When does appreciation cross the line?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theweek.co.uk\/cultural-appropriation\">theweek.co.uk \u2013\u00a0Cultural appropriation: what is it and why is it so offensive?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Strong.Aiga\/photos\/a.583142198733467\/663404010707285\/?type=3&amp;theater\">AigaStrong \u2013 Sometimes, culture is sacred, holy, and reserved for certain people within a chosen community. Sometimes, the power and strength of a cultural item comes from its exclusivity. Sometimes, a piece of culture is EARNED, similar to a badge that you earned in the Army or Police Force.<\/a>\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve never quite been satisfied with the overuse of the phrase &#8220;cultural appropriation&#8221; in all sorts of contexts, or &#8220;cultural appreciation&#8221; as the (only?) alternative way of thinking about it \u2013 and I&#8217;ve been thinking that both fit within a larger framework of &#8220;cultural cosplay&#8221; I like the phrase &#8220;cultural&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-3gk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}