Recently celebrity chef Jamie Oliver got in trouble for a new product called "Punchy Jerk Rice." Now, Jamaican jerk is the name of a particular recipe for a marinade for meat and apparently not the kind of recipe that Oliver used, but the real complaint is "cultural appropriation" and he's in real trouble now, the jerk.
What is "cultural appropriation?" When a white chef tells you how to eat Vietnamese food, that's cultural appropriation. When Katy Perry wore a geisha outfit or Miley Cyrus did some "twerking", that was cultural appropriation. When a white girl wears henna (a dye applied to the skin as a temporary "tattoo" type thing, primarily from Middle East and North Africa areas) to a party, that's cultural appropriation. When a college fraternity throws a Cinco de Mayo costume party, that's cultural appropriation. Oh, and many of those Halloween costumes ... yeah, just ... don't.
Cultural appropriation is currently a hot item in a bad way. That is, don't do it. As illustrated by the evil chef who appropriated it for his meal offering. Just don't do it.
Unless, of course, you're a guy who thinks he's a girl. So you appropriate all those feminine things like make-up, eye lashes, dresses, bras, all that stuff. That kind of cultural appropriation is fine, nay, laudable. It's imitation, not appropriation, and it's a good thing ... because our culture has declared it so in this particular case. Back off, haters.
True, so very true!
ReplyDeleteAre you sitting there trying to tell us the Left has double standards????????
ReplyDeleteDan and Feodor say they don't, I believe them, and that settles it!
(So it says on my bumper sticker.)
It never ceases to astound me how so many goofy notions, in this case "cultural appropriation" becomes cause. It's truly amazing. What these goombahs (see what I did there? I appropriated an Italian expression!) fail to realize is that by "appropriating" the dress, cuisine or customs/practices of another culture, one is increasing awareness of that culture. It is generally far more appropriate to call it "cultural appreciation" when one finds a particular piece of clothing to be worthy of wearing, such as the Chinese dress that high school chick wore to her prom, before being criticized for doing so. It was a gorgeous dress worn by a gorgeous young girl who looked gorgeous in it. It can very possibly lead to increased manufacturing and purchasing of that style of dress by others. Where's the down side to any of this? That question is never addressed. It is simply asserted that "appropriation" is bad...which is true when these same dummkofs (see what I did there?) want to appropriate our money for their bad socialist ideas, but not otherwise as far as I can see.
ReplyDeleteSo, if cultural appropriation is such a horrible thing, what are is us citizens of the US (I almost put Americans but that would be appropriation too) supposed to do? Our entire culture and language is taken from others.
ReplyDeleteMarshal Art, we used to say "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" but no longer. We used to think that they named their teams "Braves" or "Indians" or "Redskins" because those names made them think of good fighting names, but no longer. We used to think that there might be stuff -- everyday kinds of things -- that wouldn't offend, but no longer.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I hope you see your mistake. You're thinking. Try not to do that too much.
Now that you transsexuals appropriating femaleness, as long as they have the money to do so. Feminism has spent years trying to erase gender differences, while transgenderism makes gender differences the focus. Soon we should be seeing quite the battle.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered about that problem. "We're all alike; gender is a social construct." Then Bruce Jenner decides he's a girl and ... takes on a stereotypical female appearance. "Look," I think, "if you want us to believe there is no genuine difference, then why do you keep feeding the stereotypes?" And why do the feminists cheer the transexuals? Not getting it at all.
ReplyDeleteI try to avoid the thinking, but when something is that dumb, even my absent brain can't help to notice.
ReplyDeleteThe feminists have even argued that there’s no difference between men’s and women’s brains, until the trans folk come along with “I’ve got a woman’s brain in a man’s body”.
ReplyDeleteYou’re right, the trans thing is all about buying all the stereotypical features of the opposite gender, which feminists argue are irrelevant.
One wonders how this tiny number of trans folk have ended up with more power than feminists.
So, when an actual Jamaican sold me some jerk seasoning in Jamaica, was he encouraging and profiting from cultural appropriation?
ReplyDeleteOnly if you used it.
ReplyDelete😊
ReplyDeleteSome filmmaker judges the planting of an American flag on the moon by Apollo astronauts appropriation of that body, and is leaving it out of a film. So I've read online.
ReplyDeleteWhile our government has never claimed the moon belongs to it as property, it is nevertheless a historical fact that American tax dollars and American know-how got that flag to its destination.
They said they were leaving the flag out because they wanted it to be a "human achievement," not an "American achievement." I think the filmmaker (and lead actor Ryan Gosling) are acting unAmerican but I don't think it's about "cultural appropriation."
ReplyDeleteHow about just documenting history as it actually happened.
ReplyDeletePretty soon, we’ll hear that it’s just a myth and that they didn’t record history in the 60’s and 70’s the way they do now. Much like the various attempts to destroy Israel will be/are being rewritten as we move further away from the events.
I find it hard to believe that Neil Armstrong wasn't proud of the American accomplishment. I find it hard to believe that a US military officer was going to the moon with no pride in the country that worked so hard to get him there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the entire space race was about national pride, not humanities achievement.
ReplyDeleteActually, David, Armstrong did say, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He was thinking about humanity as a whole. The apparent reality today seems to be "If you're in favor of humanity, you're opposed to America."
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that he was considering what it meant for humanity, but he was a military man from a time when that kind of loyalty and patriotism meant something.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Wasn't disagreeing. He lived in a time when being an American was viewed as good for humanity, something to be proud of, something you didn't need to apologize for.
ReplyDeleteStill, it was an AMERICAN accomplishment, which is the reason for the flag. No other country accomplished this mission.
ReplyDeleteI think we've all been in agreement on that, Glenn.
ReplyDeleteBuzz Aldrin made his views on the flag question clear.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, it still doesn't seem to have any bearing on the "cultural appropriation" issue ... unless it is reverse cultural appropriation: "We will have nothing to do with American culture ... even if we're American."
While it's nice to know Mr. Aldrin's feelings on the subject, it would have been to hear his take on the portrayal of Neil Armstrong as not a proud American.
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