Cultural Appropriation in Fashion and Entertainment 9781350170544, 9781350170551, 9781350170582, 9781350170568

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Cultural Appropriation in Fashion and Entertainment

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Cultural Appropriation in Fashion and Entertainment Yuniya Kawamura Jung-Whan Marc de Jong

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BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2022 © Yuniya Kawamura 2021—Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, & Conclusion © Jung-Whan Marc de Jong 2021—Chapter 4 Yuniya Kawamura and Jung-Whan Marc de Jong have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work. Cover design: Charlotte Daniels All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kawamura, Yuniya, 1963– author. | De Jong, Jung-Whan Marc, author. Title: Cultural appropriation in fashion and entertainment / Yuniya Kawamura, Jung-Whan Marc de Jong. Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021050128 (print) | LCCN 2021050129 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350170551 (paperback) | ISBN 9781350170544 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781350170568 (pdf) | ISBN 9781350170575 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Cultural appropriation. | Cultural industries--Social aspects. | Culture and globalization. | Fashion and globalization. Classification: LCC HM621 .K39 2022 (print) | LCC HM621 (ebook) | DDC 306—dc23/eng/20211108 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050128 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050129 ISBN:

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978-1-3501-7054-4 978-1-3501-7055-1 978-1-3501-7056-8 978-1-3501-7057-5

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In memory of my father, Yoya Kawamura

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Contents List of Figures and Tables viii Preface xii

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Introduction—Culture Yuniya Kawamura

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Culture in Classical Social Theory 3 Schools of Thought: Value-laden and Value-neutral Culture 6 Conceptual Tools for Cultural Analysis 14 Outline of the Book 21 Conclusion 23 Suggested Further Reading 23

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Academic Studies on Cultural Appropriation Yuniya Kawamura Definitions, Processes, and Types 26 Logos, Mascots, and Nicknames 28 Gastronomy and Cuisine 33 Literary Works 36 Adornment 40 Conclusion 45 Suggested Discussion Examples 46 Suggested Further Reading 47

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Fashion 49 Yuniya Kawamura In Pursuit of Exoticism and Novelty 51 Biological, Cultural, and Sartorial Hierarchies 57

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Contents

Conceptual Typologies 64 The Strength of Weak Virtual Ties 91 Conclusion 99 Suggested Discussion Examples 100 Suggested Further Reading 101

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Entertainment 103 Jung-Whan Marc de Jong What is Sociological about Entertainment? 105 The Commodification of Culture and the Other 108 Conditions of Cultural Appropriation 116 The Production of Culture in the Social Media Age 129 Cultural Hybridization and Cultural Appropriation 137 Conclusion 145 Suggested Discussion Examples 146 Suggested Further Reading 147

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Ambivalence and Paradox Yuniya Kawamura

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Cross-cultural Encounters in a Historical Context 152 Globalization and Deterritorialization 154 Immigration and Cultural Globalization through Mediascapes 158 Culture as Epistemological Relativism 162 Ambivalence in Fashion Globalization 166 Cultural Authentication Process 172 Conclusion 175 Suggested Further Reading 176

Conclusion Notes 187 Bibliography 191 Index 215

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Figures and Tables Figures 2.1 Washington Redskins merchandise for sale in Virginia, the same day the team confirms its name and logo change in 2013 (photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images).

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2.2 Aunt Jemima pancakes prior to brand change (photo by John Nacion/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).

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2.3 A packet of Uncle Ben’s rice prior to brand change (photo by Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).

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2.4 A bottle of Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup prior to brand change (photo by Ron Adar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).

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2.5 Indian model wearing a Kanchipuram saree (Kanjivaram saree) during a South Asian bridal fashion show held in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada (photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images).

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2.6 Indian woman’s hands with mehendi painted with henna leaf paste (photo by Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/NurPhoto via Getty Images). 2.7 Example of a tattoo (photo by Spanic via Getty Images).

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2.8 Jason Suttie displays his pe’a in Auckland, New Zealand. The pe’a covers the body from waist to the rectum and then to the knees, and is only crafted using handmade tools of bone, tusks, turtle shell, and wood (photo by Sandra Mu/Getty Images).

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2.9 A retired Japanese yakuza crime boss, who does not want to be identified, shows his tattoo on his back, featuring a carp swimming up a waterfall at his residence in Tokyo (photo by Frank Zeller/AFP via Getty Images). viii

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Figures and Tables

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3.1 Teacher and drummer Yacub Addy of the Ga people of Ghana leads his Odadaa! Drum and Dance Ensemble at A World Music Institute concert at Symphony Space, New York (photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images).

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3.2 Sorbet evening dress, 1913. Silk satin, chiffon, glass beads by Paul Poiret (photo by Chicago History Museum/Getty Images).

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3.3 Court presentation gown, 1938. Silk chiffon, rhinestone, glass beads by Madeleine Vionnet (photo by Chicago History Museum/Getty Images).

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3.4 Actress Hikaru Takahashi attends the New Year’s Kimono photocall for Oscar Promotion on December 3, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan (photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images for Oscar Promotion).

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3.5 A model wearing a sari (photo by Wong Sze Fei/EyeEm via Getty Images).

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3.6 Kalispel Indian woman wearing a blanket dress decorated with elks’ teeth, 1910 (photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images).

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3.7 A model with cornrows in Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2016 Collection in Paris (photo by Patrick Kovarik/AFP via Getty Images).

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3.8 A model wearing a black Gucci turtleneck with red lips, which the fashion line recently withdrew following accusations that it resembled racist “blackface” caricatures (photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images).

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3.9 A Japanese Geisha-inspired style in Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2007 Collection by John Galliano (photo by Toni Anne Barson/WireImages via Getty Images).

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3.10 Model Nadine Leopold walks the runway during the 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai (photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret).

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3.11 Prisoners of the Dachau Concentration Camp greet members of the U.S. Seventh Army from behind a barbed wire fence on May 3, 1945 (photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images).

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Figures and Tables

3.12 Sami (Laplander) woman wearing a traditional dress (photo by DEA/N. CIRANI via Getty Images).

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3.13 A model wearing a turban on the runway at the Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018/19 (photo by Venturelli/WireImage).

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3.14 Chiara Mastroianni as a “Chic Rabbi” at the Jean Paul Gaultier ready to wear fashion show, fall/winter 1993 (photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images).

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3.15 Pieces by Mexican artisan Glafira Candelaria Jose, of the Otomi ethnic group, are seen at her workshop in San Nicolas Village, in Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo state, Mexico (photo by Pedro Pardo/ AFP via Getty Images).

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3.16 A model on a Shuka-inspired outfit in Louis Vuitton’s Menswear Spring 2012 Collection in Paris (photo by Francois Guillot/AFP via Getty Images).

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3.17 A model wearing “Homeless Chic” walks the runway during the N. Hoolywood NYFW: Men’s show (photo by Randy Brooke/ WireImage).

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3.18 A model walks the runway during the Rick Owens Menswear Fall/Winter 2014–15 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 16, 2014 in Paris, France (photo by Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/WireImage).

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3.19 A model walks the runway during the Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear Spring/Summer 2017 show as part of Paris Fashion Week (photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).

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3.20 Mexican indigenous designer Alberto Lopez Gomez poses with one of his designs at his workshop in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico (photo by Isaac Guzman/AFP via Getty Images).

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4.1 From left to right, rapper Flavor Flav, director Spike Lee and Chuck D of the rap group ‘Public Enemy’ film a video for their song ‘Fight The Power’ directed by Spike Lee in 1989 in New York (photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images).

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Figures and Tables

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4.2 Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani photographs a group of children who are wearing Benetton clothing (photo by Julio Donoso/Sygma via Getty Images).

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4.3 Japanese travelers walk past a portrait of South Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon, who gained fame in Japan with hit TV show “Winter Sonata” at a shopping district in Seoul (photo by Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images).

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4.4 South Korean singer Park Jae-sang, also known as Psy, performs during a press conference in Seoul (photo by Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/ GettyImages).

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Tables 3.1 A list of textile-related intangible cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO

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4.1 Reggae-inspired K-pop songs

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4.2 Thai “Boys’ Love” Serials 2014–20

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Preface As early as 1976, Kenneth Coutts-Smith (1929–81), a British art critic and artist, in his essay “Some General Observations on the Concept of Colonialism,” explained that cultural appropriation occurs “whenever a dominant group steals or borrows icons, ideas, or other beliefs from a weaker group without understanding the cultural significance” (1976: 6), implying that there is a hierarchy and power dynamic among different cultures. It is an undeniable fact that still exists today, although ideally, cultures should all be perceived and treated equally and fairly without any social or value differences. Some cultures are stronger than others in every way while others feel the need to be more protective of their own cultures because of their painful tragic history. Powerful and intense reactions against cultural appropriation and misappropriation are about guarding one’s territory, a marginalized one in particular, in the globalized world where the territorial boundaries are becoming fuzzy. Cultural appropriation comes in different shapes and forms, and they can be analyzed from multiple perspectives. Responses to cultural appropriation make it clear who the insiders and outsiders are, and who are included in or excluded from the territory. Feelings of discomfort and disgust that are evoked and shared among the insiders should not be dismissed by the outsiders, and the outsider cultural borrowers must make an effort to understand and learn the insiders’ experiences. In light of countless charges, attacks, and criticisms against cultural appropriation, there is growing interest and concern from academics, legal experts, and institutions, who are gradually taking action and starting to tackle this difficult and complex issue, hoping to find a solution or come to an agreement that is a win-win for all parties involved. It is a positive indication that serious considerations are taken into account, and we are moving in the xii

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right direction for a change and educate our students and ourselves to raise cultural awareness. A number of relevant academic conferences have taken place, providing a space for researchers to present their work: Cultural Appropriation at the University of Leeds, and Fashion, Race and Cultural Appropriation at Central Saint Martins in 2017, followed by Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Appropriation in the History of Design organized by the College Art Association, and Fashion and Europe: Questioning Identities and Culture by the European Fashion Heritage Association, both in 2018. The concept of “culture” also continues to be important in the field of musicology; the Construction of National Identity in Music conference took place at the Middle Tennessee State University in 2020, and there was a proposed panel “Feminist and Critical Race Approaches to Analyzing ‘Culture’ in Music Streaming Services” at the 2020 Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting. Scholarly journals are offering thematic issues on cultural appropriation and related topics, such as “Fashion as Politics: Dressing Dissent” (2019) in The Journal of Fashion Theory and a special issue on “Design and Neoliberalism” (2019) in The Journal of Design and Culture. Legal experts are publishing books and articles on cultural appropriation and related topics in regards to intellectual property and copyright laws in the fashion and entertainment industries. Significant recent publications about the music industry include An Economic Approach to the Plagiarism of Music (2020) by Cameron Samuel, Creative Autonomy, Copyright and Popular Music in Nigeria (2020) by Mary W. Gani, and Piracy in the Digital Era: Psychosocial, Criminological, and Cultural Factors (2019) by Sanjeev Sahni and Indranath Gupta. In fashion law, Susan Scafidi, a pioneer in the field and a founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, has published Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law (2005). Guillermo Jimenez and Barbara Kolsun published a relevant book titled Fashion Law (2014). Other experts have also contributed informative articles in the field: “On Cultural Appropriation” by Jason Baird Jackson (2021), “Fashion between Inspiration and Appropriation” (2020) by Barbara Pozzo, and “Curbing Cultural Appropriation in the Fashion Industry with Intellectual Property” (2019) by Brigitte Vézina. Younger scholars and researchers are actively and ambitiously pursuing this topic. Kimberly Jenkins at Ryerson University has developed the Fashion and

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Race database (fashionandrace.org) since 2017, and she organizes a workshop on race and injustice with Jonathan Square, who taught a course on “Fashion and Slavery” at Harvard University and the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.). Minh-ha Pham at Pratt Institute coined and suggested a new phrase, “racial plagiarism,” instead of “cultural appropriation” (2017). The F.I.T. offers a new course on “Cultural Awareness, Design Responsibility, and the Law” created by Ariele Elia, and a new Liberal Arts minor on Ethnic Dress in a Global Context which includes a variety of courses with topics on culture and fashion, such as “Fashion and Kimono” and “Cultural Expressions of Non-Western Dress and Fashion.” Recent relevant publications are World Entertainment Media: Global, Regional, and Local Perspectives (2019) edited by Paolo Sigsimondi, and Imagining the Global: Transnational Media and Popular Culture Beyond East and West (2014) by Fabienne Darling-Wolf. White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation (2019) by Lauren Michele Jackson and Rhetorical Crossover: the Black Presence in White Culture (2020) by Cedric B. Burrows are thought-provoking. More minority scholars, researchers, and writers in various disciplines need to be brought to the forefront in academia, especially for this particular topic of research, to articulate and express their voices as insiders. Scholarship on this topic is expanding slowly but surely and widely to include other important areas that are often neglected or dismissed, such as research methodologies, education, and museums. In her book Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (2012), Linda Tuhiwai Smith questions the entire Western concept of research and how it is conducted. Amy Lonetree published a book entitled Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums (2012), and Ranjan Datta contributed an article on “Decolonizing Both Researcher and Research and Its Effectiveness in Indigenous Research” (2017) in the Journal of Research Ethics. Cultural appropriation is a movement of the twenty-first century that has been accelerated with different social media and digital communication tools and the elevated awareness on political and social correctness. Until decades ago, people ate meat and wore fur coats without any hesitation or guilt. Such attitudes changed dramatically with the animal rights movement and a

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growing number of activists. In addition, there is a recent sustainability movement; people’s ecological and social concerns have been intensified, and they began to recycle every piece of object possible and seek to find out how and where things are manufactured. With an increasing attention to cultural appropriation, it is our turn, as culture experts or anyone who are respectful of foreign cultures, to change people’s attitude and behavior in regards to cultures. Readers may have more questions than answers after reading this book, but that is precisely my goal and intention. This book does not attempt to provide definite answers or absolute solutions to this culturally entangled issue but to make suggestions and aim to heighten the level of cultural intelligence and literacy in our readers’ minds. In addition, it is my hope that this book will provide a basis for an intellectually stimulating dialogue on cultural appropriation and its relevant concepts and will lead to further educational, constructive, and lively discussions and debates in actual and virtual classrooms around the world. Chapter 4: Entertainment has been contributed by Jung-Whan Marc de Jong of F.I.T. Yuniya Kawamura New York and Tokyo December 2021

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1 Introduction—Culture YUNIYA KAWAMURA

Objectives: ●

To explore where the concept of culture is placed in classical social theory.

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To understand many definitions of culture.

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To distinguish the differences between value-laden and value-neutral culture.

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To identify different schools of thought and intellectual traditions of culture.

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To learn various conceptual tools for cultural analysis.

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To explore how a classical cultural discourse is related to a contemporary cultural discourse.

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To understand the outline and the overall contents of the book.

With a growing number of keen and alert social media watchdogs in the past decade, culturally offensive and insensitive visual images coming out of the fashion and entertainment industries are immediately accused of appropriation or misappropriation, and they globally spark intense debates among Gen-Z and the Millennials, educators, racial minorities, indigenous people, social/ political activists, journalists, critics, and industry professionals/practitioners. The levels of our cultural intelligence, awareness, and familiarity are tested and challenged as we continue a dialogue on how best to borrow components from a culture that is not ours. It is a sensitive and delicate topic that we are all 1

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emotionally invested in, and this book attempts to put aside our subjective and biased viewpoints and delve deeper into a source of the problem to help our readers investigate and have a thorough understanding of various case studies and images in fashion and entertainment. The concept of culture is at the basis of a debate on cultural appropriation, and the term “culture” is used far too loosely despite its intricacies and subtleties because culture is ubiquitous. We are born into a culture, live in a culture, sustain a culture, and pass it onto the next generation. Ralph Linton, a cultural anthropologist, explained culture as “a configuration of learned behaviors and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society” (1945: 32). In addition, Talcott Parsons, a social theorist, wrote, “Culture... consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed on from generation to generation independently of the biological genes” (1949: 8). Therefore, one is not born with a culture but into a culture, and acquires it through the process of socialization which continues until one disappears from the earth. Culture is manifested in different forms and exists in many layers. One may use culture in one way while others may use it in other ways. A rigorous investigation of culture and its related ideas allows us to explore the issues of cultural borrowing and appropriation in more logical, constructive, and objective ways before we jump into a conclusion. It is imperative that we understand the nature of culture and its implications for social life which are influenced in contradictory ways, both positive and negative, and both constraining and enabling (Alexander 2003; Hays 1994). Culture is a process, history, phenomenon, and practice which contains countless dimensions. Culture is not just about race and/or ethnicity, as many assume. Culture as a coherent racial or ethnic unity is too narrow a categorization, and the idea of one unit of people that we can call a culture, such as Japanese Culture or African Culture, has come under attack (Eicher, Evenson, and Lutz 2000: 35) because it is simply one fragment of or approach to culture which is, more broadly speaking, a selected sphere of life. Culture also refers to values, beliefs, and traditions, which support a particular ideology and direct actions. Different scholars focus on different parts of a culture that is in discussion or dispute. For instance, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn published a book entitled

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Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952) in which they compiled a list of 164 definitions, and explained that culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; cultural systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action (1952). In this introductory chapter, I first trace the concept of culture in classical social theory postulated by Karl Marx, Marx Weber, and Emile Durkheim, known as the three founding fathers who laid the pillars of social theory and later influenced cultural studies and cultural critical theory. Secondly, various schools of thought in cultural analysis in the European and American intellectual traditions, such as the Frankfurt School in Germany, the Chicago School in the USA, and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the UK, are explored, and we learn that there is no one systematic definition of culture that is common to all of the intellectual traditions. Some treat culture as a neutral concept while others grant certain values to the concept. Lastly, a list of relevant conceptual tools, such as hegemony, imperialism, taste, and symbolic boundaries, are provided to further address issues relevant to culture in general and cultural appropriation in particular. Culture is shaped, not only by race and/or ethnicity as indicated earlier, but also by other social groupings, such as class, gender, religion, regions, and ideologies among many others, all of which create symbolic territories that create an actual or implied awareness of insiders and outsiders, and who is in and who is out.

Culture in Classical Social Theory Culture was initially within the domain of a material culture studies conducted by archaeologists and museum curators who collected cultural artifacts from foreign lands, and investigated where the objects originated from, located in, and what they mean. Toward the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, sociology and cultural anthropology thinkers began to

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explicitly or implicitly write about culture, and in social sciences, there are three founding fathers who laid a theoretical foundation of social theory, namely Karl Marx (1818–83), Max Weber (1864–1920), and Emile Durkheim (1858–1917), who are known as cultural critics and the theorists of modernity. While they did not come up with a cultural theory per se in their classical writings, many of their ideas appear in the later discussions on the topic, and they made a major contribution to cultural studies/theory and critical theory. They provided a basis not only for social scientists but for all future scholars of culture. While Marx and Durkheim looked at society and culture from a macro-structural perspective, Weber saw them from both macro and micro perspectives. Their ideas are incredibly useful and continue to be theoretically relevant in examining culture and its related concepts, and that is why it is meaningful to go back to these three pillars in sociology. Marx’s primary interest was in the analysis of societies categorized into social classes based on the relations of production in the economy: those who own and control the means of production known as capitalists, and the workers who do not own the means of production and use their own physical labor to earn their living who are known as proletariat or non-capitalist (1956). This resulted in a two-class structure in a capitalist society, i.e., a division between the haves and the have-nots, and the domination of the rich capitalists led to a class conflict, struggle, antagonism, and hostility between the owners and the workers. His analysis was focused not only on economic domination and subordination but also on ideological domination and subordination. For Marx, culture manifested through and operated as a dominant ideology with capitalists’ hidden interests and exploitative social forces imposed on the poorer working class who had no or little wealth. Thus, he linked culture to power and oppression in capitalism. Like capitalism with the structure of power relations, culture that is managed by the ruling class serves to justify social inequalities. He pointed out that the workers took all the social differences and distinctions as a given, and this was later called “false consciousness” by Marxist scholars. He wanted non-capitalists in the lower and working class to become more aware of the unfairness and subordination to which they were subjected. Marx contributed to the tradition of critical cultural theory that is used to analyze racial, gender, and global stratifications. While his analysis of social class in dichotomy has been criticized as too simplistic

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with a dialectical approach, he provided a fundamental framework for more sophisticated theories and conceptual/analytical tools to develop. Marxism influenced and inspired subsequent intellectual traditions and scholars around the world to uncover hidden and apparent social inequalities and injustices. Like Marx, Weber also paid much attention to the concept of class in his critique of modernity but also included the notion of status and distinguished it from class. He treated class and status as separate concepts, although in many instances they overlap and intersect with each other. Elites have a distinctive culture with a specific value system which are different from that of non-elites, and that is how the elites separate themselves from others. Boundaries and territories delineated between different status groups are cultural and symbolic. Weber is known for his Verstehen (understanding) approach in which an observer tries to understand or construct the subjective meanings that influence one’s action and recreate common cultural values. In his Economy and Society (1968: 9), Weber wrote: “for science which is concerned with the subjective meaning of action, explanation requires a grasp of the complex meaning in which an actual course of understandable action thus interpreted belongs.” Weber gives two types of action: Wertrational, a value-oriented action driven by cultural beliefs and goals, and Zweckrational, a goal-oriented action which is driven by cultural norms of efficacy, and this is found in modernity and modern culture. Weber’s another contribution to cultural analysis is the concept of authority (or legitimate domination) with three ideal types (1968): 1 Traditional authority is a kind of authority that is bestowed upon a person at birth so there is little that one can do to change it. 2 Charismatic authority is given to a person with exceptional gift, talent, and power. 3 Legal-rational authority is found in contemporary modern cultures and is invested in a set of rules and rule-bound institutions. These types are determined not by the economic order but by intangible rewards that individuals may possess, be granted, or gain, and they imply social differences based on the degree of authority that people have. Furthermore, for Durkheim, society is a moral phenomenon which is represented through people’s thoughts and actions and binds people together

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in various ways, and culture is maintained through moral solidarity and social cohesion. In his Division of Labor in Society (1893), Durkheim talked about two types of solidarity that are shaped by different levels and degrees of cultural norms: mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. In the pre-industrial societies where communities are smaller and simpler, people think and behave alike which is a reflection of a homogenous society because they conform, more or less, to their cultural norms and abide by existing rules, and there is a mechanical solidarity based on the close-knit kinship ties. In contrast, in modern advanced societies, people have different cultural values and norms and are not the same in their behaviors and thoughts, but they are interdependent and complement each other. This is found in a complex industrialized society where there is a division of labor in the workplace, and people perform their own specialized tasks so they need to rely on others to complete the task. This is organic solidarity based on mutual needs in the specialization of work. In addition, in his The Elementary Form of the Religious Life (1965 [1912]), Durkheim looks at the meaning of social integration and attachment in religion, which is also another form of culture, as a social phenomenon. Religion separates the sacred from the profane, and religious rituals, a collective event, performed for the sacred bring followers closer together physically, spiritually, and psychologically, which gives them a deeper sense of attachment and emotional involvement as they share the same cultural values and norms emanating from their religion. Durkheim defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite in one simple moral community called church, all those who adhere to it” (1965 [1912]: 78). The construction of a social bond was the very reason for the existence of the culture of a religion that binds people together.

Different Schools of Thought: Value-laden and Value-neutral Culture Scholars and intellectuals who were influenced by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim began to pay further attention to the concept of culture from different

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perspectives and angles, and they defined culture in their own ways. Culture gradually and eventually became an important and legitimate research topic in academia, and a group of researchers in Europe and the US began to form different schools of thought in cultural studies. “Culture” became a focal point of research in social science disciplines. Some traditions also suggest specific methodological inquiries in research to collect empirical evidence and facts, and these will also be helpful for those who research the problem of cultural appropriation. We see a transition in the twentieth century in how culture has been defined, studied, and interpreted, from an elitist, value-laden concept of culture to an anti-elitist, value-neutral culture (Smith 2001), the two interpretations of culture which are in conflict with each other. For instance, for some intellectuals in the Frankfurt School in the mid-twentieth century, culture means high culture and high art while scholars at the Centre for Cotemporary Cultural Studies in UK focused more on popular and youth culture and subculture, which few had paid any scholarly attention to until then. In addition, researchers at the Chicago School studied marginal community cultures in the US, such as racial minorities, delinquents, and homeless people. Toward the end of the twentieth century, anthropologists reintegrated the material and nonmaterial concepts of culture to examine how ideas and beliefs are embedded in material things, and at the same time, scholars in other disciplines have integrated the concept of culture into their own research and writing and attempted to define culture for their own purposes. Thus, many different definitions of the concept of culture now exist, each illuminating a fact of the human condition (Eicher, Evenson, and Lutz 2000: 34).

The Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School refers to the Institute of Social Research at Goethe University in Germany, founded in 1923, which made a contribution to the development of critical cultural theory. Some of the most influential figures at the Institute included Theodor Adorno (1903–69), Max Horkheimer (1895– 1973), Erich Fromm (1900–80), Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), and Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979). They all had diverse interests, but one commonality was that they rejected positivist, scientific, and quantitative approaches to research

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since they disagreed with value-free social research. Positivistic analysis purposely discourages and dismisses “critical thinking” and falsely emphasizes unrealistic objectivity. Critical theory, which emerged from the Frankfurt School, seeks “human emancipation in circumstances of domination and oppression in the broader sense” (Horkheimer 1982 [1972]), and this theoretical framework affected other relevant theories, such as critical race theory and postcolonial theory, all of which aim to reduce hierarchical social relationships based on Marxist tradition. One of the most striking works that came from the Institute was Dialectic of the Enlightenment (1979 [1947]) written by Adorno and Horkheimer, who provided a strong critique of the mass popular culture and culture industry, which includes entertainment and media corporations, in the modern consumer society, and it also played a major role in the production of capitalism since business and profit-making were central to mass cultural production. In addition, mass society created passive audience and viewers who were all treated equally without any individuality or differentiations, and therefore, they can be easily manipulated by the culture industry. They are reduced to the lowest level of taste. Art, music, and literature became part of a superficial mass culture which has no content and substance, and there is no authentic meaning. For instance, Adorno and Horkheimer saw no social and philosophical values in jazz or popular music because culture must be an intellectualaesthetic experience which mass popular culture is unable to provide. High art and high culture are exceedingly superior to mass culture. Their notion of culture was value-laden and dismissed mass/popular culture as low, debased, and demoralizing, and used the term “mass culture” in a pejorative way because it is related to the ills of modern society. Adorno’s view, in particular, is largely influenced by his experience during his exile in Los Angeles during the Second World War.

The Intellectual Tradition of Cultural Anthropology Anthropologists pioneered a methodology called ethnographic fieldwork or ethnography in cultural research, and they developed a concept of culture that defines the shared aspects of social life primarily in terms of ideas, beliefs, and

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values. The non-material concept of culture includes learned behavior patterns, religious beliefs, ideals, standards, symbolic meanings, and expectations that are shared as the people of a society develop a heritage of common experiences (Eicher, Evenson, and Lutz 2000: 34). Franz Boas (1858–1942) is considered the father of fieldwork in American cultural anthropology which began at Columbia University. He was the first to professionalize the discipline, introduce an inductive analysis of culture, and instill ethnographic fieldwork as its principal research method. It was the Polish expatriate Bronisław Malinowski (1884–1942) who described what intensive fieldwork was like, what it entailed, and advanced the methodology of ethnographic investigation through his research among the Trobrianders of Melanesia. He influenced the twentieth-century ethnographical methods. He gathered qualitative data by living with the Trobriand people and observed their everyday activities. His book Argonauts of the Western Pacific (2008 [1922]) is widely read and is most influential to those who use ethnography as a research method. According to Malinowski (2008 [1922]: 3), all ethnographic studies should include an account of the research methods and conditions so that at a glance, the reader could estimate with precision the degree of the writer’s personal acquaintance with the facts that one describes and form an idea of under what conditions information had been obtained from the natives. In addition to Malinowski’s pioneering ethnographical study (2008 [1922]), we have much to learn from Clifford Geertz’s seminal work on The Interpretations of Cultures (1973), in which he makes it clear that the concept of culture is inseparable from ethnography, particularly for anthropologists. According to Geertz (1973: 5–6), in anthropology, what the practitioners do is ethnography, and it is in understanding what ethnography is—or more exactly what doing ethnography is—that a start can be made toward grasping what anthropological analysis amounts to as a form of knowledge. Ethnography is defined as “thick description” (Geertz 1973: 9–10) that provides meanings and interpretations of people’s behaviors, words, and feelings in a specific cultural context. In order to conduct a successful ethnographical study, there needs to be physical proximity of a researcher to the people studied, knowledge of their language, and a high degree of psychological and emotional involvement. Much ethnographic research involves entering the setting of some group and

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watching and listening attentively; this appears to be a simple method that anyone can do, but in reality it is time-consuming and produces much information about people and culture.

The Chicago School During the 1920s and 1930s, sociologists at the University of Chicago were influenced by the work of social psychologist George Herbert Mead (1863– 1931) and Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) who were instrumental in the development of qualitative sociology, taking a more humanistic approach to social research. They were known as the Chicago School, which referred to the Sociology Department at the university, led by Herbert Blumer (1900–87), William Isaac Thomas (1863–1947), and Robert E. Park (1864–1944), among others. They represented the first major attempt to conduct systematic ethnographic fieldwork in sociology in particular. They conducted fieldwork and reconceptualized their methodology around “participant observation,” which was originally developed by Malinowski, and transported it to sociology as one of the qualitative methods to examine cultures and life experiences of particular groups of people. Unlike cultural anthropologists, they saw values in both theory and empirical research, and their research led to the establishment of urban sociology and symbolic interactionism, which is a micro-level analysis of society and people. Prior to the Chicago School, sociology as an academic discipline in the US provided a macro-level analysis using mostly quantitative data and emphasized objectivity in the field of social sciences. Thomas wrote that culture was the material and social values of any group of people, whether savage or civilized, and furthermore, the social sciences are fundamentally concerned with relationships between individuals and other individuals, individuals and groups, and groups and other groups (Thomas 1937). In addition, Blumer later said that people relate to each other through their shared cultural meanings which are generated through social interactions. To understand human actions, we need to look at how people create and use meanings, and not how cultural prescriptions, norms, and values provide such explanations (Blumer 1969: 2). This implies that human beings are active, not passive, agents in constructing social realities while dismissing the external

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macro-social forces that influence individual actions. Eicher, Evenson, and Lutz define culture clearly as follows (2000: 34): “the human-made material items and patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior shared by members of a group who regularly interact with each other. Culture thus includes a broad range of phenomena, both material and nonmaterial in nature” which is an umbrella term that encompasses all peoples, groups, communities, lifestyles, and organizations in the human world.

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) This Centre was established in 1964 at Birmingham University in the UK, and their research is known as British cultural studies. Similar to the scholars at the Chicago School, researchers in British cultural studies looked at the ways of life of various marginal or minority groups and interpreted their social and cultural world. What makes this tradition different from anthropological ethnography is that everyday actions were interpreted within a political, Marxist framework. Social activities are often conceptualized as acts of resistance to a dominant social order or as responses to oppression and injustice. These themes were central to the studies of youth culture and subculture. The cultural theorists then argued that cultures are best understood through the lens of Marxian theory due to the specific class structures of British society at the time, so they studied working-class youths. Two important scholars laid the foundation of the CCCS: Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart, who rejected the idea of culture as high culture and the property of the upper class postulated by Adorno and Horkheimer at the Frankfurt School, and who had a different viewpoint on popular culture and working-class perspectives. The two scholars were instrumental in changing the notion of culture from elitist to something more democratic and widely diffused and appreciated, and this led to the establishment of the Centre with Hoggart as its first director. Hoggart’s work on The Uses of Literacy (1957) is a seminal text in British cultural studies. He discussed how traditional ideas and attitudes were being challenged by the impact of mass publications like tabloid newspapers, paperback novels, and glossy magazines, and noted that there were major changes in working-class culture (Hoggart 1957: 11). He

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placed the working-class culture in the academic arena, which had been dismissed until then, and applied the methods of literary criticism, such as close readings of written materials and the textual analysis of popular culture. He shed light on the lifestyle of working-class people which was often ignored by academics as unimportant, worthless, and meaningless. Similarly, Williams focused on mass culture and working-class culture and provided a new theoretical model in Cultural Studies in his Culture and Society (1983 [1958]). Williams wrote: “culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language... because it has now come to be used for important concepts in several distinct intellectual disciplines and in several distinct system of thought” (1976: 76–7). He gave three understandings of culture as follows (1976: 80): 1 It refers to the intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development of an individual, group, or society. 2 It captures a range of intellectual and artistic activities, and their products (film, art, theatre), and in this usage, culture is more or less synonymous with the arts. 3 It designates the entire way of life, activities, beliefs, and customs of a people, group, or society. The third point is used and supported by anthropologists, and it treats culture as a value-free concept. It suggests that culture is found everywhere and not only in Western civilization (Smith 2001). In his The Long Revolution (1961), Williams gave a more sociological analysis of culture. For him, literature and art are a kind of “culture” and he explores it more from a macro, broader perspective, and wrote that it is “an entire way of life.” British cultural studies is interdisciplinary in research topics and theoretical frameworks, and they draw upon postmodern theory, postcolonial theory, conflict theory, queer theory, and feminist theory among others, and since there is a great deal of Marxist influences, they tend to focus on the relations between culture, power, and class. The seminal work on British youths emerged during the 1970s from the Centre. The two classic studies of youth subcultures were Resistance through Rituals (1976) by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson and Subcultures: The Meanings of Style (1979) by Dick Hebdige.

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They offer semiotic accounts of the social codes of youth subcultures in UK and explain that they challenge the hegemony of the dominant culture using their “spectacular appearance” as a tool to express their rebellion. They studied the routine practices of the subcultural groups, such as their activities, dress codes, and drug use, as a culture of resistance grounded in class relations. While the sociologists at the Chicago School used intense ethnography and participant observation as their research method, the academics at the CCCS often used semiotics to decode the meanings.

Structuralism and Semiotics Structuralism comes from a community of French intellectuals who investigated the importance of language. Their basic premise is that language reflects reality, and reality itself is a language which can be decoded and deconstructed for further interpretations. Linguistics is a science and provides the method for reading any texts and treats reality as a text. Structuralists were influenced by anthropological exploration of looking at culture as a text by Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) and Clifford Geertz (1926–2006). Semiotics, or semiology, is a linguistic theory derived from and proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), and it is a field of structuralism and is the science of signs and any system of signification. Prior to Saussure, linguists were interested in the historical development of languages or the etymological origins of the words in different languages. In contrast, Saussure had a very different perspective. Influenced by Durkheim, a French sociologist and structuralist, he pointed out that language is not an individual but a collective representation with its own system of rules and regulations, and language as a formal system is a set of relationships among different words and parts of speech. It has a force imposed by society, and there are correct and incorrect ways of speaking, which are not determined by the individual. The language as a system has a structure with its own rules, such as the order of words in a sentence, grammar structures, and how words are uttered. The underlying structure imposed by society should be the topic of linguistic analysis, according to Saussure (1966 [1916]).

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Scholars such as anthropologists and literary critics further examined Saussure’s methodological insights and developed the semiological science that Saussure had postulated at the turn of the twentieth century. A semiotic analysis of a cultural object was applied by various scholars, and Saussure’s approach was later extended by the French literary theorist Roland Barthes, who argues that any item of culture, including clothing and fashion, can become a sign and communicate meanings (1977). Semiotics is used in any cultural field as an analytical tool in treating a cultural item as a text and in decoding its meaning. Similarly, Geertz argued that, in addition to his ethnographical fieldwork, his analysis of the concept of culture is a semiotic one and “the whole semiotic approach to culture is to help researchers in gaining access to the conceptual world in which our subjects live so that we can converse with them” (Geertz 1973: 24), and he insisted that the analysis of culture is not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning (Geertz 1973: 5), which is an inductive approach rather than a deductive one, and this is one of the significant contributions of Geertz in cultural research.

Conceptual Tools for Cultural Analysis There are a variety of concepts and ideas associated with the term “culture,” and they can be used as conceptual tools to investigate the case studies of cultural appropriation discussed later in the subsequent chapters. Some are extensions of the theoretical framework discussed earlier in this chapter while others propose new perspectives and approaches to cultural studies. We see different implications of culture in our social life, and each concept below may overlap with other concepts which would further expand and broaden our perspectives on a larger macro scale. These conceptual tools can be developed further into other concepts and include additional conceptual tools.

Cultural Hegemony Cultural hegemony is a type of hegemony set forth by Antonio Gramsci (1892–1937) who has a book titled Selections from the Prison Notebooks (1971

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[1947]), which was published ten years after his death. He was an Italian Marxist philosopher and also a founder of the Italian Communist Party, and he spent his last eleven years in prison. Marx talked about the ownership of the means of production by capitalists in the ruling and dominant class, and Gramsci took it further and argued that it was controlling not only property but the means of producing beliefs about social reality through religion, education, and the media (Heywood 1994: 100–1). Gramsci argued that the working class is most afflicted by the power of the ruling class, and he called this act “hegemony,” which is defined as the domination and control of a society by capitalists, and that is how the culture is shaped. Gramsci explained how the ideas of the ruling class are produced, reproduced, and sustained, and such mindsets are accepted by the subordinate classes. The hegemonic oppression was imposed through consent and not violence or military force, and therefore, the power of the ruling class is constituted in the realm of knowledge which can be so deeply embedded and ingrained in people’s conscious and subconscious. Hegemony is exercised in a subtle way through cultural means and economic power in a capitalist society. The working class take their social situations taken for granted and do not doubt the dominant order and criticize it; they take it as inevitable and have little control over such ideas. Gramsci is talking about the means of “mental production” which leads to one’s internalized ideas, and this is the mechanism by which culture is produced. Cultural hegemony continues to affirm the existence of a hierarchy and distinctions between different social classes which are artificially and intentionally created by society.

Cultural Imperialism Cultural imperialism is a type of imperialism which is used in a pejorative sense. Those who impose cultural imperialism are the countries that are economically and militarily superior and dominant. At the turn of the twentieth century, Western European countries, such as the US, England, and France, began to colonize underdeveloped and non-industrialized countries and placed them under their control. The colonizers imposed their own cultural rules and cheap labor for the local people as exploitation measures, and the

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colonized countries remained undeveloped and uncivilized because the colonizers structurally kept them unable to become economically successful and powerful. They upheld their own customs, traditions, religion, language, values, norms, and habits as superior to those of the colonized people, who were intentionally given an inferior social status as long as they were colonized. This was a way to put down the oppressed cultures through cultural means. Cultural imperialism perpetuates the production and reproduction of unequal global relationships and imposes hegemonic ideology of the dominant culture onto a less powerful, subordinate culture while destroying national pride and identity of the subordinated culture. Edward Said published a controversial book called Orientalism (1973) and introduced the term as a critical concept as well as the Western portrayal of the East. He explained that “Orientals” are given an inferior social status and treated as the marginalized “Other” in the Western world. His postcolonial theory portrays a dichotomous relation between the powerful West and the submissive East. The book pays attention to the issues of power, hegemony, and imperialism. Yuval Noah Harari also writes provocatively in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011): “the existence of different human races, the superiority of the white race, and the need to protect and cultivate their superior race were widely held beliefs among most Western elites,” and thus, he explained, some of the European countries enforced their own culture as something that is superior, and the colonized may over time identify the colonizers’ race or ethnicity itself as being responsible for their superiority.

Cultural Norms and Ethnocentrism Everyone is born into a particular culture. There is no one who was not born into a culture. We all learn different elements of culture, such as languages, customs, values, beliefs, religions, and so on, and whatever we learn becomes normal while the rest becomes not normal, strange, unusual, and different. Ethnocentrism, a concept developed by William Graham Sumner in his Folkways (1940 [1906]), is the root of imperialism mentioned above. It is a belief that a particular culture is at the center of the universe and is superior to other cultures. The way people act in this culture is the only right way, and

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therefore, others must follow them. Their values, customs, beliefs, and standards are higher than others, and thus they grant themselves an elevated social status. The opposite of ethnocentrism is cultural relativism, which is a belief that culture can be understood within its own context, rejecting the value-laden ideas of superior culture and inferior culture. There is no one good or one bad, or one right or one wrong. Norms vary from culture to culture. Sumner coined the term “folkways,” which are social conventions that bind people together within a culture. People are ethnocentric when they use their own norms to assess and judge other cultures. Sumner also talked about three types of norms found in all cultures: a) Folkways refer to everyday customs and rules that people take for granted, and we rarely question them because they come so naturally. b) Mores refer to rules that involve a sense of morality. c) Laws are the rules determined by the State. The differences among these three are the severity and the degree of sanctions people may receive when they violate them. A violation of folkways may subject a person to social humiliation, breaking mores may lead to a harsher sanction, such as social isolation, and breaking the laws may result in incarceration.

Culture as Standpoint Epistemology It was Sandra Harding who coined the term “standpoint theory” with a feminist perspective, and she argued that knowledge is produced and shaped by one’s social position. Although social sciences always valued objectivity in research, research and theory do not include women’s thinking and voices. There are differences between men and women in terms of knowledge production. How do we know what we know? This is an epistemological question. It is often argued by feminist and minority scholars that knowledge is produced by white men, and that other perspectives of marginalized people, such as women and racial minorities, are ignored and dismissed. Minority’s views are different from that of the majority’s. We need to be more inclusive and pay attention to unique voices of the ethnic minorities that had been excluded, forgotten, and marginalized.

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In Horace Miner’s article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” (1956), he explains how a reality looks for different people with different knowledge. At first glance, it appears that this article is about the bodily practices that people of an unknown tribe, called the Nacirema, go through every day as a ritual. Miner attempts to show readers that how a situation can be observed when examined objectively as an outsider. After reading the article closely and when we shift our standpoint, we realize that the author is talking about the American culture. Nacirema read backwards is American. He is purposely telling a story about a “tribe” from a standpoint of an outsider who is not familiar with this culture. Culture is experienced, understood, and interpreted differently with each person’s unique outlook which is shaped and guided by the knowledge the person had acquired in their environment and surroundings. Malinowski also used culture as a standpoint in his Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922).

Culture and Taste As a response to Adorno and Horkheimer’s critique of mass culture, Herbert Gans in his Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste (1974) rejected any distinctions between high and popular/mass culture, and argued that high culture should not be more valued than popular culture. He was in support of cultural pluralism in which all cultures have the same values, and we should not place high culture on a pedestal and put down popular culture. These values are socially constructed by human society and thus need to be revised and redefined. All cultures should be treated equally. Taste culture encompasses similar values, lifestyle, and aesthetic standards, but those should not be correlated with social hierarchies. In his book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1984), Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) discusses coherent social class differences in the consumption of culture in French society. Like other prominent sociologists, Bourdieu analyzed power structure between groups through their relations with culture, such as cultural practices and objects, which resulted in different stratifying social groups. People individually and collectively use strategies of distinction to be accepted by their own peers. Bourdieu argued that people’s

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class positions and aspirations are closely connected to their taste for the arts, and that “habitus,” which is defined as socially learned habits and skills, is what determines one’s taste preferences. It is something one inherits both materially and through socialization from one’s upbringing, family background, and education, which Bourdieu called “cultural capital.” Therefore, one’s taste for the arts is determined and acquired after birth within a particular class and cultural context, and is not a random acquisition or a biological disposition. Bourdieu analyzed taste in music, artwork, books, food, and clothing. It is not a coincidence that the upper class appreciates classical music while the mass prefers popular music.

Culture as a Collective Action Howard Becker provides an overview of the concept of culture in his article “Culture: A Sociological View” (1982). Culture is defined as shared ways of a human group, which include the ways of thinking, understanding, and feeling through shared experiences and are passed on from generation to generation. In this article, Becker shares his own personal experience as a jazz pianist and is often hired to play with other musicians who are strangers. Yet, he explains: “when it was time to start, the leader would announce the name of a song and a key—and we would begin to play. We not only began at the same time, but also played background figures that fit melody someone else was playing, and perhaps most miraculously, end together. No one in the audience ever guessed that we had never met until twenty minutes earlier” (1982: 513). Jazz is often improvised, and no one verbally says when to start, how to play exactly, or when to stop, but they perform every step of the way in unison and harmony. This is because the musicians all belong to more or less the same “culture.” This is an example of a “collective action” explaining how people manage to act together and behave in similar ways. Sociologists use the concept of culture as one of the explanations for the phenomenon of concerted activity. Becker’s analysis is the basis of a social theory called symbolic interactionism which focuses on the face-to-face interactions. Culture is created through ways that people interact and how we interpret each other’s actions. Human interactions

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produce meanings, and every object and action has a symbolic meaning. For those who belong to the same culture, their actions and behaviors become predictable with shared understanding of what their actions are going to be next.

Culture as a Tool Kit While scholars often explain culture as something that is guided by people’s actions through values, Swidler explains that culture as something to be selectively used and taken from as a tool kit which consists of “cultural equipment,” such as habits, skills, and styles, from which people construct “strategies of action.” Culture is more than just an objective reality that exists outside of our being. “If culture influences action through end values, people in changing circumstances should hold on to their preferred ends while altering their strategies for attaining them. But if culture provides the tools with which persons construct lines of action, then styles or strategies of action will be more persistent than the ends people seek to attain. Indeed, people will come to value ends for which their cultural equipment is well suited” (Swidler 1986: 277). Analysis of culture has three steps (1986: 273): 1 using a “tool kit” of symbols, stories, rituals, and world-views, which people use in varying situations to solve different kinds of problems; 2 analyzing culture’s causal effects, and focuses on “strategies of action,” persistent ways of ordering action through time; and 3 seeing culture’s causal significance not in defining ends of action, but in providing cultural components that are used to construct strategies of action, looking at culture as a process. Culture can be a set of possible meanings that can be drawn to constitute social realities which are different for each individual since each tool kit is different depending on one’s gender, race, class, and religion. People have access to different tool kits which affect our strategies of action and result in different consequences. They are like cultural guidebooks that we refer to and they determine and shape our behaviors and thoughts.

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Culture as Symbolic Boundaries Symbolic boundaries are conceptual distinctions which are also part of a cultural tool kit (Swidler 1986) made by social actors to categorize objects, people, practices, time and space (Lamont and Molnar 2002). People struggle and negotiate over these boundaries to be part of an in-group or an out-group (Fiske 1998). The investigation of symbolic boundaries allows us to capture the dynamic dimensions of social relations, as groups compete in the production, diffusion, and institutionalization of alternative systems and principles of classifications (Lamont and Molnar 2002). This understanding implies that people are different rather than the same, and as Marcel Mauss in his “Civilizations: Elements and Forms” (1929) wrote: “The domain of social life is essentially a domain of differences” which results in class, race/ethnicity, and gender inequalities. Symbolic boundaries not only delineate lines but create inequalities. According to Lamont and Molnar (2002), the study of boundaries is the study of relational processes in memberships and group classifications. Processes include boundary-work, boundary crossing, boundary shifting, territorialization, politicization, relocation, and institutionalization of boundaries (Lamont and Molnar 2002: 168). Symbolic boundaries, which occur at the relational level, also create the feelings of sense of belonging and sameness, and this may lead to psychological togetherness and connections. Classical social theorists had created categories and groups in their cultural analysis to examine the social mechanism and embedded power structure, and also the relations between two concepts: Marx between capitalists and non-capitalists; Weber between class and status; Durkheim between mechanical and organic solidarity. Understanding a dichotomy and duality allows us to move beyond them to later suggest a more inclusive analysis.

Outline of the Book This book is intended as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, media studies, and fashion studies. It can also be beneficial for and useful to

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practitioners and professionals in the fashion and entertainment industries as a reference guide to avoid any cultural mishaps during the process of designing, planning, marketing, merchandising, and publicizing. In Chapter 2, we review definitions of and examine academic studies on cultural appropriation and borrowing in different fields to understand and recognize how pervasive cultural appropriation is and that such debates and discussions exist in various industries and institutions, such as gastronomy, publishing and sports teams. Chapter 3 traces the history of couturiers and designers (such as Poiret and Vionnet, who were inspired by non-Western cultures), explores biological and cultural hierarchy which leads to sartorial hierarchy, provides conceptual typologies for cultural appropriation analysis (such as the reinforcement of racial stereotypes, racial fetishism, and religious blasphemy, with specific case studies in the fashion industry), and explores why these styles and images are culturally inappropriate and offensive. In Chapter 4, which has been contributed by Jung-Whan Marc de Jong, the concept of the Other is used to identify the power dynamics behind minority groups’ contestations of cultural authenticity in the field of entertainment. Cultural appropriation is reconceptualized within a global context to address the ways in which entertainment industries rely on technologies such as social media to produce and distribute culture, construct and promote “celebrity,” and market their products to consumers all over the world. Using the production of culture perspective and the Korean K-pop industry as an example, the chapter examines how the K-pop’s music genre’s hybridization—largely because of the industry’s reliance on digital technology—intensifies concerns about cultural appropriation. In Chapter 5, the general issues of cultural appropriation are placed in a broader framework of globalization which is a source of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, the well-known terms drawn from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1972, 1980), and the chapter focuses on the effects of cultural globalization which consists of two theoretical frameworks: cultural/ media imperialism and cultural hybridization. To what extent the fashion industry has globalized is also assessed. Finally, a concluding chapter suggests the future directions and possibilities of research and methodology in the field.

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Conclusion This introductory chapter reviewed culture, which is a complex concept with multiple definitions and explanations, and scholars strive to understand the subtleties of this concept which can be studied from both micro and macro levels of analysis and as a value-laden and value-free notion. Culture as a way of life can be applied not only to race and/or ethnicity, but also to other social groups, such as class, religion, gender, and age. Culture has been studied by researchers in different disciplines in a variety of intellectual traditions and schools of thought in Europe and the USA, and they provided certain methodological strategies, such as ethnography and semiotics, that are used in cultural research. By combining the concept of culture with other relevant concepts, it expands its definition to generate a broader meaning, and it takes culture-related issues to even more stimulating and provocative levels of discussions. Once we have a better and deeper understanding of what a culture truly means, we can properly investigate the problems of cultural appropriation and misappropriation in contrast to cultural borrowing and exchange.

Suggested Further Reading Artz, Lee, and Bren Murphy (2000), Cultural Hegemony in the United States, London: Sage Publications. Barry, Peter (2017), Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, 4th edition, Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. Bizumic, Boris (2018), Ethnocentrism: Integrated Perspectives, NY: Routledge. Calhoun, Craig, Joseph Gerteis, James Moody, James Pfaff, and Indermohan Virk (eds.) (2002), Classical Sociological Theory, 3rd edition, New York: Wiley. Chandler, Daniel (2017), Semiotics: the Basics, New York: Routledge. Elliott, Anthony (2014), Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, New York: Routledge. Frisby, David Patrick, and Mike Featherstone (eds.) (1998), Simmel on Culture, London: Sage Publications. Hawkes, Terrence (2003), Structuralism and Semiotics, New York: Routledge. McRobbie, Angela (2005), The Uses of Cultural Studies, London: Sage Publications. Moberg, Mark (2018), Engaging Anthropological Theory: A Social and Political History, 2nd edition, New York: Routledge. Quinn, Malcolm, Dave Beech, Michael Lehnert, Carol Tullock, and Stephen Wilson (eds.) (2018), The Persistence Taste: Art, Museums and Everyday Life after Bourdieu, New York: Routledge.

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Slater, Phil (2015), Origin and Significance of Frankfurt School, New York: Routledge. Spencer, Stephen (2014), Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation, New York: Routledge. Turner, Graeme (1990), British Cultural Studies: An Introduction, New York: Routledge.

2 Academic Studies on Cultural Appropriation YUNIYA KAWAMURA

Objectives: ●

To investigate various academic studies on cultural appropriation and related concepts.

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To learn the definitions, processes, and types of cultural appropriation.

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To explore cultural appropriation in various industries, fields, and institutions.

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To examine conflicting views and consensus about cultural appropriation.

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To understand how a society is saturated with culturally offensive products, events, and experiences.

Since cultural appropriation is a multidimensional phenomenon and may arise in many realms, it has come under the scrutiny of scholars from a wide array of disciplines, including anthropology, history, art history, sociology, ethnomusicology, postmodern literary theory, political science, law, and cultural studies (Ziff and Rao 1997: 20). It is also controversial since, in the contemporary world, individuals from rich and powerful majority cultures often appropriate from disadvantaged indigenous and minority cultures (Young 2010: ix). In this chapter, we examine and review academic studies in 25

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reference to real-life situations that discuss issues on cultural appropriation and/or other related concepts and ideas, such as cultural exchange, transculturation, authenticity, and colonialism in the following areas: logos and nicknames, gastronomy and cuisine, literary works, and adornment practices so that we understand that cultural borrowing, whether it is perceived positive or negative, is pervasive and found not only in fashion and entertainment, which are elaborated in the subsequent chapters.

Definitions, Processes, and Types We first explore the basic definitions of cultural appropriation, which is more than an act of borrowing ideas, practices, and customs from other cultures since it may offend people of those cultures. A symbolic boundary places individuals and groups in different categories and clarifies who is in and who is out. Some scholars investigate the processes of appropriation while others create types. Here are some of the definitions of cultural appropriation taken from the major reliable dictionaries and Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, which has more than 70,000 volunteers editing its contents: 1 It is the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect the culture. (Cambridge English Dictionary) 2 It is the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of on people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society. (Oxford English Dictionary) 3 It is the adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture. (Wikipedia) The first definition from the Cambridge English Dictionary is a simple one which does not imply hierarchies among different cultures while the other two definitions include terms such as “a minority culture” and “more dominant people or society,” and they imply social differences and a possible hierarchy between cultures. On the other hand, when a minority culture takes ideas from a dominant culture, the term “cultural appropriation” is not applied. Some

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cultures have more power, prestige and advantages while others have less or none. This results in power relationships among cultures. Cultural appropriation is about boundaries, territories, hierarchies, power, colonialism, and authority, all of which are the concepts we tackle in this book. Bruce Ziff and Pratima Rao (1997: 5–6) explored the meaning of “taking” or “borrowing” cultural objects and provided a chart on “Structural Representation of Cultural Transmission: Appropriation or Assimilation” which showed the social processes involved in cultural transmission, and the ways in which the transmission of culture can be construed and implicated differently depending on whether the subjectivity of the receiver of culture is identified as being from a dominant or a subordinate group. Furthermore, cultural transmission can either be an assimilative or appropriative practice (Ziff and Rao 1997: 5). The authors argue that minorities are encouraged or obliged to adapt or assimilate with the cultural forms and practices of the dominant group while when dominant groups borrow the cultural forms associated with subordinate groups, this practice is called appropriation. Susan Scafidi, the author of Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law (2005) and a founder of Fordham Fashion Law Institute in New York, defines and explains cultural appropriation as follows (2005: 13): 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 a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects. Anna Holmes, an award-winning New York Times writer, wrote that the distinction between cultural appropriation and exchange depends on intent, which is difficult to discern and not quantifiable in any precise way. It is almost impossible to “prove” appropriation, but we know it when we see it. “Appropriations are expressions of ignorance or aggression, when objects, ideas, lived experiences

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or points of view are not so much examined as exploited and performed. Exchanges, conversely, suggest a certain sort of generosity, an openness to discussion and an invitation to reciprocity . . . exchange is about teasing out points of conflict, among other things” (Holmes 2017). In addition, Richard Rogers defined it “as the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture” (2006). In his article “From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation: A Review and Reconceptualization of Cultural Appropriation,” he raises four types of cultural appropriation and explains each as follows (2006: 478–91): a) cultural exchange occurs between cultures with roughly equal levels of power, b) cultural dominance refers to the use of elements of a dominant culture by members of a subordinated culture, c) cultural exploitation is the appropriation of elements of a subordinated culture by a dominant culture without substantive reciprocity, permission, and/or compensation, and d) transculturation refers to hybrid cultural elements created from and/or by multiple cultures without identifying a single originating culture. James O. Young said that there are at least five quite different activities that have been classified as acts of cultural appropriation (2010: 5–9): a) object appropriation, b) content appropriation c) style appropriation, d) motif appropriations, and e) subject appropriation. Style and motif appropriations fall under content appropriation. The following four fields of research in this chapter show that cultural appropriation and borrowing of non-Western and minority cultures are ubiquitous in our everyday life, and they are often taken for granted because they have been deeply ingrained in our mind, but they demand further attention and discussions. These case studies need to be brought to light so that we realize that we are constantly surrounded by and subconsciously witnessing controversial images and are experiencing contentious behaviors, and in that way, our cultural competence and awareness are raised.

Logos, Mascots, and Nicknames In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) passed a resolution that recommended retiring American Indian mascots, symbols, images,

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and personalities from schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams, and organizations because they contribute to a hostile educational environment to students and implant racist ideas and attitudes in schools. There is much interdisciplinary scholarship on collegiate and professional American Indian mascots (Castagno and Lee 2007; King 2002, 2013; Strong 2004), and it critiques the continued use of mascots because of their negative, biased implications, such as perpetuating racism and colonialism, harming American Indian identity, and enacting cultural appropriation and commodifıcation of American Indian cultural symbols (Endres 2015; Baca 2004). For example, the term “redskin” in The Washington Redskins, an American football team, is a racial slur, and the team was pressured to change its name and logo (Figure 2.1). However, there is not an absolute consensus among the Native Indians about the use of their logos, images, and names. Their views are split, and we see the complexity of the mascot controversy that is apparent within their own tribes. David Waldstein recently wrote (2020) in The New York Times that the minor league team known as the Spokane Indians in Washington State is keeping its name because the team has been collaborating with the Spokane Tribe while honoring their culture in a respectful manner. Carol Evans, the chairwoman of the Spokane Tribal Council, says (quoted in Waldstein 2020):

Figure 2.1 Washington Redskins merchandise for sale in Virginia, the same day the team confirms its name and logo change in 2013 (photo by Andrew CaballeroReynolds/AFP via Getty Images).

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“They came and listened to the elders, and that is what really developed the relationship over time, and it has grown like a family partnership unit, where we have a lot of respect for one another.” The Cleveland Indians, a major league baseball team, which used an image of Chief Wahoo as their logo, are also in negotiation with the Native Indians to get their permission. Not all racialized athletic team names and mascots taken from the Native Indian culture are problematized. Michael Taylor (2011) studied a case of Salamanca Central High School in New York which has a football team called the Warriors with a Native Indian iconography. Salamanca city is the only city that is located on an Indian reservation with 26 percent of the American Indian student body. In 2001, the New York State Education Department asked all local school districts to end the use of American Indian mascots and team names because these symbols can make the school environment seem less safe and supportive to some students; this was an effort to avoid any racial stereotypes. However, the Salamanca school board and both Native and non-Native students at the school all wanted to keep the name and imagery of the Indian Warrior for the school’s football team. Cultural appropriation can be an expression of power and applied in a positive way. The logo of a Seneca tribal chief is an icon of cultural pride and Native American leadership for the minority group in this power relationship that has been appropriated by the non-Seneca community as its own, and is accessed by the entire community (2011: 257). Both Native and non-Native groups are invested in football as a symbol of togetherness to create hegemony grounded in athletics. “Warrior” is defined by the Salamanca athletic standard as having the courage to struggle and achieve, and this gives moral and mental strength to the image. As Salamanca Warriors, high school athletes symbolize the community’s ability to unite and instill a positive community identity. The coaches and players shared a common identity, go through the process of community bonding, and construct “Warriorhood” through this imagery that binds them together. In contrast, debates about the use of logos and names also create a rift and division among the Natives Indians. Opinions are split among the insiders, and it makes the cultural appropriation problem more complex and tricky. It is no longer simply an insiders versus outsiders issue. When a borrowed image or logo is viewed positively, it grants some in a minority group a sense of superiority to allow others to use the image.

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Danielle Endres (2015) explains how cultural appropriation is permitted within an ethnic culture, and that also leads to a conflict and disharmony within their own community. In 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association banned the use of hostile, abusive, and racial American Indian symbols such as mascots, nicknames, and imagery in post-season sporting events, but several universities managed to appeal this decision by demonstrating permission from eponymous American Indian nations. This was interpreted as “sovereign American Indian nations’ empowerment” to grant permission to use their nation’s name and cultural symbols. Drawing on the idea of “rhetorical colonialism” and an examination of the University of Utah Utes, Endres shows how American Indians’ permission for mascots can be seen as upholding rather than challenging the system of colonialism through a form of self-colonization. The author explains convincingly that a focus on permission allows for an analysis of forms of resistance and complicity within a hegemonic colonial system, and while previous research critiques mascots as a sign of white hegemony and colonialism, the focus on American Indian permission allows for consideration of how institutionalized colonialism becomes internalized into American Indian rhetoric (2015: 23). Granting permission to use one’s own name and symbols perpetuate racism and colonialism, and therefore, the Northern Utes nation is displaying its own complicity with the colonial system (2015: 121). Unlike previous research that reveals how dominant non-American Indians employ strategies of rhetorical colonialism, this case shows how American Indians might engage in rhetorical colonialism through acts of complicity. In addition to sports teams, cultural appropriation is also found in food packages and brand logos, some of which are racist and culturally insensitive, and we need more scholarly research done on these topics as well. In 2019, an award-winning coffee manufacturer, Kickapoo Coffee in Wisconsin, changed its name to Wonderstate Coffee because Kickapoo is the name of a Native Indian tribe. This name change trend was accelerated in the wake of police brutality in May 2020. In June 2020, Quaker Oats, a subsidiary of Pepsico, decided to retire the Aunt Jemima brand and logo with a picture of a black woman of syrup, pancake mix, and other breakfast food (Figure 2.2); Mars is also going to change its Uncle Ben’s rice product with a picture of a black man’s face (Figure 2.3); and ConAgra Foods also said they will change their Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle, which evokes the image of a “loving black grandmother” (Figure 2.4).

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Figure 2.2 Aunt Jemima pancakes prior to brand change (photo by John Nacion/ SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).

Figure 2.3 A packet of Uncle Ben’s rice prior to brand change (photo by Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).

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Figure 2.4 A bottle of Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup prior to brand change (photo by Ron Adar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).

Gastronomy and Cuisine Eating is a basic human activity, but where we eat, how we eat, and what we eat has become part of our entertainment, enjoyment, and leisure activities. Some eat simply to survive while others cherish the process of eating and tasting. Foodies and gourmets enjoy visiting ethnic food restaurants and eating ethnic food, which is a symbol of culinary sophistication, and they always look for “authenticity” in their experience, such as the interior atmosphere of the restaurant, the dishes, the ingredients, and the cooking process. Some oppose chefs specializing in dishes from outside their cultural heritage (Grey and Newmann 2018). A sense of “authentic ethnic food” is questioned when the dishes are not made by someone from the particular ethnic culture. When Gordon Ramsay, a British TV personality cook, opened an Asian restaurant “Lucky Cat,” people questioned its authenticity. Can a British guy

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cook real Asian food even though he has years of experience as a chef? However, even in ethnic restaurants run by minority entrepreneurs, the concept of ethnicity is negotiated, tweaked, and compromised, and ethnicity is adjusted to be more commercially viable within the Western context for the Western customers. Matthew Strohl points out in his article “On Culinary Authenticity” (2019) that Euro-Americans look for authenticity in ethnic food and examine the nature and value of authenticity in food. He continues to say that culinary authenticity primarily concerns the authenticity of dishes or ingredients. One might be interested in knowing whether a food preparation is a faithful rendition of a certain dish or whether an ingredient is from a special region or whether a traditional processing method has been used. The strictness of requirements for authenticity is highly variable, and in some cases, requirements for authenticity are very strict, whereas in other cases they are very flexible (Strohl 2019). Shun Lu and Gary Fine (1995) studied Chinese restaurants in the US to explore how their ethnic entrepreneurs construct “ethnicity” that fits the American interpretations of Chinese ethnicity. In their article, “The Presentation of Ethnic Authenticity” (1995), the authors explain that what the white customers do not realize is that an authentic ethnicity is displayed as expected within the context of American consumers’ expectations. It is not true, pure authenticity. The customers’ experience needs to be comfortable. The display of ethnic food should go through a continuous adaptation process. Ethnicity is made real through cultural transactions between the ethnic group and the public. Ethnicity is displayed through its commercialization, such as the preparation and sale of Chinese food to American diners (Lu and Fine 1995: 535–6). The social construction of authentic ethnic food is bounded by social, cultural, and economic constraints, and modifications are always inevitable so that ethnic entrepreneurs can accommodate themselves to their host environment to which all cultural traditions are responsive. Their strategy is to provide an “exotic experience” while keeping the experience within the boundaries of cultural expectations (1995: 536). A transplantation of the original culinary tradition is not feasible, but if food is defined as too Americanized, customers will be dissatisfied, and the food will no longer be seen as representative

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of a distinctive ethnic tradition. American customers want to experience a selfvalidating “ethnic experience,” a mark of their tolerance and sophistication (1995: 535). Ethnic food is a symbol and a marker of diversity, and ethnicity is a strategic resource that can generate simultaneously a sense of “otherness” and “in-group cohesion,” without disclaiming ties to the core values and traditions of the polity that proclaim one as “American” (1995: 547–9). While Lu and Fine analyzed the ethnic food culture from the production and entrepreneur’s side, Lisa Heldke looks at it from a consumer’s viewpoint and a culinary colonialist perspective. Heldke (2001) recounts her personal story as a graduate student when she entered into a world of experimental cooking and eating, which was the start of her life as a food adventurer who experimented with different ethnic foods and cuisines. She then begins to feel uncomfortable and suspicious of her own “strange penchant for cooking and eating ethnic foods” (2001: 77). She writes: “The unflattering name I chose for my activities was ‘cultural food colonialism,’ ” which basically made her a colonizer of the foods of third-world cultures. Her adventurous eating was motivated by an attitude that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to the various ideologies of Western colonialism (2001: 77–8). She explains provocatively: “I was motivated by a deep desire to have contact with and somehow to own an experience of an Exotic Other to make myself more interesting. Food adventuring, as I was coming to think about it, made me a participant in cultural colonialism” (2001: 78). Food of the exotic other makes eating exciting and interesting, and it even becomes a status symbol (Heldke 2003) because there is the desire to discover the hidden and exotic unknown. Anything that is not easily accessible and that is harder to attain raises its value. We tend to believe that eating ethnic food is a multicultural gastronomic experience, but not all cultures welcome outsiders eating their food. Grey and Newman (2018) argue that when indigenous people’s gastronomies are commodified, they experience “culinary colonialism,” which is defined as a historical transit from destruction and denigration of ingredients and cuisines to forced assimilation to a Settler gastronomic norm, to cultural appropriation of Indigenous foods and dishes, and it is not friendly gastronomic multiculturalism. Culinary colonialism is an exploitation of indigenous (ethnic) gastronomy (Grey and Newman 2018). Indigenous food sovereignty must include the resistance

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and resurgence enacted through gastronomy because culinary culture is not simply a market commodity but also a political process. A multicultural approach to gastronomy could simply mean appropriating other cultures’ cuisines. The authors write (2018: 3): If political multiculturalism refers to the ideology and set of policies intended to recognize minority identities, gastronomic multiculturalism describes this approach as applied to cuisine. Gastronomic multiculturalism is thus the embrace of minority cuisine in the celebratory construction of a unified, national food culture. This incorporation publicly lauds the uniqueness and dynamism of its contributors, thereby ameliorating their marginalization while increasing the accessibility of their cuisines. However, the authors continue to say that for indigenous people, such multicultural inclusion is damaging. Like political multiculturalism, they suggest that gastronomic multiculturalism can also be divided into stages: initial suppression of subaltern cuisines; followed by an authenticity-seeking plurality; and finally, a convergence dominated by creolization (2018: 3). The initial stage is often accomplished through the denigration of minority cultures’ cuisines as less refined or palatable. In the gastronomic sphere, multicultural policies and practices are the means by which Indigenous foods enter the mainstream as alienated commodities, and through time, they become assimilated into the mainstream, but by that time, they may have lost their authenticity.

Literary Works One of the cultural appropriation types that Young discussed was “subject appropriation” (2010: 7), and this is the category that literary works in cultural appropriation falls under which can also be called “voice appropriation,” particularly when outsiders represent the lives of insiders in the first person. Literary narratives and stories are the transmitters and conveyors of cultural traditions and customs that are passed on from a person to a person, from family to family, and from generation to generation within the communities.

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The publishing and book industry is dominated by white authors, editors, and agents. Minority authors are often shut out and excluded from the book industry (Bermudez 2020). When minority characters are created by white authors, their inaccurate depiction and portrayal of the characters perpetuate stereotypes. Joe Nazare, in his “The Horror! The Horror? The Appropriation, and Reclamation, of Native American Mythology” (2000), questions what happens when one culture’s mythology is appropriated by another culture. The popular horror genre, whose literary and cinematic narratives are scripted by whites, has found its subject matter in the darker elements of Native American mythology. The typical horror narrative’s treatment of the Native American, such as demonizing the American Indians and introducing the notion of monstrosity, should not be glossed over (Nazare 2000: 24). It becomes problematic and contentious, especially when a negative image of a character is portrayed by a white author. Some minority authors insist that their story must be told only by their fellow people because it cannot be reproduced accurately by outsiders. In her essay with a self-explanatory title, “Stop Stealing Native Stories” (1997), Lenore Keeshig-Tobias, an indigenous author, explains that stories are not just entertainment but power, and they reflect the deepest, the most intimate perceptions, relationships and attitudes of a people (1997: 71). “The Canadian cultural industry is stealing. . . native stories as surely as the missionaries stole our religion and the politicians stole our land and the residential schools stole our language, and Canadians use native stories, symbols, and history to sell things, such as cars, tobacco or movies” (1997: 72). The stories of the oppressed can only be told by the oppressed since they know the painful experience firsthand while the outsiders can only “pretend” to understand. In addition, can a white author write a story of an ethnic culture? Can you produce the voice of a person that is not of the same race or ethnicity as yours? Kathryn Stockett, a white author who wrote a novel called The Help (2009), was criticized for writing a lifestyle of black maids. The story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s during the Civil Rights era. The three main characters are the two black women, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, and a daughter of a wealthy white family, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, who wants to be a writer and tries to write a book about the deplorable living standard of colored women that they endured to survive in the south in the 1960s and

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reveal the truth about their labor conditions. Her commitment to expose the racial injustice eventually alienates her from her own social circle of wealthy whites. The book was ranked number one on the New York Times Bestsellers’ list and was also made into a movie. Since Stockett is not black and has never worked as a maid, her story is a fiction based on her in-depth research and imagination, and that was offensive to many black women whose ancestors had gone through the atrocious treatment and experience in the south. Suzanne W. Jones (2014) in her “The Divided Reception of The Help” explains the conflicting reviews about the book. A larger percentage of white than black readers and viewers have embraced The Help, and praised that the film and the novel have crossed racial lines (Jones 2014: 9). However, some black readers criticized its limited focus on race relations in the domestic sphere and also accused Stockett of cultural appropriation, of “getting rich off the backs of a story that is NOT hers to tell,” which echoes Keeshig-Tobias’ voice (1997), and making a white character the heroic savior of helpless black people (2014: 12). Stockett portrayed the stereotypes of both enslaved black and rich white characters and her sanitized depiction of the Civil Rights era (2014: 12). American Dirt (2020) by Jeanine Cummins, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club, was also accused of capitalizing on immigrants’ trauma. The story is about Lydia Quizano Perez who runs a bookstore in Acapulco, Mexico, and lives with her journalist husband, Sebastian, and her eight-year-old son. One day, a guy whose name is Javier visits the bookstore and buys books. He turns out to be the head of a drug cartel that is slowly destroying and taking over the city. When the husband publishes Javier’s tell-all profile exposing his heinous crimes, the family becomes the assassination target of the gang. The husband is killed, and Lydia and her son flee the country to escape the massacre and head toward the US. Her life is turned upside down from a middle-class family in Mexico to undocumented illegal immigrants in the US. Cummins is not a Mexican and not an immigrant but is telling a story of the Mexican experience. Esmeralda Bermudez, a Los Angeles Times reporter, in her commentary titled “American Dirt is What Happens When Latinos Are Shut Out of the Book Industry” (2020), writes that she has never met a Mexican immigrant like the main character in this novel, and shares her own experience as and feelings about an immigrant:

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I’m an immigrant, after all. My family fled by foot and bus to the U.S. in the 1980s as right-wing death squads were killing and torturing thousands across El Salvador, including several of my relatives. The trauma of those dark days shaped everything about me. I figured I might recognize some part of my story in Cummins’ book, which follows an immigrant mother and son on their harrowing escape north from Mexico. Then I read the book. My skin crawled after the first few chapters . . . What made me cringe was immediately realizing that this book was not written for people like me, for immigrants. It was written for everyone else—to enchant them, take them on a wild border-crossing ride, make them feel all fuzzy inside about the immigrant plight. All unfortunately, with the worst stereotypes, fixations, and inaccuracies about Latinos. Cummins claimed that she had done her research for five years and intended to be culturally sensitive, but her critics say that there is no authenticity in the story. Does this mean that an immigrant story can only be told by an individual who is/was an immigrant? Can a black person’s experience be written only by a black person? Who gets to tell which story, and who has the authority to decide who can write what? Kit De Waal, a biracial Irish writer, explains succinctly in her essay “Don’t Dip Your Pen in Someone Else’s Blood” (2018) that writers go beyond what they know and write about what they imagine. They make the readers believe that they know or experience what the authors are writing about. Otherwise, their stories will be limited and confined to a specific time and space in their own life. But it becomes a problem when a white person pretends to be a non-white person and tells a story about his/her life in the voice of a minority person. De Waal writes (2018): As writers, we have to be the other—without it we would have no literature, no great stories, no murder mysteries, no great romances, no historical novels, no science fiction, no fantasy—but when we become the other we need always to act with respect and recognize the value of what we discover, show by our attitudes and our acknowledgements that we aren’t just appropriating but are seeking to understand.

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The difficulty of becoming the Other writer does not apply only to a white writer. A Black writer may write about a Chinese character, or a Jewish writer may create a Native Indian character. Writers are always appropriating and putting their feet in other people’s shoes. Fictions and novels are based on writers’ imaginations. How can we overcome cultural appropriation in the literary world?

Adornment Every culture has its own distinctive ways to adorn their bodies permanently or temporarily, and many of them have cultural symbolism with specific meanings, but when outsiders do them without the cultural knowledge, the meanings are completely lost or transformed. The link between clothes and colonialism has a long history. In white films and literature, Native Indian people usually appear as those who are victims of an inevitable historical fate, executed and enforced by the American government, the army, and the swarms of settlers (Root 1997: 226). In her article “White Indians: Appropriation and the Politics of Display” (1997), Root explores what it means for a white individual to dress like a Native Indian and wear their clothes, such as beaded jackets, turquoise jewelry, and feathers (1997: 231): We sometimes assume that it is a compliment or mark of respect in to Natives to dress in native-style regalia. It seems to us to be a way. . . to announce our identification with Native people, both to Natives and to other whites. We think it will operate as a kind of social lubricant, making it easier for “them” to accept “us” and to recognize that we are indeed good people. However, such performance and display of affiliation to a group is an act of offensive appropriation which goes hand in hand with colonialism and the display of authority, and enables white people to insist on being the center of attention and demands instant recognition and approval (1997: 231). We understand identity or tradition through the commodification of their style, and it emphasizes the notion that how we present ourselves is more important

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Figure 2.5 Indian model wearing a Kanchipuram saree (Kanjivaram saree) during a South Asian bridal fashion show held in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada (photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images).

Figure 2.6 Indian woman’s hands with mehendi painted with henna leaf paste (photo by Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/NurPhoto via Getty Images).

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than what we do. Appropriation appears to be more sensitive and complex than the more blunt colonial “We want it, so we’ll take it” mentality (1997: 231). Ethnic-style physical adornment and embellishment make a female body as the exotic “Other” which is enjoyed and valued by white women only for that particular moment. Nirmal Puwar discusses in her article “Multicultural Fashion . . . Stirrings of Another Sense of Aesthetics and Memory” that multiculturalism within the fashion industry includes the bodies of “other” women, South Asian women in UK in particular, who are different and have oriental phantasies (2002). Authentic South Asian fashion items, such as bindhies and mendhies (also spelled as bindies and mendies), are the marker for class and distinction for white consumers (Figures 2.5 and 2.6) while they are completely dismissing the violence endured historically by South Asian women. They give white people another sense of aesthetics amid the power of whiteness. In the basement of a major department store in UK, there was a small concessions section run by an Asian company which specialized in the art of henna. As customers had their hands, arms, legs, or stomachs hennaed in one of the styles they chose from the illustrated catalogue of styles on offer, they could also browse the bindhies, chokers, beads, and bangles circling a statue of the elephant god Ganesh on the display counter (2002: 67). These items were turned into exoticized commodities that created racially ethnicized bodies outside of their ethnic context (2002: 70). Puwar writes (2002: 72): the appearance of bindhies, an assortment of saree designs and mendhie kits in high street shops and on white skins, including celebrities, has the ability to induce an intense sense of rage in South Asian women. This rage carries memories of another history, of another type of Western gaze when similar items are worn by what are labelled as “traditional” Asians, who are in fact more hybrid in their tastes and everyday cultures than any of the women who flip their pashmina scarves over their shoulder, and hold their studded nose in the air. The commercialization of bindhies and mendhies as authentic ethnic items contested the legitimacy of white female bodies to wear and sell these new creations on the rather problematic and essentialized basis (2002: 74).

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Similarly, in “How the ‘Civilized’ West Muddied the Meaning of Tribal Tattoos” (2014), Iman Ribadeneyera discusses when a practice or an item of adornment is used by a white person in a decontextualized place, it completely loses its meaning (2014). Tattoos have become more popular since the 1970s, and more specifically tribal tattoos, which have exclusive cultural significance in a local context, began their resurgence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Tribal tattoos were used to identify the wearers as members of a specific tribe, social status, religion, and in some cases area of expertise or employment. Typical of the fashion cycle, this appropriation of tribal tattooing in modern American culture ultimately eliminated these historical and cultural ties between these tribal symbols and their original meanings (Ribadeneyera 2014). The meanings of these tattoos carry are not retained when they are brought to the West on white people who want to experience the primitive “Other” as fashion. These tribal tattoos are commercialized, consumed, stripped of meaning, and completely forgotten (Figure 2.7). They destroy and eliminate the embedded meanings, and instead they create their own personal, individualized meaning to the design. For example, Nike appropriated designs from the Samoan male tattoo called “pe’a” (Figure 2.8) and printed them on women’s leggings in 2013, and Alessandro Michele of Gucci had a model with facial tattoos, which was hand-painted, in his 2016 show. It is believed that Japanese tattoos began in the seventeenth century and further developed until the mid-nineteenth century. It has both spiritual and adornment purposes. Criminals and slaves were branded with tattoos to socially punish them and also to identify those who engaged in illegal and criminal activities. Still today, the members of professional gangs voluntarily get tattoos that are known for their distinct design and motifs such as dragons, lions, tigers, turtles, and snakes, which contain superstitious and spiritual implications (Figure 2.9). Lohmann, who conducted a study on tattoos, writes: “Japanese style tattoos onto the bodies of celebrities in the United States articulate a lack of awareness toward this ancient art form through their appropriation of historically inaccurate images, and the prominence of these celebrities in American magazines act as powerful mediums which may lead to the commodification of certain Japanese symbols in capitalist societies” (2016). For example, Lohmann analyzes a depiction of a tiger tattoo which embodies or signifies a Buddhist representation of a tiger. In the West, the particular

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Figure 2.7 Example of a tattoo (photo by Spanic via Getty Images).

Figure 2.8 Jason Suttie displays his pe’a in Auckland, New Zealand. The pe’a covers the body from waist to the rectum and then to the knees, and is only crafted using handmade tools of bone, tusks, turtle shell, and wood (photo by Sandra Mu/Getty Images).

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Figure 2.9 A retired Japanese yakuza crime boss, who does not want to be identified, shows his tattoo on his back, featuring a carp swimming up a waterfall at his residence in Tokyo (photo by Frank Zeller/AFP via Getty Images).

depiction of a Japanese tiger is portrayed as a barbaric, other worldly creature that needs to be tamed while the representation of a tiger in Japanese culture signifies mainly the tiger’s strength, courage, and protection against bad spirits and demons. The use of the tiger as a wild, aggressive beast or predator by celebrities for the purpose of tattooing may impress American consumers, but such interpretations of tigers leave out a more traditional Buddhist interpretation of the animal as a powerful guardian of humankind (2016: 28–9).

Conclusion Cultural appropriation as a research topic and with an academic focus is still new, and scholars have begun to pay attention to the topic only recently. Some

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introduce provocative concepts, such as culinary colonialism and rhetorical colonialism, and others approach the issue from related concepts while not using the word “cultural appropriation.” They all lay an important foundation for further discussions to follow. In this chapter, we paid particular attention to the use of logos, mascots, and nicknames, gastronomy and cuisine, literary works and adornment practices. Who can use what images and logos, who can cook and eat what, who can write what, and who can adorn what—these are some of the thought-provoking questions that derive from these examples, and they are not easy to answer, but one thing we need to remember is that the insiders’ voices and emotions should not be dismissed, ignored or neglected. In the subsequent chapters, we delve into and investigate the fashion and entertainment industries while keeping in mind the case studies discussed in this chapter.

Further Discussion Examples ●

The image of a Native Indian used by The Chicago Blackhawks, a professional hockey team in Chicago, as a team logo.

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“Eskimo Pie” by R&R Ice Cream.

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The image of a Native Indian woman on food packages of Land of O’Lakes.

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Lucky Lee’s, a Chinese restaurant in London, owned by Gordon Ramsay, a British chef.

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La Calenda, a Mexican concept restaurant in California, owned by Thomas Keller, an American chef.

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The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), a novel written by William Styron, a white American, about America’s slave revolt in the voice of an African-American leader.

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“The Snake Charmer” (1879), a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, a French painter, used for a cover of Edward Said’s controversial book Orientalism (1973).

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“Ta Matete” (1892) and other Polynesian-inspired paintings by Paul Gauguin, a French painter.

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“Somalitanz (Somali Dance)” (1910), an artwork made by Max Pechstein, a German artist.

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Suggested Further Reading Billings, Andrew C. and Jason Edward Black (2018), Mascot Nation: The Controversy over Native American Representations in Sports, Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. Deter-Wolf, Aaron, and Carol Diaz-Granados (2013), Drawing with Great Needles, Ancient Tattoo Traditions of North America, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Donahue, James J., Jennifer Ann Ho, and Shaun Morgan (eds) (2017), Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States, Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press. Guiliano, Jennifer (2015), Indian Spectacle: College Mascots and the Anxiety of Modern America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Halloran, Vivian Nun (2016), The Immigrant Kitchen: Food, Ethnicity, and Diaspora, Columbia, OH: Ohio State University Press. Joassart-Marcelli, Pascale (2021), The $16 Taco: The Contested Geography of Food, Ethnicity, and Gentrification, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Loren, Diana Dipaolo (2011), The Archaeology of Clothing and Bodily Adornment in Colonial America, Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. Martinez, Ernesto Javier (2012), On Making Sense: Queer Race Narratives of Intelligibility, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. Morgan, Jo-Ann (2020), The Black Art Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture, New York: Routledge. Snorton, C. Riley, and Hentlyle Yapp (eds) (2020), Saturation: Race, Art, and the Circulation of Value, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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3 Fashion YUNIYA KAWAMURA

Objectives: ●

To recognize exoticism and novelty as the key concepts of fashion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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To explain cultural appropriation in reference to cultural, biological, and sartorial hierarchies.

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To examine conceptual typologies for cultural appropriation analysis.

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To address UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage and its meaning in a global context.

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To explore the impact of weak virtual ties in the digital age.

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To learn grassroots and institutional efforts to tackle the problems of cultural appropriation.

The topic of non-Western (explained as ethnic, exotic, world, or fusion) fashion has been gaining traction as a legitimate field of scholarship (Craik 2020). Cultural appropriation has been a contested topic in recent years, and the debates have been intensified with a growing number of online watchdogs that monitor designers’ collection, fashion magazine editorials, and ad campaigns, some of which are controversial, offensive, and thought-provoking. Bruce Ziff and Pratima Rao point out that one cannot ignore or neglect the dynamics of domination and subordination which are the result of certain power relationships and of colonialism (1997), which is a valid sociological argument 49

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in cultural appropriation research. As a research method, this book relies on visual materials and treats them as texts that can be decoded (Geertz 1973; Lévi-Strauss 1972; Saussure 1966 [1916]), and we focus on and examine various images posted online. Due to copyright protection rules, we are not able to include all the images, but we have made our best attempt to include relevant images wherever possible. In this chapter, I first explore how the concept of “fashion” was explained, perceived, and defined at the turn of the twentieth century in the West. I then examine Suzanne Baizerman, Joanne Eicher, and Katherine Cerny’s provocative argument in reference to Social Darwinism stating why fashion research is biased toward Western dress and why non-Western dress is less valued, and thus constructing a sartorial hierarchy which has parallels with the perceptions of cultural and biological hierarchies. This is based on the colonial ideology which stems from a structural power dynamic in which the dominant society has the right to take anything from the dominated, but paralleling the history of dress with the development of Western civilization is both misleading and detrimental to understanding the diversity of world dress (Eicher, Baizerman, and Cerny 2000: 105). When the terms “fashion” and/or “dress” are used, they encompass not only the raw materials of clothing but also a practice of adornment and its styles, including hair, beauty practices, accessories, jewelries, artisanal techniques, and so on. It is a well-known fact that European “avantgarde” couturiers, such as Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet, were influenced by foreign “exotic” cultures, borrowed their design elements, and incorporated them into their collections, but no one ever accused them of cultural appropriation at the time. In contrast, their ethnic aesthetics were central to their design inspirations which were appealing to their clients. Secondly, in order to organize different thoughts, perspectives, accusations, charges, and criticisms against certain fashion images, I construct typologies as an analytical framework for cultural appropriation of fashion, such as stereotyping based on people’s physical features which can be called biological racism, racial fetishism, and religious and spiritual blasphemy among others so that we understand better why a style or practice is culturally offensive to some groups. For each type, I raise specific examples and explore the cultural nuances, details, and subtleties in the designs that are often overlooked by the

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general public and/or outsiders. As indicated in Chapter 1, culture is not just about race and ethnicity, so I also treat class appropriation as a separate and last typology in this discussion, which many of us have been oblivious to and rarely included in the cultural appropriation debate. Lastly, the discussion leads to the strength of the weak virtual ties in the age of “anomie,” which is a concept coined by Durkheim, and I explain how “collective consciousness” (Durkheim 1893) is constructed in the virtual world, the presence of the individual and institutional efforts to raise cultural awareness, and the mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships between mega fashion corporations and marginalized ethnic communities.

In Pursuit of Exoticism and Novelty Throughout Western fashion history, novelty has been valued, appreciated, and cherished. Couturiers and designers strived to find something that their wealthy clients had never seen before so that they could impress their peers. Georg Simmel’s article on “Fashion” (1906) is relevant and useful in understanding what it meant for a designer to borrow something from non-Western, exotic cultures. His article implies and reflects the persistent colonial ideology and attitude in his time. Simmel pointed out that the adoption of “exotic” elements in fashion meant that they did not originate locally. Exoticism means that things are exclusive, new, different, bizarre, exceptional, conspicuous, and foreign. The appreciation of foreignness is restricted to and is a product of higher civilization because novelty is often regarded by “primitive and savage races as an evil.” For Simmel, the use of foreignness is not “appropriation” but “appreciation” and “legitimation” by the dominant, ruling class, i.e., the white colonizers. This reaffirms the idea that fashion originated in the West. Simmel wrote this article from his own standpoint as a white male with a specific Eurocentric viewpoint on fashion, and therefore, he has no consideration for those who are in the colonized “exotic” culture. In addition, it was the time when collecting information from foreign countries was limited and time-consuming, and taking trips overseas was offered only to the privileged. That has changed dramatically, and the world is literally at our

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fingertips, and our values have shifted with the technological invention and development. In their book Orientalism: Visions of the East (1994: 10), Richard Martin and Harold Koda, museum curators, discussed orientalism to which exoticism is often referred: The Orientalism is a fabrication of the West... The early discoverers and the traders sought a land never to inhabit, ever to see as different—a perfect “other,” warranting Western supremacy and segregation, and vested with exotic mystery. The allure of the East has been, in part, based on its impenetrability to the West. The inscrutability attributed to the East is, in fact, the West’s failure to achieve full comprehension. No matter which time period in history one is talking about, the definite essence of fashion has been a change and novelty. The fashion process explains the diversity and changes of styles (Polhemus 1994, 1996). René Koenig refers to enthusiastic fashion followers as “neophilia” (1973: 77), stating that humankind receptiveness for anything new is, among many other aspects, in some way essential to fashion-oriented behavior (Koenig 1973: 76). Similarly, Roland Barthes correlates fashion to newness as follows: fashion doubtless belongs to all the phenomena of neomania which probably appeared in our civilization with the birth of capitalism: in an entirely institutional manner, the new is a purchased value (1990: 300). In 2015, when an editor at Elle Canada posted online a picture of a traditional African shirt known as Dashiki sold by Forever 21 and tweeted “The Dashiki everyone. Behold the newest it-item of note,” it caused outrage among its followers. Dashiki is not “new” for African people, and it has been in existence for centuries (Figure 3.1). This tweet sent out an implied message that since the white mainstream is not familiar with this piece of African clothing, this is new, and therefore, it deserves to be labeled as a “new fashion item.” It also meant that the hegemonic colonial ideology grants the white colonizers the power to decide that a non-Western dress can be turned into fashion when it is brought to the colonizers’ context. It will never be “fashion” as long as it is worn by an African person and stays within an African context.

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Figure 3.1 Teacher and drummer Yacub Addy of the Ga people of Ghana leads his Odadaa! Drum and Dance Ensemble at A World Music Institute concert at Symphony Space, New York (photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images).

Kaitlyne Moti, in her article “Dashiki Chic: Color-blind Racial Ideology in EDM Festivalgoers’ ‘Dress Talk’ ” (2018), explains that participants of the EDM (electronic-dance-music), which is a widely attended music festival, claim that they incorporate jewelry, fabrics, and motifs that draw from diverse national and ethnic origins into their self-presentations, such as West African dashikis, Native American headdresses, Central and South American woven sweaters, and Indian saris and bindies, and they are unaware of the cultural contexts of these items. Through relocation and retail, these meanings are lost, turning treasured cultural artifacts into consumable commodities stripped of their initial contextual importance (Eicher and Evenson 2015: 46). As Adam Geczy writes (2013: 7): “Western fashion was considered the opposite to costume, which was the term applied to all forms of dress that the Europeans encountered in the countries they dominated. So it is a term created from the eyes of a Westerner. They created categories/classification between

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fashion and costume, change and fixedness.” Similarly, “The Eurocentric view promoted the stereotype of traditional dress as a rigidly prescribed costume form with few variations to differentiate the social roles and relationships within a community. Ethnic dress was often perceived by outsiders as uniform, only linked to identification of the wearer’s ethnicity” (Baizerman, Eicher, and Cerny 2000: 106). J.C. Flügel, a French social psychologist, argued that modish costume is found in complex societies while fixed costume is found in simple societies (1930), which confirms the idea that fashion which constantly changes its content is a Western phenomenon while non-Western clothes that do not change are not considered fashion. In contrast, Karen Tranberg Hansen, an anthropologist, wrote (2004: 387) that ethnic dress is dynamic and changing, and it even has fads, and people everywhere want the latest according to whatever changing definitions of local preferences.

Couturiers’ Fascination with the Non-West Couturiers and designers’ borrowing and adopting ideas from non-Western cultures is not a new phenomenon or practice. Martin and Koda wrote (1994: 8): “We have always had a deep fascination with the East, but within recent years our exposure has become more immediate... Multiculturalism has always been a strong influence in the world of fashion.” Geczy also discussed that non-Western materials, styles, and articles of dress have constituted an ongoing source of inspiration for European fashion at least from the eighteenth century (2013: 7). A number of museums around the world have displayed the works of Western couturiers and designers who were inspired by non-Western cultures: Japonisme at the Brooklyn Museum (1998–9); Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress (1994); China: Through the Looking Glass (2015) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; A Fashion for the Exotic (2016) at the de Young Museum; Kimono Refashioned (2018) at the Newark Museum; Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk (2020) at the Victoria and Albert Museum. As evidenced in these exhibitions and as we historically trace their works from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, many of them were using and borrowing from non-Western customs, traditions, and artifacts of Asia, Greece, Egypt, and so on.

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For example, Paul Poiret (1879–1944), a French couturier, who was known as the King of Fashion in the early twentieth century, designed costumes for ballets and theatres. He designed a lampshade tunic and harem pants (Figure 3.2) and used the term “orientalism” to refer to these styles, which was a term later used by Edward Said as a problematic term. When Poiret was hired by the House of Worth, he designed a cloak with straight lines just like a Japanese kimono, liberating women’s bodies from tight corsets. He was also inspired by an African kaftan, which is a long, loose-fitting, unstructured dress. His focus shifted from tailoring with flat patterns to draping and he made these styles and silhouettes as his signature style (Bolton and Koda 2007; Poiret 2019). Madeleine Vionnet (1876–1975) was another French couturier who was largely influenced by the loose silhouette of the kimono and other non-Western dress. She applied unstructured, flat Japanese kimono sleeves to a more structured Western dress (Kirke 2012). It has a wider armhole that gives more space at the shoulder blade and provides more freedom of movement. This

Figure 3.2 Sorbet evening dress, 1913. Silk satin, chiffon, glass beads by Paul Poiret (photo by Chicago History Museum/Getty Images).

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Figure 3.3 Court presentation gown, 1938. Silk chiffon, rhinestone, glass beads by Madeleine Vionnet (photo by Chicago History Museum/Getty Images).

became Vionnet’s design trademark. She paid attention to draping and wrapping the body (Figure 3.3), an idea that was borrowed from ethnic dress. She is known for her use of bias which drapes beautifully on the body, and which was inspired by a Greek chiton worn by men and women in ancient Greece; it is draped on the body and fastened at the shoulders by pins. Non-Western dress is unstructured, often geometrical, loose-fitting, draped, and one-size-fits-all. Poiret and Vionnet were known as avant-garde designers at the time, and their adoption of non-Western aesthetics appealed to their clients. In addition to the European couturiers and designers,1 American ready-towear designers, such as Rudi Gernreich (1922–85), Bonnie Cashin (1907– 2000), and Elizabeth Hawes (1903–71), were also inspired by the construction, fabric, and design motifs of non-Western dress. Osman Ahmed (2015) explains succinctly the influence and the origin of Orientalism as follows:

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Today, it [Orientalism] can be understood as the West’s fascination with and assimilation of the ideas, styles, and motifs of the East. One can argue that Western fashion as we know it is predicated upon ancient trade networks, such as those opened by Commodore Matthew Perry’s entry into Tokyo Bay in 1853, which released the flow of Japanese goods to the West that would eventually redefine notions of modern art and design, or the British colonization of India, which allowed the British East India Company’s luxurious supply of Kashmiri shawls and lightweight white muslin to satisfy and construct the Napoleonic fashions for neoclassical drapery and empire-line chemise gowns. Jennifer Craik also explains that the term exoticism can be used in two ways (1994: 17): “It can refer either to the enticing, fetishized quality of a fashion or style, or to foreign or rare motifs in fashion... In western fashion, the term ‘exotic’ is used to refer to elements of new fashion codes or ‘new looks’ codified as profoundly ‘different’ from previous or contemporary fashion techniques.”

Biological, Cultural, and Sartorial Hierarchies Social Darwinism derived from Darwinism, which was defined as the theory of natural selection in biology, and is one of the social theories based on Charles Darwin’s argument that was expanded and developed in Europe and the US toward the end of the nineteenth century, at a time when Simmel published an article on “Fashion” (1906). Social Darwinism justified the global power relationship and mechanism in different nations, cultures, and races, and the theory was also a source of racism, colonization, and Western imperialism. Thus, it directly correlated with various types of social hierarchies and differences that are persistent in the human world. Biological differences, that are supposed to be value-free, are linked automatically to value-laden social differences, and this theory meant that some groups of people are biologically and innately superior while others were born inferior and that these differences are inflexible. More specifically, Edward Said in his book Orientalism (1978) focused on the Arab and the Islamic world, and talked about an inferior status of

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“Orientals,” referring to Africans and Middle Easterners, who are treated as the inferior, marginalized “Other” in the Western world and are placed at the lower end of the biological and cultural hierarchy. Said’s theory is often applied to other non-Western cultures and people, and it refers to the biased Western political, historical, and cultural portrayals of the East, i.e., the powerful West and the submissive East/Orient. He explained Orientalism as “a western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority of the Orient” (1978: 3). The book shed light on the issues of power, hegemony, and imperialism. The West has controlled the image of the Orient while delineating a clear symbolic boundary between the West and the East. Said’s book questions the very foundations of the Western representation and the social construction of the Orient as the ultimate Other in history, literature, art, music, and popular culture (Burney 2012: 23), and Said’s theory influenced all disciplines in social sciences and humanities, including cultural studies. While Baizerman, Eicher, and Cerny do not mention Said’s work, they relate Social Darwinism and this notion of biological and cultural hierarchies to sartorial hierarchies in their provocative article “Eurocentrism in the Study of Ethnic Dress” (2000). They explained convincingly that “Dress was touted as a visible manifestation of the civilized state of being, of cultural superiority where advancement was defined in terms of superior economic development and global dominance. Modifying dress practices of the colonized to parallel those of the West was seen as a way of extending civilization” (Baizerman, Eicher, and Cerny 2000: 104). Anyone in Western dress was perceived as a modern and polished individual since Western dress is/was a marker of sophistication. But the authors argue that such an archaic notion needs to be revised and reconsidered, especially in fashion and dress studies. Simona Segre-Reinach, an Italian fashion scholar, also explains the inferior status of a dress worn by the colonized (2015): The British colonizers in India, for example, occasionally adopted the Indian way of dress, but only partially, and with many precautions, to avoid the feared possibility of “going native.” The fear, was that if they did, they would lose their identity and position of privilege which, evidently, is assured by a way of dress that is considered symbolically important and appropriate. In a word, superior.

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On the other hand, the British prevented the Indian rulers, their subjects, from wearing Western dress on their journeys to the UK. Deference toward the British Empire had to be maintained, and it started with dress. Colonialism and imperialism led to the construction of a sartorial hierarchy in which Western dress worn by colonizers is superior while non-Western dress worn by the colonized is inferior. This resulted in a chain of hierarchies, beginning with a biological hierarchy, leading to a cultural hierarchy and then to sartorial hierarchy while giving more prestige and status to the Western styles of dress which could only be partially shared by the non-Western Other. Another interpretation of the lower social status of non-Western dress in the sartorial hierarchy is its simplicity in shape. For those who understand how a garment is made and how pattern pieces are structured and stitched, it is evident that Western dress is more complex in its construction. Baizerman, Eicher, and Cerny explain (2000: 105): “the notion of Social Darwinism affected the evaluations of dress and technology of other cultures. Uncut rectangular garments became precursors to more complex, cut- and-sewn forms with Western dress indicative of social and moral advancement.” When we examine non-Western or ethnic dress, they are indeed simple in their constructions, but what we need to understand and educate ourselves better about is that there is more to them than their simple shapes. There is a strong correlation between culture and what people wear. Clothes are never independent of their sociocultural context or environment, and dress is imbued with cultural meanings and implications, some of which can be extremely subtle. For example, the Japanese kimono is made out of a particular type of fabric that is woven on a narrow loom used just for kimono fabric, which is about fourteen inches in width and twelve and a half yards in length (Figure 3.4). The fabric is cut into rectangular front and back pieces, sleeves, and thin strips for the collar, and this type of cutting leaves hardly any fabric remnants. It is cut and stitched in straight lines which give the kimono a geometrical silhouette. Male and female kimonos are cut and stitched almost the same, and they look identical when they are placed flat on the table. However, gender distinctions are based on a kimono’s fabric texture, colors, and print, and how it is worn by a man and a woman. It is also worn differently by a Japanese woman from a middle-class family and by Geisha,

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Figure 3.4 Actress Hikaru Takahashi attends the New Year’s Kimono photocall for Oscar Promotion on December 3, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan (photo by Koki Nagahama/ Getty Images for Oscar Promotion).

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a female entertainer, who is often misunderstood as a prostitute in the West. Dalby explains that the kimono as a system has complex meanings (2001), such as the length of a sleeve, which indicates a woman’s marital status, and the back neck opening, which is considered an erogenous part of the body for a Japanese woman that arouses sexual feelings in men. These rules for kimonos are often ignored or forgotten by the non-Japanese as unimportant or too complicated. Different types of dress have their own rules and regulations that people follow. Furthermore, an Indian sari is a long piece of fabric which measures about forty-seven inches in width and thirty yards in length (Figure 3.5). It is an

Figure 3.5 A model wearing a sari (photo by Wong Sze Fei/EyeEm via Getty Images).

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unstitched garment which is draped around a woman’s body similar to a Roman toga so it is basically one-size-fits-all, and the size can be adjusted with pleats, which allow some movement. Unlike a Japanese kimono, a sari is worn only by a woman. A complete sari look consists of three items: a choli blouse, petticoat, and sari. A choli blouse is usually made by a tailor, and it matches the color of the sari; a ready-made petticoat is worn under the sari so that the sari can be tucked in at the waist. There are twenty-eight states in India, and each state has its own method of draping a sari in addition to their distinct regional textiles, such as Kanchipuram silk saris and Kota transparent saris. The standard way of draping has remained the same for centuries. The colors and design motifs have distinct cultural meanings; for example, women who have lost their husbands and became widows customarily wear white, and brides wear red saris with golden embroideries. India also has its cultural system of dress which is unique to their culture. Unlike the Japanese kimono which is almost unisex in terms of its shape, Indian men do not wear a sari, but wear a dhoti, which is a piece of cloth worn like a sarong. Similarly, Native Americans, also known as American Indians, who are indigenous people of the US have distinct clothing styles with a specific dress code. There are 574 federally recognized Native Indian tribes in the US, and each has its own culture, traditions, and clothes. They take materials from their natural environment and turn them into clothes. A Native Indian side-fold dress is created by wrapping a large animal skin around the body, and a seam on one side is stitched; a two-hide dress was made by matching two hides of deer, elk, or bighorn sheep (Horses 2007). The dress can be decorated with ivory elk teeth (Figure 3.6). The number of elk teeth is a sign of conspicuous consumption for the wearer’s family since one elk has only two ivory teeth in the upper jaw. And the dress shows that some men in the family were excellent hunters and/or traders (Horses 2007: 41). There are many other ethnic and indigenous people in the world, such as Japanese Ainu, Australian Aborigines, and Maori in New Zealand, who maintain their dress and traditions, but their cultures are still very much under-researched. We need to shed light on them so that we can lift a colonial perception of dress and sartorial hierarchy. As suggested by many fashion scholars (Craik 2020; Kawamura 2004, 2012; Niessen 2020), we need to see

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Figure 3.6 Kalispel Indian woman wearing a blanket dress decorated with elks’ teeth, 1910 (photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images).

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beyond its construction and find complexities and subtleties elsewhere on the dress. Ethnic dress is saturated with cultural symbolism that only insiders can understand and decode. Knowledge, experience, and education are required to interpret what ethnic styles represent.

Conceptual Typologies Some of the aforementioned European and American couturiers and designers would have been the target of harsh criticisms today for culturally appropriating ideas from non-Western cultures without giving them any credit, but as Simmel pointed out (1906), anything foreign was considered exotic and appreciated toward the end of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Imitation, at the time, was an indication of appreciation, adoration, and respect. As indicated in Chapter 1, the term “culture” has multiple definitions and dimensions, but many associate culture with race and ethnicity, and the racialization of a style is one significant layer of appropriation examined in depth in this chapter, but I also add religion and class, which inevitably intersect with race and ethnicity. I am expanding one of the typologies proposed by James O. Young’s analysis of the content appropriation (2010: 5–9), which includes style and motif appropriations. Typology is a method of analysis and classification based on different types. In order to organize random thoughts and perspectives objectively, I suggest the following typologies, which are not mutually exclusive, but are the core categorical items pivotal to the debates in the field. Some of these typologies may overlap; for instance, racial fetishism is a type of stereotype reinforcement and can also be a form of spiritual blasphemy in some cases. But these classificatory typologies provide an analytical framework and organize countless, scattered controversial examples that face the fashion industry. These typologies also allow us to educate ourselves to separate a cultural appropriation hysteria that is overly exaggerated and emotionally charged from seriously offensive and hurtful styles and designs that question a moral sense of the creators. The following six typologies with specific examples found in the fashion industry mainly in the past few decades are discussed and explored:

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biological racism and stereotype reinforcement;

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racial fetishism;

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reinforcement of historical oppressions;

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religious and spiritual blasphemy;

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misuse of indigenous cultural traditions, textile motifs, and artisanal

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techniques; and ●

exploitation of the economically challenged: class appropriation.

Biological Racism and Stereotype Reinforcement Different racial and ethnic groups have different physical/facial traits and features, such as skin colors, eye shapes, nose size, lip thickness, hair colors and textures, body sizes and bone structures, and that is how race is defined, which is a given biological fact. These physical differences set people apart and create social boundaries and territories (Carmines, Sniderman, and Easter 2011; DuBois 1935; Unrever 2011). However, this should not be equated with a hierarchy which is socially constructed and is not inherent in biology. There is a ranking system intact among different racial groups which parallels with a hierarchy in people’s physical looks based on their facial and physical characteristics, which are highly politicized and racialized, and when a white person imitates a look of those who are placed in the lower end of the social ranking, this becomes biological racism. Some designs and adornment practices coming out of European and American brands, fashion shows, and magazine editorials reinforce such negative stereotypes, which are extremely offensive to the people who had been historically oppressed and discriminated against because of their physical appearance. This is not only the reinforcement of racial stereotypes but also “symbolic violence” based on biological racism, a term coined by Pierre Bourdieu (1992), and it refers to intangible social power imposed on the subordinate group and can exist between any social groups (Burawoy 2019). Distinct hairstyles of African and African-American people have been a very sensitive issue since the texture of their hair is unique and different from that of Caucasians, Native Indians, and Asians; therefore, black hair is often racialized and politicized (Banks 2000; Byrd and Tharps 2014; Rooks 1996;

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Thompson 2014). A number of white designers sent down their white models with cornrows in their fashion shows. For example, Valentino’s Haute Couture show in Paris in 2015, inspired by African culture, was one of the most controversial and talked-about examples of cultural appropriation of hair (Figure 3.7). A New York Times black reporter, Andrea Arterbery, offered her personal opinions about the show: “I always experience a flash of annoyance when I see white girls wearing cornrows. Maybe it’s because the hairstyle is being marketed as ‘new and trendy.’ Or it could be that I, as a black woman, know it’s not a style white girls wore when I was growing up, and that they often mocked me for wearing it” (Arterbery 2015). The first most important function of cornrows is to organize biologically curly hair which grows upward and sideways, and not downward. Cornrows allows black people to avoid “the dreadful weekly hair pressings . . . Pressing hair involved heating a comb (also known as a hot comb) on a stove and

Figure 3.7 A model with cornrows in Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2016 Collection in Paris (photo by Patrick Kovarik/AFP via Getty Images).

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passing it through the hair from root to tip to straighten it. This arduous, sometimes hours’ long process usually culminated in the burning of my scalp or the tips of my ears” (Arterbery 2015). Black men and women continue to experience prejudice and discrimination because of their natural hair and distinct hairstyles, and women, in particular, make an effort to straighten their hair in order to assimilate into mainstream society.2 Black hair became a civil rights issue when a black employee was asked to cut her locs but refused to do so. As a result, she was fired from her place of work. In 2010, a company in Alabama rescinded its offer of employment to a black woman when she refused to get rid of her dreadlocks. In 2019, a TV anchor in Mississippi, Brittany Noble Jones, was fired after she complained about harassment over her natural black hair which her boss told her was “shaggy and unkempt” (Callahan 2019). California and New York passed laws in 2019 prohibiting employers from discriminating based on employees’ hairstyle. However, even after Valentino’s hair incident and controversy, designers continued to appropriate culturally specific hairstyles in their shows. Balmain also used cornrows in his 2017 fashion show; in Chanel’s ad campaign in 2017, a white model, Arizona Muse, had box braids and Bantu knots; in Marc Jacobs’ 2016 show, white models had dreadlocks in rainbow colors; and gold cornrow wigs were used in Comme des Garçon’s show in January 2020. Societies dominated by white people have also created artificial social differences and attached values for different skin tones and colors that are supposed to be biologically value-free. Like hair, superior or inferior values are not inherent in biological facial or any physical features. However, “blackface” has historically been the target of mockery especially in the minstrel show, which is a form of American entertainment that started in the early nineteenth century (Sammond 2015; Thelwell 2020). A white performer painted his face black, usually with burnt cork, and painted thick red lips, and appeared on stage as a form of parody that made fun of African-Americans (Johnson 2012) and reinforced the stereotype that black people still face to this day. “Blackface” became a racist caricature of a black person who is often treated and portrayed almost like an animal, such as a monkey that is covered in black or dark brown fur. At a fashion show in 2019, Gucci, an Italian mega fashion house, directed by Alessandro Michele, showed a white female model wearing a black turtleneck

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Figure 3.8 A model wearing a black Gucci turtleneck with red lips, which the fashion line recently withdrew following accusations that it resembled racist “blackface” caricatures (photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images).

sweater which covers the bottom half of her face with a cutout mouth with large red lips (Figure 3.8). This image went viral on social media, with users pointing out the reinforcement of “blackface” and forcing the company to apologize and take the sweater off their shelves. Similarly, in an H&M ad, a Swedish fast fashion retailer, a black child model wore a newly released sweatshirt on its online shopping site which said “cutest monkey in the jungle” which implicitly dehumanizes the boy and compares him to a monkey. Patrick Kelly (1954–90), an American designer who became successful in Paris, used “blackface” in his designs and motifs, and its cartoon image became his trademark. It was perceived as his anti-racism message because he himself was African-American. Thus, the meaning was completely transformed, and the image became a social statement. This is when it becomes clear whether one is an insider or an outsider. The reinforcement of facial stereotypes pertains also to Asians who have different facial features that are labeled as “yellowface” (Ma 2019; Moon 2004). In 2002, Abercrombie and Fitch produced a line of racist T-shirts, one of which

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reads “Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs Can Make It White” which implies that typically, the Chinese people run dry cleaners. It shows two Chinese men with slanted eyes wearing conical hats. It denigrates and insults Asian men and reinforces the stereotypes that were in popular culture in 1900. Similarly, in the Russian edition of Vogue in 2012, Karlie Kloss appeared wearing a kimono as Geisha with exaggerated slanted eyes which are the characteristics of a “yellowface.” The beauty industry around the world promotes silky blonde hair, blue eyes, and “whiteness,” and devalues colored faces and non-white facial features. Such universal standard adds values to different types of facial traits and creates a hierarchy and social differences among different skin tones. And it grants a higher social status to the particular biological features of a person. This is an example of the aesthetic hegemony, a belief in the beauty standard that is dominated by the white mainstream (Piper 1985; Tate 2015). It is only recently that the companies have begun to reverse such perceptions since the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020. Unilever, a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, released a statement (2020) announcing: “We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skin care brands that is inclusive and cares for all skin tones, celebrating greater diversity of beauty. We recognize that the use of the words ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this.” Other beauty product companies, such as Johnson & Johnson and L’Oréal, are expected to follow suit. We are yet to see a major value shift in the aesthetic hegemony and prevent biological racism from now on.

Racial Fetishism Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), an Austrian psychoanalyst, defined the concept of fetishism as a sexual preoccupation toward an object, and it also refers to a behavior in which a person shows a sexual interest in an object and gets sexual gratification or fantasies (1927). Therefore, if a fetish object is targeted toward a person, it means that the person is treated as an object rather than a human being, and this is the objectification of a person as a sexual product. Fetishization can be targeted toward both men and women, but it is mostly targeted toward women.

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In Fashion and Fetishism (1982), David Kunzle, an art historian, focused on the feelings, experiences, and judgments of fetishists, and also talked about fetish objects, including corsets and high heels, and about the hierarchical symbolism of different shapes of one’s foot while Valerie Steele in her Fetish: Fashion, Sex, and Power (1996) gives a more thorough account of the relationship between fashion and fetishism from the evolution of fetishism to the analysis of different fetish objects. Steele explores the relationship between clothing and sexuality, and treats fashion as a symbolic system linked to the expression of sexuality including sexual behavior and erotic attraction (1996: 3–4). The word “fetishism” has a number of meanings and definitions, and it is not only about sexuality but also about power and perception (Steele 1996: 5). Items of fashion, such as corsets, shoes, underwear, kinky boots, and stiletto heels, often have fetish appeal. There are many analytical discourses and perspectives on fetishism, such as psychoanalytical, pornographic, popular cultural, and feminist, among others. One aspect of fetishism that is often forgotten is “racial fetishism” which is associated with racialized aesthetic hegemony which has been constructed since colonialism, slavery, and empire as an attribute that pertains to some bodies rather than others (Tate 2015). Racial fetishism as a typology for cultural appropriation analysis falls within the stereotype reinforcement. This type of fetishism focuses on a sexual interest in a particular racial group, especially minority women who are objectified and dehumanized as the mysterious “Other” by white men. It also refers to a particular type of dress, design, and adornment practices derived from the non-Western “exotic” cultures that are unfamiliar to the white people. Homi Bhabha, a critical theorist, in his essay “The Other Question: The Stereotype and Colonial Discourse” (1983: 18–36) talked about racism and racial stereotyping through racial fetish. Even if a model is white, by wearing a non-Western item of dress in an erotic and sexual way, she is playing the role of the oppressed and colonized “Other” woman, and the style is racialized and often hyper-sexualized at the same time. The objectification of minority women’s appearance leads to racialized eroticism and aesthetic. Racial fetish is an attraction to and fixation on a specific race. Like fetishism in general, racial fetishism objectifies non-white women and it is defined as “fetishizing a person or culture belonging to a race or ethnic group” (Bhabha 1983).

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Designers are often inspired by the Japanese Geisha culture without realizing that they are fetishizing Japanese women. In the 2007 Christian Dior Haute Couture Collection, John Galliano appropriated the Geisha make-up, hairstyle, and a kimono-inspired evening dress (Figure 3.9). One of the models is holding the hem of the dress like a Maiko, a Geisha apprentice, holding the bottom of her long kimono. Galliano sexualizes the dress further by making the shoulders bare. Kimono is a modest dress which covers from the neck to the ankles, and the only erogenous part of the body that is exposed is the woman’s nape. In the March 2017 issue of Vogue, there was a multi-page editorial on Japanthemed spread titled “Spirited Away,” in which a white model, Karlie Kloss, was dressed in a kimono like Geisha. The model wore a black wig in a Shimada style, and her face was painted white with red lips like a Geisha makeup. Ironically, this issue was published to celebrate “diversity,” but a white model wearing a Japanese kimono does not make the magazine diverse. Social media

Figure 3.9 A Japanese Geisha-inspired style in Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2007 Collection by John Galliano (photo by Toni Anne Barson/ WireImages via Getty Images).

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followers posted some strong words: “yuck at this orientalist fetishism and straight up cultural appropriation. shame on @karliekloss.” While this image is not hyper-sexualized, the images of Geisha and kimono are often associated with eroticism and fetishism because of the stereotypical image imposed on Geisha as a prostitute, which is a gross misconception by the West. Prostitution does not exist in Geisha’s job description. Similarly, the Geisha culture which is represented by a kimono is also fetishized since a kimono is their occupational attire. When a woman works as Geisha, she must wear a kimono with a distinct hairstyle to go with it. Similarly, in 2012, Victoria’s Secret, a major lingerie manufacture in the US, released a line called “The Sexy Little Geisha” as part of their Go East Collection which caused uproar in social media. The collection consisted of a mesh bodysuit with floral patterns on the bra cups and crotch, a small fan, a removable sash around the waist, and matching chopsticks with tassels on her head. Many accused the brand of being culturally insensitive and insulting while appropriating ideas from the Japanese Geisha culture. Nina Jacinto, a contributor for Racialicious.com, wrote: “It’s a narrative that says the culture can be completely stripped of its realness in order to fulfill our fantasies of a safe and nonthreatening, mysterious East.” The brand released a statement apologizing to the public. This is a stereotypical image of an Asian woman as a sexualized individual portraying her as a fetishized object. No models in this collection were Asians. When a lingerie collection is inspired by racially inspired motifs and designs, it immediately reinforces racial fetishism. Victoria’s Secret continues to fetishize minority women as the colonized Other by showing a white model in an ethnic style. In 2012 and 2017, a white model in a lingerie appeared on stage wearing a Native Indian feathered headdress, which is a war bonnet worn by a man and not a woman (Figure 3.10). Today, the bonnet is worn by male tribal chiefs for special ceremonial events. As indicated earlier, there are more than 500 federally recognized Native Indian tribes in the US, and each tribe has its own specific style of headdress that shows their group affiliation. Feathers are added after each hunt. It is a symbol of power, authority, honor, and prestige for brave Native Indian men. “Plains Style” war bonnets are made out of eagle feathers because an eagle is considered to be the most powerful

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Figure 3.10 Model Nadine Leopold walks the runway during the 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai (photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret).

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bird, and only the federally recognized American Indians can collect eagle feathers as stated in the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (www.fws.gov). Native Americans have been the subject of discrimination and prejudice in the US for centuries and were forced to give up their culture, customs, and belief in order to assimilate into mainstream society. They were granted full citizenship only in 1924.

Reinforcement of Historical Oppressions Designers should not be simply designing clothes. They must understand the historical global power relationships so that they do not offend certain racial/ ethnic groups who had been historically oppressed, or do not design anything that are reminiscent of their tragic histories. Different racial, ethnic, and religious groups have experienced injustice, oppression, genocide, and exclusion which are the strategic measures taken by the majority group to maintain their superior social status and keep the minority groups in the lower social strata. Some items of clothing that appear to be taken from and inspired by historic atrocities, facts, and events are incredibly hurtful and offensive to certain groups of people, and therefore, they should be avoided as creative inspirations. Since 1945, the term ‘Holocaust’ has been used to describe the mass persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the German Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945. His purpose and intention were to establish a supposedly “pure Aryan race,” in addition to the expansion of German territory throughout Europe (Bergen 2016; Dwork and van Pelt 2003) along with state and local collaborators across the continent. Hitler’s forces had built concentration camps in Europe, the largest one being in Oswiecim (known as Auschwitz in German), Poland, where Jewish people, in addition to other “undesirables” such as Roma Gypsies, were detained, tortured, and murdered by guns face-to-face, via a pesticide called Zyklon B, or in gas chambers. Immediately after they were brought to the camps and separated from their families, they were stripped of their own clothing and shoes and were forced to wear a prisoner’s uniform (Figure 3.11) which consisted of a striped shirt with a matching pair of trousers with a yellow patch in the shape of a star on the chest as a means of Jewish identification. European Jews had

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Figure 3.11 Prisoners of the Dachau Concentration Camp greet members of the U.S. Seventh Army from behind a barbed wire fence on May 3, 1945 (photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

been obligated to wear yellow star badges or similar religious markers from as far back as the thirteenth century up until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. German forces were ultimately beaten by an international coalition with support in Poland from resistance forces, and they began to dismantle many of the camps in the fall of 1944. Hitler died by suicide in 1945, and the Jews were finally liberated. However, the physical and emotional scars of the Holocaust survivors who lived to tell the stories never disappear. As early as 1995, Comme des Garçons, a Japanese brand, showed a collection titled “Sleep” in which models appeared in striped pajamas worn under a jacket or a winter overcoat printed with numerical numbers on the back. This was reminiscent of the identification numbers that were printed on the Jewish concentration camp prisoners’ shirts or tattooed on their arms. And more recently in 2020, Loewe, a Spanish fashion house, also introduced a striped pantsuit that resembles the concentration camp uniforms. Furthermore,

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Spanish fashion retailer Zara was also accused of cultural insensitivity when they released a child’s shirt with horizontal stripes and a yellow “Sheriff ’s” star on the chest, which they withdrew after the public’s complaints and objections in 2014. Previously, in 2007, Zara also had to withdraw a bag that featured four swastikas on the design. In 2002, Umbro, a UK-based sportswear firm, launched new sneakers called “Zyklon” which was clearly taken from a lethal gas called “Zyklon B” used by the Nazis to kill the Jews. The company expressed their regrets and dropped the name of the shoe. Furthermore, we also need to educate ourselves about the dark and painful history of black slavery, exploitation, and oppression by the white people (Brown 2020; Davis 2008). It is estimated that seven million black people were taken from the African continent, brought to the US and forced into slavery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to work as indentured servants and laborers inside the house and on plantations. Disobedient and rebellious slaves were severely punished, whipped, and lynched while the white masters could trade their slaves as goods and products in any way they wanted to. They were treated like animals and were stripped of any human dignity and rights. The white masters had full control of the black slaves physically, economically, and socially, and the slaves were prohibited from getting any education and remained illiterate. Slavery remained in the south while the northern states abolished it. In January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln officially announced that slaves were free. However, prejudice and discrimination against them persisted and still remains. In 2012, Jeremy Scott, an American designer, collaborated with Adidas, a German shoe company, and designed a pair of sneakers with shackles. The news leaked on social media before it was released and created turmoil. Similarly, Burberry, a British fashion house, released a hoodie with a noose-like accessory around the model’s neck during its 2019 fashion show. Both of these objects, the shackles and the noose, remind the public of slavery. The model in the Burberry runway wrote on her Instagram that she was “ashamed to have been a part of the show.” Furthermore, we also need to be aware that there are marginalized indigenous communities in almost all countries around the world. For example, in Northern Europe, there is an indigenous group known as the Sami people (also known as the Lapps) who were descendants of nomadic people. Most of them live in Finland/Norway and earn their living from raising reindeer.

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Like other indigenous groups around the globe, they have their own cultural traditions, values, norms, language, and dress, but they are forced by the Finnish government to assimilate into the mainstream culture. In 2012, Urban Outfitters introduced a dress that was inspired by the Sami dress known as Gákti (Figure 3.12), and it resembled the use of borders and the color combinations. It is originally made of reindeer skin, and each design indicates the wearer’s marital status and origin. It is worn by both men and women expressing a strong Sami identity which sometimes jeopardized their life (Brück 2010). Similarly, we should remember that political colonization occurred not only in Europe but also in the Asian region. Japan colonized China at the end of the nineteenth century and Korea at the turn of the twentieth century, and began to expand its political power throughout the Asian region (de Matos and Caprio 2015; Dudden 2006). When the Air Jordan XII retro sneakers called “Rising Sun” were launched in 2009, they caused controversy for their insoles, whose image was offensive to Korean and Chinese retailers and consumers because the flag on the insole was a symbol of Japanese imperialism that oppressed the countries. The Jordan Brand recalled the soles, and exchanged them with a simple design. A lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of world history on the part of designers and creative directors thrusts an emotional dagger into those with painful historical incidents and experiences, and these become a constant reminder of people’s tragedies from the past.

Religious and Spiritual Blasphemy Religion has existed in society as long as humans had existed in this world prior to the invention of science, and it is the service and worship of God or the supernatural. Religion is also an institution with a set of rigid rules, beliefs, and practices. We must understand and respect the significance of religious worship in different cultures. One’s ignorance about a religion could create a major conflict and upset in society. And this is what we have been witnessing in the world of fashion. Various controversial and offensive images in design make us think twice when we incorporate religious components from other cultures. In some instances, culture is so strongly correlated with religious faith that the two are inseparable. God in any religion is above us, so to place anything that is

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Figure 3.12 Sami (Laplander) woman wearing a traditional dress (photo by DEA/N. CIRANI via Getty Images).

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Figure 3.13 A model wearing a turban on the runway at the Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018/19 (photo by Venturelli/WireImage).

related to a religion at the bottom is unacceptable. Sacred objects and religious practices are increasingly popularized and commercialized in a capitalist world while ignoring and disrespecting their true spiritual meaning (Klassen 2014). In 2019, Gucci showed a white male model with a blue turban which looked very similar to a Sikh turban (Figure 3.13). The Sikh is a religious community which accounts for a small segment of the entire population in India (1.72 percent), and most of them live in Punjab (Singh 2005; Syan 2020). They are easily recognizable in and outside the country because of their turban called “Dastar” which symbolizes faith, equality, and freedom. It is an important part of collective Sikh identity, and wearers never take it off. Dastars were worn by elites as a symbol of their status, and under the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who came to power in 1658, only the Islamic ruling class was permitted to wear the turbans. The Sikh leaders, also known as the Gurus, rejected such social hierarchies and elitism, and adopted turbans as

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an act of resistance; their followers began wearing turbans over their uncut hair to assert the equality and freedom of all people (Singh 2005; Syan 2020). Therefore, the Sikhs have taken what was initially a symbol of a high social status and made it into an everyday item of clothing. It is meant to be affordable and accessible for all, but such an interpretation was twisted and reversed by Gucci, who sold the turban for $790 at an upscale department store. The Sikh turban is not a fashion accessory that can be worn daily or taken off as you wish. Many Sikhs are attacked, discriminated against, and killed because of how they appeared. As with many other items of ethnic dress, when a white person wears a turban, it becomes fashion, but when a non-white, real Sikh person wears it, he is punished for it. The Sikh coalition wrote on Facebook: “When companies like Gucci appropriate articles of faith, like the turban they are trying to capitalize on, they do not take into consideration the discrimination that Sikhs face while adhering to the tenets of their faith.”

Figure 3.14 Chiara Mastroianni as a “Chic Rabbi” at the Jean Paul Gaultier ready to wear fashion show, fall/winter 1993 (photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images).

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Jean Paul Gaultier, a French designer, held a controversial and provocative fashion show called “Chic Rabbis” in 1993 in which the female models were dressed in black long coats, wearing black hats with large brims, and had curls on both sides of their temple (Figure 3.14). Gaultier was putting male rabbi dress on women although rabbis are mostly men. Traditional cultures often draw a clear line between male and female roles, and these ideas are reflected on the way men and women dress (Silverman 2013). Ethnic dress is often clearly gender-coded and so is Orthodox Jewish dress. The key concept in their clothing is “modesty,” which is a reflection of their religious values, traditions, and beliefs, and their styles are guided by the religious Jewish law, the Torah. Jewish men wear a small circular cap called a “kippah” which is a sign of respect and reverence to God. A married Jewish man wears a large fur hat called “shtreimel” which is made out of mink. They wear a black coat called “rekel.” They also have beards and long curls on each side of the face. In contrast, married Jewish women never show their natural hair, and wear a scarf or a wig because women’s hair is the ultimate sign of beauty so some married women shave their heads to express their fidelity. Neither single nor married women can wear pants, and they wear long skirts that reach below their knees. Furthermore, God in any religion is superior to human beings and possesses supernatural power. God is someone we look “up to” in a literal and metaphorical sense. We never “look down” on someone that we respect. “Up” is sacred and “down” is profane. Therefore, it is incredibly offensive and disrespectful to God to put his image or the name of God on footwear or legwear that touches the soil or the ground. That is why religious followers often take off their shoes to enter their sacred house. God should be placed as far away as possible from the dirty soil. The Nike Air Bakin’ sneakers released in 1997 had an italic logo “Air” on their heels which looked like “Allah,” God in Arabic. This caused outrage in the Muslim community and the shoes were taken off the shelf. Similarly, Ganesha, a Hindu god, is often portrayed on footwear and leggings, which is religiously offensive. GearBunch, a company in North Carolina that sells activewear, had leggings printed with Ganesha, and the Swiss luxury fashion label Philipp Plein Group launched a footwear collection called Ganesha. Similarly, when flip-flops with the god’s image was sold on Etsy, a global online marketplace, a group of Indians started a petition to remove them.

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Misuse of Indigenous Motifs, Textiles, and Artisanal Techniques Designers and creators strive to find new styles, designs, motifs, and techniques that are still hidden from and undiscovered by the Western world. Those are often found in remote places where the locals have little connection or interaction with the mega fashion houses in the West. With little or limited social resources, they are voiceless and often being exploited as their intangible cultural heritage and properties are not legally protected. The process of discovering unique motifs, textiles, and production techniques used to be time-consuming and costly, but today, the information is at our fingertips, and “exotic” inspirations are easier and faster to come by. The Mexican government has been vocal in accusing designers who use or misuse their unique artisanal textiles and embroidery techniques (Figure 3.15). In their 2020 resort collection, Carolina Herrera, a New York-based brand now designed by Wes Gordon, used indigenous Mexican designs, and their label

Figure 3.15 Pieces by Mexican artisan Glafira Candelaria Jose, of the Otomi ethnic group, are seen at her workshop in San Nicolas Village, in Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo state, Mexico (photo by Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images).

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read, “the playful and colourful mood of a Latin holiday” and described it as being about “visceral reactions of delight-eclectic patterns, unexpected silhouettes, pulsating energy” (Friedman 2019). One dress was embroidered with animals and flowers in bright colors taken from the Tenango de Doria community in Hidalgo state, and another two dresses incorporated ideas from the traditional shawls from Saltillo in Coahuila state. Mexico’s Culture Minister, Alejandro Frausto, wrote in a letter to the brand: “This is a matter of ethical consideration that obliges us to speak out and bring an urgent issue to the UN’s sustainable development agenda: promoting inclusion and making those who are invisible visible” (quoted in Friedman 2019). Similarly, Isabel Marant, a French designer, showed a blouse in her 2015 collection that looked similar to a traditional blouse from Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, in Oaxaca, a small district in Mexico with a population of 3,500 people, which is known for its elaborate embroideries. She described the blouse as “tribal without being too literal.” A French company, Antik Batik, owns a patent for the designs of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, and the community issued a statement through the company: “Isabel Marant is committing a plagiarism because the Etoile spring-summer 2015 collection contains the graphical elements specific to the Tlahuitoltepec blouse, a design which has transcended borders, and is not a novel creation as is affirmed by the designer.”3 Furthermore, the Masai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania has a distinct look that has inspired fashion brands around the world. Shuka, a traditional Masai blanket in red and blue, was used in various fashion items, such as pants, shirts, scarves, and hats. Louis Vuitton in 2012 showed a collection which was inspired by Shuka (Figure 3.16), but did not compensate the tribe that lives under the poverty level. As a result, the Masai Intellectual Property Initiative (MIPI) was created to protect the rights of the Masai style so that they can preserve their traditional designs and receive the compensation that they deserve. Other cases for the misuse of design motifs include the following. KTZ, a British label, designed a sweater in 2015 which looked exactly like the traditional Inuit parka motif, and was sold for $700. After a complaint, the company removed it from sale. Tory Burch copied traditional Rumanian designs in 2017, and Andreea Tanasescu, a founder of La Blouse Roumaine, tweeted on June 10, 2017: “To my astonishment, [the Tory Burch coat] was

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Figure 3.16 A model on a Shuka-inspired outfit in Louis Vuitton’s Menswear Spring 2012 Collection in Paris (photo by Francois Guillot/AFP via Getty Images).

described as being of African inspiration, but it was a copy of a Romanian Coat from Oltenia region.” In addition, in 2018, Christian Dior also copied a traditional Romanian sheepskin vest from Bihor County but presented it as a “Bohemian Vest.” In both of these cases, the companies did not mention their source of inspiration. Some textile production and embroidery techniques, such as Zmijanje embroidery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Matyó embroidery of Hungary, that are unique to a culture and region are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage (Table 3.1), but those that are not included have no legal protections. These techniques are used by local artisans who do not have the knowledge, resources, and means to protect their skills and expertise legally or socially. Thus, it is imperative that more individuals and organizations must act as intermediary agents who can represent the voices of the voiceless. These techniques and artisans deserve to be given proper credit when they are used by the fashion brands in the West.

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Table 3.1 A list of textile-related intangible cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO Country (alphabetical)

Element

Year Inscribed

Azerbaijan

Carpet weaving

2010

Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia

Blue-dyeing and block printing in Europe

2018

Bangladesh

Jamdani weaving

2013

Bangladesh

Shital Pati weaving

2017

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Zmijanje embroidery

2014

Bulgaria

Carpet making in Chiprovtsi

2014

China

Nanjin yujin brocade

2009

China

Li textile technique*

2009

Croatia

Lacemaking

2009

Cyprus

Lefkara lacemaking

2009

Ecuador

Straw hat making

2012

France

Aubusson tapestry

2009

France

Alençon needle lacemaking

2010

Indonesia

Noken bag woven with wooden fibers*

2012

Indonesia

Batik

2009

Iran

Carpet weaving in Fars and Kashan

2010

Japan

Ojiya-chijii, Echigo-jofu ramie fabric

2009

Japan

Yuki tsumugi textile

2010

Hungary

Matyó embroidery

2012

Kyrgyzstan

Ak-kalpak craftsmanship, traditional knowledge and skills in making and wearing Kyrgyz men’s headwear

2019

Kyrgyzstan

Ala-kiyiz and Shyrdak felt carpets*

2012

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Traditional craft of Naga motif weaving

Nominated for 2021

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Table 3.1 (Continue) Country (alphabetical)

Element

Year Inscribed

Malaysia

Songket traditional Malaysian weaving

Nominated for 2021

Palestine

Art of Palestinian embroidery

Nominated for 2021

Peru

Taquile textile art

2008

Saudi Arabia—Kuwait

Traditional Al Sadu weaving*

2020

Slovenia

Bobbin lacemaking

2018

South Korea

Mosi ramie weaving technique in the Hansan region

2011

Sri Lanka

Traditional craftsmanship Dumbara Rata Kalala tapestry weaving

Nominated for 2021

Sudan

Women’s Sudanese national dress

Nominated for 2021

Tajikistan

Chakan embroidery

2018

Timor-Leste

Tais traditional textile*

Nominated for 2021

Uganda

Barkcloth making

2008

United Arab Emirates

Weaving skills

2011

Notes: Compiled from www.ich.unesco.org. * In need of urgent safeguarding.

Exploitation of the Economically and Socially Challenged: Class Appropriation This is a typology that few talk about in regards to cultural appropriation in fashion, but race and ethnicity do intersect with the dimension of class. In other typologies explained above, we could see the power dynamics between the majority and the minority, the colonizer and the colonized, and the oppressor and the oppressed. We can see the same or similar power relationships between the rich and the poor. Historically, fashion was the privilege of the upper class, and the middle class and the working class imitated the styles of

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Figure 3.17 A model wearing “Homeless Chic” walks the runway during the N. Hoolywood NYFW: Men’s show (photo by Randy Brooke/WireImage).

the upper class, but this has been reversed. Martin in his article “Destitution and Deconstruction” celebrates “poverty aesthetics,” a term which he coined, and writes, “Fashion can still make a prince or a princess into a pauper, and vice versa. In that aptitude there is unbounded richness and there is inventive hope for all” (1992). However, do we not have a moral obligation to respect those who are economically and socially challenged and disadvantaged and remain in a destitute situation? The fashion establishment has been inspired by the styles of the poor lower class, but we must question how far we can go to get inspired. A Japanese designer Daisuke Obana of N. Hoolywood (Figure 3.17) showed his menswear collection entitled “Homeless Chic” in New York in 2017. The brand explained the designer’s intentions as follows (quoted in Dool 2017): “he witnessed various ways in which people lived on the streets and the knowledge they have acquired while doing so... Space blankets or moving blankets can be

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fashioned into coats for cold days, and plastic bags can double as waterproof boots when it rains.” Obana is mesmerized by the styles of the homeless people who use different items in creative ways to survive on the streets out of necessity, which is not fashion. Fashion is not a necessity but is something extra. While the reviews for his show were mixed, he did get a lot of media attention.4 Rick Owens, an American designer, in his 2014 menswear collection in Paris showed a head covering called durag (or du-rag or do-rag), also known as a wave cap (Figure 3.18). It is defined as a close-fitting, typically stretchable piece of cloth that is worn on the head (as to hold a hairstyle in place) and that usually has long ends which are tied in the back. This is an item used and worn mostly by black men who are socially and economically challenged. It was worn by African-American laborers during nineteenth-century slavery; then in the 1960s during the Civil Rights era, its meaning shifted to a fashion item that represents a black identity especially among rappers. Brian Joseph

Figure 3.18 A model walks the runway during the Rick Owens Menswear Fall/ Winter 2014–15 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 16, 2014 in Paris, France (photo by Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/WireImage).

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explains in his essay “Who Criminalized the Durag?” (2017) in GQ Magazine, an international men’s magazine, what it means for a black man to wear a durag: Some wear them to lay down their cornrows. Others, like myself and the young man on the bus, tie them for waves... The bargain luxury is symbolically significant, too. Seeing the durag as a crown is to take pride in something inextricable from blackness. Wearing it, the practical uses, and the particulars (i.e. if he’s not wearing a durag inside out, he’s in blackface) are connectors amongst young black men. With hip-hop’s rise as the core of black youth expression, the durag has become a fashion statement and a stand-in for the “black thug.” Because of its association with black gang culture, a high school banned the durag because it violated the school dress code. In 2018, a charter school banned durags, and the NBA and NFL also banned wearing of durags under their helmets in 2001 and 2005, respectively. But Owens was inspired by the lower-class aesthetic and elevated it to a high fashion item. A legitimate taste in fashion always came from the wealthy upper class, but that value has shifted to appreciate the so-called “ghetto aesthetic,” which was a new idea to the wealthy. While it is almost taken for granted that a punk style that emerged from the socially and economically challenged youths on the streets of London in the 1970s, at a time when French haute couture reigned supreme, is considered fashion, when it first appeared in public, its unconventional and outrageous looks were labeled as “anti-fashion.” Andrew Bolton, who curated the Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibition, which was about punk’s enduring influence on high fashion, writes (2013: 12): Punk smashed every convention of acceptable self-presentation, whether based on age, status, gender, sexuality, or even ethnicity. It prized originality, authenticity, and individuality, and devised specific visual codes in order to rebel against the cultural mainstream... Cropped hair dyed platinum, pale, blank faces with blacked-out eyes, torn, ripped clothes held together with safety pins, and a preference for the color black all communicated a worldview that was bleak, pessimistic, and apocalyptic.

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Their life had no future, promise, or opportunities. Their styles were a representation of their dark bleak future. Johnny Rotten, a member of the Sex Pistols, a punk band, wrote (quoted in Bolton 2013: 76): “safety pins . . . that was poverty . . . lack of money. The arse of your pants falls out, you just use safety pins.” This idea of using safety pins in fashion was picked up by a number of high fashion designers: Gianni Versace in 1994 designed a safety-pin dress which was later worn by Elizabeth Hurley; Moschino designed a jacket trimmed with silver braids which were actually neatly lined up safety pins in his Dazed and Confused collection in 2009. Another item that punk youths used as part of their style was a black plastic garbage bag. They used items that were never used by professional fashion designers. Johnny Rotten explained (quoted in Bolton 2013: 122): I walked up and down the king’s road with complete anger and resentment. People were extremely absurd and still stuck into flares and platform shoes and neatly coiffured longish hair and pretending the world wasn’t really happening. It was an escapism that I resented. There was also a garbage strike going on for years and years and there was trash piled ten foot high. They seemed to have missed that. Wear the garbage bag for God’s sake, and then you’re dealing with it. And that’s what I would be doing. I would wrap myself basically in trash. This also inspired many designers: Jeremy Scott in 2011, Gareth Pugh in 2007, Moschino in 1991, and Dior by John Galliano in Vogue, September 2006. Daniel Cole in his article “Dumpster Chic and Haute Homeless: Placing Brother Sharp in a Fashion Industry Continuum” (2018) examines and traces the history of the “poverty aesthetic” as early as the “shepherdess” styles embraced by Marie Antoinette and other wealthy women toward the end of the eighteenth century, to Louis Vuitton’s trash bag purse and Galliano’s “Clochards” collection for Dior’s Spring/Summer 2000 Collection. Similar to punk fashion, a grunge look also emerged in the late 1980s initially as “non-fashion,” but it soon developed into and was acknowledged as a high fashion form in the early 1990s by Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis (Cole 2018). Cole also focuses on a more recent case of a homeless man, nicknamed Brother Sharp,

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who first appeared on the streets of China in January 2020 and became a social media sensation because of his cool “hobo chic.” The never-before-seen styles fascinated high fashion designers and their clients. The poverty or ghetto aesthetic may be another definition of the “exotic.” This is possible only for those who are completely secure and confident about their social positions, and the aesthetic could even function as a status symbol. Just as a white person wears a non-Western dress from a marginalized culture to play temporarily a role of the “exotic” other, an extremely wealthy person can afford to look destitute and pretend to be broke for a day since everyone knows it is simply an act.

The Strength of Weak Virtual Ties Today’s social media users have a sophisticated level of awareness on culture and sustainability and are more socially conscious than their previous generations. They are not afraid to call out immediately when they witness or hear something that is politically incorrect, socially and culturally unacceptable, or offensive since they have the technological tools to do so. They want to see proper rules put in place as to how culture can be applied to design, ads, and fashion editorials. Social media is used as a platform and stage to express social injustice and promote social movements, and to give the social media followers a virtual loud voice through which cultural boundaries are drawn and redrawn. Categorical classifications are becoming increasingly fuzzy in a world that is shifting from modernity to postmodernity. Scholars have been discussing fashion in postmodern society (Crane 2000; Kawamura 2004, 2018; Morgado 1996; Cosbey and Reilly 2008), which is a historical phase that is difficult to characterize because of its ambiguities and contradictions. Reilly and Cosbey (2008) provide a clear explanation of postmodern fashion as follows: A designer might combine a soft, flowing, “romantic” shirt with a pair of black leather pants and cowboy boots. Styles traditionally associated with different occasions or levels of formality, such as a tuxedo jacket and a pair

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of faded jeans, may be worn together. Formal fabrics, such as satin and velvet, may be used in casual dress; casual fabrics, such as denim and jersey knit, may be used in formalwear. Styles, patterns, or techniques associated with the dress or textiles from different parts of the world may be put together to form a multicultural look. Different genres, types, and categories in fashion have become less significant. Jean Baudrillard, a French postmodernist who applied Saussure’s theory of linguistics in his analysis of sartorial signification, constructed a genealogy of sign structures with three orders in reference to three stages of social development (1976): (1) imitation at the premodern stage, (2) production at the modern stage, and (3) simulation in the postmodern stage. He explained that the postmodern cultural shift has left its mark on the fashion world through the rejection of tradition, realization of norms, emphasis on individual diversity, and variability of styles, and at the level of simulation, fashion makes no reference to an outside reality, and we face a perpetual re-examination of the code (Tseelon 2016). Unlike modernity, it has no fixed meanings, i.e., the loss of a boundary for meanings, or it has multiple meanings that are unstable, contradictory, and constantly changing. There are still overlaps between the two while some characteristics are intensified in postmodernity, such as the globalization of economics, technological advancement, and the blurring or the breakdown of inner and outer territories which are relevant to the cultural appropriation debates. Durkheim introduced a concept of “anomie,” whose literal meaning is a state of having no norms, which is an unintended consequence of modern urbanization and globalization (scholars were not yet talking about postmodernity at the turn of the century). Anomie can also refer to a society with multiple norms which lead to one’s inability to choose any specific norm due to the “confrontation with an excessive widening of the horizons of the possible” (Bernard 1988: 93). While modernity and postmodernity offer multiple opportunities and possibilities, people are confused by infinite choices that they are confronted with, and these may even result in social confusion, unpredictability, instability, and chaos (Haenfler 2013: 118). Durkheim’s concept of anomie has been further intensified as we transition into

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postmodern society, and people are craving norms since human beings are essentially rule-following creatures, and norms give structure to our daily life. The development of technology has further accelerated a state of normlessness because the virtual space, which is fluid, more or less has no restrictions or rules, and it confuses people as to what they can or cannot do. However, as social media users communicate and interact with one another virtually on Instagram, twitter, Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube, and call out on each other expressing their concerns and discontent, their “collective conscience” is gradually constructed, i.e., their common understanding, values, and beliefs are shared and communicated anonymously in the virtual digital space, and they are simultaneously taking back the norms that they were slowly losing. Durkheim explained that laws and customs are the basis of collective conscience which are social and come from common beliefs and values that are carried over from generation to generation, and it is “the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average citizens of the society” (Durkheim 1893: 79). There are efforts to raise awareness and change perceptions through grassroots movements and institutional efforts.

The Role of Social Media Watchdogs Modernity presumes the existence of clear distinctions between different types and genres of aesthetic and stylistic expressions while postmodernity no longer determines these categories as legitimate or meaningful (Crane 2000; Muggleton 2000). It is almost impossible to define what is legitimate and not legitimate, acceptable and unacceptable, or politically correct and incorrect, and this ideological as well as murky classificatory and territorial shift is relevant to the discussion of cultural appropriation in fashion-related images. The emergence of countless ideas that are unapologetically taken from other cultures without any hesitation and respect is precisely a postmodern phenomenon in which boundaries are not set, and the rules are almost non-existent in the virtual space. However, in recent years, social media has become more powerful than the conventional major fashion magazines that used to be incredibly influential in disseminating fashion information. For example, Dolce and Gabbana, an upscale Italian brand, was accused of being a racist when they released a

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promotional video with a Chinese woman struggling to eat spaghetti, pizza, and cannoli with chopsticks in 2018. This created outrage on the Internet, and the company was forced to cancel their shows in China. The Instagram account Diet Prada, started by Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler, known as “knockoff detectives,” with 2.9 million followers (as of December 2021), is very popular and receives as many as 150,000 likes for each post. They often post images side by side to show who and which design has been copied or plagiarized while publicly and virtually shaming them, exposing them to social humiliation and subjecting them to harsh criticisms by their followers. The account helps the followers see and judge what is real and authentic and which original should have been credited and respected. The Fashion Law is a popular and educational blog (thefashionlaw.com) started by Julie Zerbo when she was a law school student. She looks at fashion products from a legal perspective and covers stories about the infringements on human rights and ethics in the media in addition to stories on the issues of cultural appropriation. She does not have a background in fashion, was never obsessed with fashion, and never wanted to work in the fashion industry. She considers herself “truly an outsider.” In her interview by Eugene Kan, a founder of a global creative community MAEKAN (www.maekan.com) and a former co-founder of Hypebeast, Zerbo explains her role as a writer to call out products that are unethical (2018): I think that if we’ve learned anything over the past year and even the past few months, in particular, it’s that brands—fashion or otherwise, any consumer-facing brands—really are accountable to the general public, especially publicly owned ones because their stock prices will reflect the way that people are viewing their brands... Is it like an overnight fix? No, but I think that now more than ever, critical thinking does stand to impact the activities of brands. These online watchdogs function as a grassroots social movement that monitors and catches politically incorrect and socially unacceptable images in fashion. At the same time, they create a sense of belonging among the followers who are virtually and informally connected. The watchdogs provide a space for people to communicate and interact in, through which “collective conscience”

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is constructed. Durkheim defines it in his The Division of Labor in Society as “the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society” (1893: 105). People unite and come together through collective conscience, which can be found in all social stages: premodern, modern, and postmodern. The watchdogs are creating and recreating the normative standards for the fashion industry, and educating the followers what is acceptable or unacceptable. Collective conscience makes virtual weak ties stronger, and informal, weak social ties are not as weak as we think. As Mark Granovetter, an American sociologist, argued in his article “The Strength of Weak Ties” (1973), strangers or acquaintances with a common background are more influential than families or close friends. They have more influence on the diffusion of information, mobility opportunity, and community organization. According to his weak ties hypothesis, there are four dimensions of tie strength: the amount of time spent interacting with someone, the level of intimacy, the level of emotional intensity, and the level of reciprocity. There is unintended cohesive power in today’s virtual weak ties as well. The social media producers and followers never meet face-to-face, and are not aware of each other’s background, race, gender, and age, so their ties appear to be extremely weak, or weaker than those with whom they physically interact on a regular basis, such as their colleagues, classmates, doctors, or hair dressers. One commonality that social media users share is their interest in whatever is posted online. The Internet can be a convenient and efficient means of maintaining existing social ties and/or of creating new ties (Pénard and Poussing 2010). Although studies are still inconclusive as to whether Internet communication enhances people’s quality of life as much as face-to-face social interaction does (Lee, Leung, Xiong, and Wu 2011), the users’ ability to mobilize and network is strong enough to influence the course of the industry, the cancellation of shows, and the launch of new merchandise, and also to change public perceptions. Granovetter’s network theory continues to be developed and applied to the online environment (Brescia 2018; Coulson 2010). Through repeated interactions and communications, social media followers’ emotional involvement in and attachment to the group become deeper and deeper as their social awareness is heightened. As Randall Collins writes (1981: 985): “patterned interactions generate the central features of social organization—

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authority . . . and group membership—by creating and recreating ‘mythical’ cultural symbols and emotional energies.” Using Durkheim’s framework, Collins also argues that when people are in the physical presence of others, there is a higher degree of mutual surveillance. The more people feel they are accepted by the group, the more they conform to the group’s norms; conversely, the less they are around others, the more their attitudes are explicitly individualistic and selfcentered (Collins 1981). Staying together in the same physical space increases stronger and a higher level of emotional attachment, and that is a natural outcome of mobilization. This is now occurring virtually as people spend much time together, share the same virtual space, and read each other’s posts online, and they continue to return to the same space to meet the familiar hidden faces.

Collaborations and Diversity as Social Advocacy Voices in the grassroots movement through social media watchdogs are definitely heard, and the effects are seen and reflected on the institutionalization of partnerships and collaborations between mega fashion corporations and smaller marginalized communities. In his 2017 collection, Walter van Beirendonck, a Belgian designer, used the technique of Stipwerk (Figure 3.19), which originated in Staphorst, the Netherlands, a small farming village with about 14,000 inhabitants who are devout Protestants and still wear their traditional folk dress. According to the Dutch Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Stipwerk is a dotwork technique used to decorate fabrics and other materials. Stamps are made out of corks with nails, and dots are stamped on the material. Women who wear their traditional Dutch costume design their fabrics with Stipwerk. It generates simple yet complex designs entirely made with dots in different colors. In collaboration with the Crafts Council Nederlands, this technique was also incorporated into Martin Margiela’s haute couture collection designed by John Galliano in 2017. Similarly, some companies offer monetary compensation to indigenous tribes. A Brazilian designer, Oskar Metsavaht, a founder of the brand Osklen, was inspired by a Brazilian indigenous community called Ashaninka and adopted their traditional printed fabrics and tattoo designs for his Spring 2016 collection which was shown in New York and São Paulo. In return, he provided them with

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Figure 3.19 A model walks the runway during the Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear Spring/Summer 2017 show as part of Paris Fashion Week (photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).

monetary compensation which was used to improve the life of their community. In addition, a short documentary film about the life of the Ashaninka community was introduced on his website to promote their fight against illegal loggers and environmental degradation of their forest. The designer is using fashion as a tool to represent the voice of the tribe as a social advocate. Similarly, Canada Goose, a Canadian outerwear company, continues to collaborate with a group of Inuit seamstresses in Canada, for their parka collection called the Atigi Project, which began in 2019. The one-of-a-kind parkas were sold on the company website for about $2,500 each, and all the proceeds went to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization that advocates for the rights, well-being, and interests of Inuit in Canada. In 2019, the company donated nearly $80,000 to the organization from the sales of 2019 Atigi parkas. Such endeavors and partnerships must be followed by other major corporations in the fashion industry.

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In most of the cultural appropriation examples discussed earlier in this chapter, the criticisms were “a lack of minority models and/or designers” in the white-dominated fashion industry. For Valentino’s and Louis Vuitton’s Africaninspired collection by Jim Jones in 2016, there were not enough African or African-American models in the shows. Similarly, in 2018, Datuk Rizalman Ibrahim, a Malaysian designer, released a collection inspired by Bollywood, with dancers/models dressed in short cropped shirts and lehenga skirts, who were not Indians. This means “who” is wearing which dress from which culture makes a difference for the watchdogs and their followers. It was only in January 2020 that a First Nation model appeared for the first time in Paris Fashion Week. Models should be selected from not just racial minorities, but people from all walks of life, such as plus-size models, transgender models, older models, and physically challenged models. Designers’ choices of models dictate and determine the hegemonic standard of beauty based on skin color. Recently, the organizers of fashion shows in major cities have been providing a platform for minority designers to showcase their collections and giving them more exposure since fashion professionals from all over the world mobilize in these cities at least four times a year. For example, Alberto Lopez Gomez, an indigenous Mexican weaver/designer, brought his collection to New York in 2020 (Figure 3.20). Nan Blassingame, a designer from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in Oklahoma, showed her collection at the HiTech Moda event during New York Fashion Week in 2019. Manaola Yap, a native Hawaiian designer, also showed his collection in New York in 2017. Angela DeMontigny, who is a Cree-Metis of Canada, showcased her line in London Fashion Week in 2018. Other minority designers are establishing their own Fashion Week to expose their distinct cultural characteristics in fashion. A group of indigenous designers have started to organize Indigenous Fashion Week throughout Canada, such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. The United Nations Alliance for Sustainable Fashion was established in 2019 to promote the development of sustainability project and policies in the fashion industry. The Ethical Fashion Initiative, a division in the alliance, collaborates with the African Designer Program started in Ghana in 2013 to provide them with wider exposure to the world. More minority designers should be brought to the international stage to make the fashion world truly international, diverse,

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Figure 3.20 Mexican indigenous designer Alberto Lopez Gomez poses with one of his designs at his workshop in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico (photo by Isaac Guzman/AFP via Getty Images).

multicultural, and inclusive. Designers are able to contribute their cultural elements to the world with a subjective viewpoint with their unique cultural knowledge and experience that the outsiders do not have.

Conclusion We hear and read countless criticisms, accusations, and charges of cultural appropriation on a daily basis. By establishing conceptual typologies to analyze cultural appropriation, we can put them into perspective and organize our thoughts. There are both grassroots movement and institutional efforts to raise our awareness. The emergence and existence of online watchdogs allow us to see more clearly what is appropriate/inappropriate and at the same time, their voices raise our considerations and perceptions about other cultures. In addition, the industry dominated by white designers needs to give more opportunities to underrepresented designers who are introducing their unique culture through designs. Minority designers serve as spokespersons, representatives, and social advocates of their own culture. With their own standpoint, they have the perspective that Western designers do not have and will be able to bring in the design elements and use them in more acceptable

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and appropriate ways. The fashion industry is urged to follow and catch up with a major shift in societal values and norms in the twenty-first century. All the examples discussed in this chapter inform us that culture is a symbolic territory with a power dynamic and structure embedded between and within the territories. However, in order to pull ourselves out of this cultural appropriation chaos, we need to deterritorialize the existing boundaries and reterritorialize them in such a way that all parties mutually benefit from one another, instead of trying to guard their territory from so-called “invasion.”

Further Discussion Examples 2021 A model walking and sitting on Japanese kimono obi (sash) in Valentino’s ad 2020 A model wearing racist accessories at FIT’s fashion show in the master’s degree program 2019 Chinese qipao-inspired Pretty Little Things collection by Little Mix 2019 Dior Fragrance “Sauvage” ad campaign 2019 Kimono with a matching hijab for Muslim women designed by Yumeyakata, a Japanese retailer 2018 Holi Collection by Pharrell Williams 2018 “Little Black Sambo,” a key chain with a black face and oversized red lips, in Prada’s Pradamalia Collection 2018 Escaramuza-inspired cruise collection by Christian Dior 2017 Palestinian kaffiyeh scarf-inspired playsuit at Topshop in UK 2017 Wafrica, a brand that combines the two cultures Wa (Japan) and Africa 2017 Gigi Hadid with a head covering on the cover of Vogue Arabia’s inaugural issue 2017 Geisha-inspired collection by Alessandro Michele for Gucci 2017 “Pepe the Frog” by Zara 2015 A Native Indian-inspired “Dsquaw” Collection by Dsquared 2015 “Kimono Wednesdays” event at the Claude Monet exhibition, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts 2015 Chola Victorian collection by Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy 2015 Korean-inspired Chanel cruise collection by Karl Lagerfeld

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2014 Pharrell Williams with a Native Indian war bonnet on the cover of British Elle 2013 Hasidic-inspired menswear collection by Ricardo Seco 2012 “Manifest Destiny” T-shirt by Gap 2011 “Lakshmi” swimwear collection by Lisa Blue 2010 Rare Dirndl, Austrian costume in African textiles, designed by Erika Neumayer 2009 Amish-inspired fashion editorial by Steven Meisel in Vogue Italia 2004 Roberto Cavalli’s “Hindu Deities” underwear collection at Harrods 2003 A Lebanese model with a Native Indian headdress at Nicholas Gibran’s show in Beirut 2003 “Diorient Express” collection by John Galliano for Christian Dior 1994 Japonisme collection by John Galliano

Suggested Further Reading Banks, Ingrid (2000), Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women’s Consciousness, New York: New York University Press. Bourque, Bruce J., and Laureen La Bar (2009), Uncommon Threads: Wabanaki Textile, Clothing, and Costume, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Byrd, Ayana, and Lori Tharps (2014), Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. Carrico, Kevin Joseph (2017), The Great Han: Race, Nationalism and Tradition in China Today, Palo Alto, CA: University of California Press. Eliason, Eric A. (2019), The Island of Lace: Drawn Threadwork on Saba in the Dutch Caribbean, Jackson, MI: University of Mississippi Press. Irigoyen-Garcia, Javier (2017), Moors Dress as Moors: Clothing, Social Distinction, and Ethnicity in Early Modern Iberia, Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. Marks, Diana (2016), Molas: Dress, Identity, Culture, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Nwafor, Okechukwu Charles (2021), Aso Ebi: Visual Culture and Urban Cosmopolitanism in West Africa, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Renne, Elisha P. (2018), Veils, Turbans, and Islamic Reform in Northern Nigeria, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Schmahmann, Brenda (2000), Material Matters: Appliques by the Weya Women of Zimbabwe and Needlework by South African Collectives, Johannesburg, South Africa: Wits University Press. Tepper, Leslie H., Janice George, and Willard Joseph (2017), Salish Blankets: Robes of Protection and Transformation, Symbols of Wealth, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Walker, Tamara J. (2017), Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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4 Entertainment JUNG-WHAN MARC DE JONG

Objectives: ●

To understand how culture is commodified.

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To identify how the Other is used in cultural appropriation.

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To explain the influence of hybridization on cultural appropriation.

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To examine the role of social media in transcultural appropriation.

Controversies involving public figures and “blackfishing”—for instance, white singers Rita Ora and Iggy Azalea and cosmetics mogul Kylie Jenner performing “black culture”—and transracialism—for instance, white British social media influencer Oli London racially identifying as Korean—have (re)turned mass media’s spotlight to discussions about cultural appropriation in entertainment industries in 2021. Concerns about the commodification and appropriation of culture in the field of entertainment, however, have existed for centuries, particularly in the United States. For instance, in an article published in Rochester’s The North Star anti-slavery newspaper on October 27, 1848, US abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass called “blackface” performers in minstrel shows “filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow-citizens.” The poem “Note on Commercial Theatre” (1940) expressed US novelist Langston Hughes’ antipathy toward white artists who immersed their work with African American cultural forms—a tradition that originated during 103

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the Harlem Renaissance in New York City around 1920. US hip-hop group Public Enemy’s political anthem “Fight the Power” (1989) provocatively characterized white America’s “King of Rock and Roll” Elvis Presley as “racist.” A shared Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival notwithstanding Jennie Livingstone’s landmark documentary Paris is Burning (1990)—which immortalized New York City’s ball culture in the mid-to-late 1980s—was accused of commodifying African-American and Latinx lgbtqia2s+ subcultures (Figure 4.1). Despite numerous historically documented apprehensions about the commodification and appropriation of minority groups’ culture, a body of literature on “cultural colonialism” (Coutts-Smith 1976) and “voice appropriation” (North 1994) in creative industries began to develop only toward the late twentieth century in fields such as the visual arts and literary criticism. In 1992, cultural critic, feminist theorist, and writer bell hooks published a foundational collection of essays titled Black Looks: Race and Representation. In the collection, hooks proposes—at the time—profoundly new perspectives on blackness, black subjectivity, and whiteness. In the essay “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” (1992: 21–39), for instance, she identifies representations of “blackness” in advertising, fashion, and pop culture

Figure 4.1 From left to right, rapper Flavor Flav, director Spike Lee and Chuck D of the rap group ‘Public Enemy’ film a video for their song ‘Fight The Power’ directed by Spike Lee in 1989 in New York (photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images).

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and suggests that white Americans commodify African American culture through a process she identifies as “racial Othering.” Since 1992, scholars have published more extensively on cultural appropriation in pop culture and in the field of entertainment (Brown and Kopano 2014; Jackson 2019). Because cultural appropriation originated as postcolonial critique of Western imperialism, however, most of this literature is rooted in the Western theoretical canon and concentrates on Western Europe and the United States. Yet a majority group’s use of cultural exploitation and appropriation to control a minority group’s social, economic, and political opportunities and visibility is a transglobal phenomenon. Therefore, in this chapter we use Western and non-Western case studies to address this scholarly void. We divide this chapter into four parts. Firstly, we determine how sociologists conceptualize “entertainment” to set the thematic boundaries of what is and is not discussed as part of cultural appropriation. Secondly, we explore bell hooks’ (1992) concept of the Other—as she delineates it in Black Looks: Race and Representation— to identify the power dynamics behind minority groups’ contestations of cultural authenticity. Thirdly, we turn to communication scholar Richard Rogers’ (2006: 474–503) work on transculturation to reconceptualize cultural appropriation within a global context. Lastly, we explore the influence of digital technology on cultural appropriation. Using the production of culture perspective (Peterson 1976; 1990; Ryan 1985; Peterson and Anand 2004) and the Korean K-pop industry, we identify how digital technology—such as social media—contributes to the K-pop music genre’s hybridization and intensifies contestations about the K-pop industry’s alleged appropriation of US hip-hop music.

What is Sociological about Entertainment? In the article “What Is Sociological about Music?” sociologists William Roy and Timothy Dowd (2010: 184) assert that “music is not a singular phenomenon” and, therefore, cannot be captured by one sociological definition. In keeping with Roy and Dowd’s reasoning, it is equally impossible to capture “entertainment” by one definition. It could refer to: (1) that which is enjoyable or pleasurable; (2) those who take on the roles of entertainers; (3) industries that offer entertainment; (4) audiences that consume entertainment; (5) forms of entertainment; or

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(6) the social functions of entertainers and entertainment industries (Stebbins 2007). Within classical and contemporary sociologies, the conceptual ambiguity of entertainment makes it a challenging concept to explore.

The Conceptual Ambiguity of Entertainment Leisure has been an important element in classical sociologies, for instance, in the work of sociologists such as Karl Marx (1857), Emile Durkheim (1893), Max Weber (1905), and particularly Thorstein Veblen (1899) who linked it to social class and consumption (Parry and Coalter 1982). The mid-twentieth century saw a move toward the development of a leisure subfield based on research by David Riesman, Nathan Glazer, and Reuel Denney (1950), Georges Friedmann (1961), Joffre Dumazedier (1967), Rhona Rapoport and Robert Rapoport (1974), Stanley Parker (1976), John Robinson (1977), John Wilson (1980), Chris Rojek (1985, 1995, 2006, 2010), and Robert Stebbins (1992, 2007, 2015). Like definitions of leisure itself (Wilson 1980), however, it is challenging to find consistent conceptualizations of entertainment in the leisure subfield. In the article “Four Themes in the Sociology of Leisure” Rhona Rapoport and Robert Rapoport (1974: 217, 220) refer to “entertainments” and the “entertainments industry,” but situate these next to mass media, impresarios, television, and sports as separate leisure concepts. Robert John Wilson’s (1980: 21–2, 24) article “Sociology of Leisure” identifies “organized forms of social entertainment” and “places of entertainment,” but excludes research on art and literature, popular culture, and mass media because he believes “each has emerged as a topic of study in its own right and deserves a separate treatment.” Entertainment is equally central to the scholarship of Frankfurt School social theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Horkheimer and Adorno (1944: 104, 115) equate the culture industry with “entertainment business” and mass culture with “entertainment,” and assert that entertainment is “the prolongation of work under late capitalism. It is sought by those who want to escape the mechanized labor process so that they can cope with it again.” In the article “Culture Industries Reconsidered,” Adorno and historian Anson Rabinbach (1975: 15–16) reiterate the manipulative effect of “entertainment” such as “pocket novels, films off the rack, family television

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shows rolled out into serials and hit parades, advice to the lovelorn and horoscope columns.” The definition of “entertainment” as manipulative mass culture produced by culture industries stands in contrast to the inconsistent conceptualizations found in the leisure subfield. In other entertainment subfields such as celebrity culture (Gamson 1994; Marshall 1997; Ferris and Harris 2010; Driessens 2013; Sternheimer 2015; Leung et al. 2017; Van Krieken 2018; Rojek 2001, 2012, 2015, 2020) and sports (Edwards 1973; Snyder and Spreitzer 1974; Bourdieu 1978; Luschen 1980; Young 1986; Frey and Eitzen 1991; Washington and David 2001; Messner and Connell 2010; Cooky 2017), entertainment is situated within areas such as leisure, social class, consumption, and culture production. Sociologists James Frey and D. Stanley Eitzen (1991: 510) refer to mass media’s influence on the nature of sports as “entertainmentization,” for instance while sociologist and communications scholar Oliver Driessens (2013: 543) differentiates between “media” celebrities and “entertainment” celebrities. The conceptual ambiguity of entertainment is not just prevalent in the sociology discipline. Media studies scholars Stephen Bates and Anthony Ferri (2010: 2) observe that “[scholars] of communications, film, literature, art, popular culture, leisure, history, psychology, sociology, economics, policy, law, neuroscience, and other disciplines all have claimed partial, often overlapping authority [over the field of entertainment]. But the importance of the whole has been neglected: no single discipline has undertaken to map the vast landscape of entertainment.” Bates and Ferri’s inclusion of sociology as one of many disciplines that fail to map the expansive entertainment landscape is not entirely accurate, as it ignores sociologist Robert Stebbins’ tentative framework for an entertainment subfield introduced in 2007. Stebbins (2007: 185) ends his outline with a warning to future sociologists and without a definition of entertainment: “Sociologists studying entertainment need to be more selfconscious about their subdiscipline. In the end, if unable to develop distinctive theory that organizes its central ideas, the sociology of entertainment will fail to make the claim that it is an identifiable subdiscipline. This is the most critical challenge facing sociologists who declare this area their specialty.” Since Stebbins’ (2007) “Sociology of Entertainment,” no further attempts have been made to propose an authoritative framework or definition of

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entertainment. Therefore, we define entertainment based on the case studies explored in this chapter: as pop music, television, and Over-The-Top (OTT) media content.

The Commodification of Culture and the Other For culture to be appropriated, it first needs to go through a process of commodification. Sociologist and economist Karl Marx conducted one of the first studies on the commodification of culture. In Das Kapital, Marx (1867) conceptualized commodification as a process of value construction in the capitalist mode of production. Marx (1867: 59) wrote: A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference. Neither are we . . . concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production. In

successive

centuries,

social

theoretical

discussions

of

cultural

commodification have mostly followed the Marxist tradition. As we reviewed in Chapter 1, Frankfurt School social theorists such as Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Leo Lowenthal considered cultural commodification the commercialization of artistic forms. Using political scientist Antonio Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony—a cultural standard that circulates the norms and values of the ruling capitalist class—they argued that processes of cultural commodification are controlled by “elites,” those who hold social and economic power. Cultural commodification—the production of mass culture—allows elites to manipulate the consciousness of the “masses” so they accept their place in the existing social and economic hierarchy. In the 1970s—building on the Frankfurt School’s Marxist approach—Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and Feminist Studies scholars continued this research tradition focusing on topics such as: style and the formation of working-class youth

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subcultures (Dick Hebdige 1979); media, race, deviancy, and politics (Stuart Hall 1971, 1976, 1978); and gender and pop culture (Angela McRobbie 1978).

Seductive Representation of Racial Otherness In the essay “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance,” bell hooks (1992: 21–39) relates cultural commodification to cultural appropriation and situates both processes within the contexts of white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy. hooks argues that the social, political, and economic power of Othering is embedded in contestations between majority and minority groups over: (1) cultural ownership and (re)production; (2) cultural authenticity; (3) remuneration; and (4) agency over cultural expression and media representation. To protect white supremacy and cultural hegemony in American society, there has existed a centuries-long formal and informal taboo on the admiration of and desire for racial Otherness. hooks observes a shift in this taboo toward the end of the 1980s that begins with culture industries’ seductive representations of racial diversity— the manipulation of white Americans’ forbidden desire for racial Otherness—in mass culture such as advertising, film, and television. The seductive representations of racial Otherness in mass culture, she argues, convinces white Americans that there is pleasure to be found in “the acknowledgement and enjoyment of racial difference” (hooks, 1992: 366). White society’s shift from a taboo on to the open enjoyment of racial differences is part of the process of diffusion, hooks maintains. Culture industries selectively commodify minority groups’ cultural aesthetics and offer these to white consumers through mass media representations. For instance, Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani photographed the first multiracial advertisement for fashion house Benetton—the “United Colors” campaign—in 1984 and worked on the “United Colors of Benetton” campaign in 1989. In Toscani’s Benetton campaigns, models’ racial phenotype—such as skin-tone— were equally as important as the fashion house’s clothing and used as social commentary and visual aesthetic (Figure 4.2). Because the pleasure in racial difference is marketed toward white Americans only, hooks argues that it leads to commodification of the non-white Other. She believes that “[the] commodification of Otherness has been so successful because it is offered as a new delight, more intense, more satisfying than normal

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Figure 4.2 Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani photographs a group of children who are wearing Benetton clothing (photo by Julio Donoso/Sygma via Getty Images).

ways of doing and feeling. Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture” (1992: 366). Otherness becomes racial costume that white Americans dress up in to make ordinary life temporarily more exciting—like putting cornrows or dreadlocks in one’s naturally straight hair. hooks emphasizes whiteness because in America’s racial hierarchy, those placed at or close to the top have the “racial costumes” of those below them in the hierarchy at their disposal. Those placed at or close to the bottom of the racial hierarchy have little exploitative power in a commodity culture. While hooks focuses on commodification and appropriation within the context of race, these processes take place within multiple power dimensions. As we discuss later in this chapter while within the context of imposed heteronormativity, heterosexual African Americans might not be able to commodify or exploit white culture, they can still misappropriate or commodify African American lgbtqia2s+ subcultures.

Imperialist Nostalgia and the Primitive Other In commodity culture, the Other is perceived as “primitive” and—because primitivity is the opposite of everything considered hegemonic—desirable by

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those in power. This desire is rooted in what cultural anthropologist Renato Rosado (1989: 107) and hooks (1992: 369) refer to as “imperialist nostalgia”—a nostalgia for a colonized culture displayed by agents of colonialism. In “Touring ‘Dramatic Korea’: Japanese Women as Viewers of Hanryu Dramas and Tourists on Hanryu Tours” media studies scholar Yukie Hirata (2008) demonstrates that concepts such as the Other and imperialist nostalgia are useful in Western and non-Western contexts. She describes how South Korean television serials such as Winter Sonata (2003) and the popularity of its male lead Bae Yong-joon are motivating factors behind Japanese female tourists’ visits to South Korea. After a successful twenty-episode run on KBS, Winter Sonata was brought to Japan where it was screened on Nippon Hoso Kyokai in April 2003. The series and its lead Bae Yong-joon’s vast popularity with Japanese fans—referred to as the “Yon-sama syndrome” and credited with signaling the hallyu into a new era in Japan—has become the subject of abundant scholarship on soft power, fandom, and constructions of national and gender identities through transnational pop culture consumption (Jin, 2016; Whang 2015; Lie 2012; Jung 2011; Hayashi and Lee 2007; Lie and Park 2006). On December 23, 2004, the New York Times published “What’s Korean for ‘Real Man?’ Ask a Japanese Woman”—an article explaining the “Yon-sama syndrome” and its effect on Japanese’s women’s perception of Korean masculinity. In the article, journalist Norimitsu Onishi describes Bae’s gender performance in terms that scholars of Korean idol culture have referred to as “versatile” or “soft” masculinity: Yon-sama seems to touch upon the Japanese nostalgia for an imagined past, and upon middle-aged women’s yearning for an emotional connection that they lack and perhaps believe they cannot find in Japan. What is even more striking is that they are looking for it in South Korea, a country that the Japanese colonized in the first half of the last century and condescended toward in the second half. In the nexus of power, gender and love, Japanese women may have turned to blue-eyed Americans but never looked twice at a Korean. Nowadays, thanks to Yon-sama, Web sites for young Japanese women looking for Korean men are multiplying. Although South Korea’s export of “Hanryu Dramas” was part of hallyu 1.0— South Korea’s transnational pop culture movement and soft power

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strategy1—and not Japan’s commodification of South Korean culture, Yukie Hirata (2008: 149) nonetheless observes: “ ‘Family relationships’ represented by the Korean drama [such as Winter Sonata] were seen as those which had been lost in Japan. Seeing Korea as Japan’s past evokes ‘nostalgia’ among the interviewees.” She notes that this “reflects a level of cultural intimacy that Japanese women derived from transnational consumption of Korean dramatic texts; Korean ‘other’ is uncannily consumed as the ‘same’ as the Japanese ‘us’ ” (Figure 4.3).

Figure 4.3 Japanese travelers walk past a portrait of South Korean actor Bae YongJoon, who gained fame in Japan with hit TV show “Winter Sonata” at a shopping district in Seoul (photo by Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images).

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The Other’s commodification must be culturally recognizable to those in the majority culture and therefore live up to hegemonic expectations of “the primitive.” These expectations contribute to a process of defusion—dehumanizing the subversive potential, values, and ideals of the Other. “[It] is not African American culture formed in resistance to contemporary situations that surfaces, but nostalgic evocation of a “glorious” past” hooks suggests and, she adds, this splendid history must be connected to “white western conceptions of the dark Other, not to a radical questioning of those representations” (1992: 370). Representations of “Blackness” that are too confrontational in their expression of historical suffering must be either “stripped down” or submerged in narratives that “make sense” before offered to white consumers. By altering or erasing confrontational elements in or from its mass cultural representation, whites can commodify and consume the Other without taking on or experiencing the Other’s subversive position and thereby potentially challenging the status quo, for instance, through white guilt. In commodity culture, imperialist nostalgia is expressed through the exploitation of the Other and becomes a resource for new pleasure. hooks observes that when race is “commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders, sexual practices affirm their powerover in intimate relations with the Other” (hooks 1992: 367). However, some of minority groups’ cultural expressions—such as hip-hop culture or rap—are born out of resistance to contemporary situations and radical questioning of representations in mass culture. Although hip-hop—like most music genres—is a hybrid music form with transnational roots in other genres and digital technologies, it is also a political and cultural movement that emerged in disadvantaged African American and Latinx communities in New York City in the 1970s. This duality has made hip-hop one of the most contentious topics of cultural appropriation in entertainment since it found mainstream popularity in the late 1980s. On December 18, 2014, African American rapper Azealia Banks was interviewed by Ebro Darden, Peter Rosenberg, and Laura Stylez on radio station Hot 97 in New York City. Ebro Darden inquired about the tensions between Banks and white Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, which began in 2012. The friction between the two performers centered on the issue of cultural authenticity and Iggy Azalea’s alleged appropriation—or rather

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“blackfishing”—of hip-hop culture and rap. In the interview, Banks described her feelings toward cultural exploitation: “I do not want to see more white people f--king whipping people in more movies [such as “12 Years a Slave” (2013)]. Because my black story is deeper than the boat ride over . . . So, this little thing called hip-hop that I have created for myself, that I am holding onto for my dear f--king life.” Referencing debates on slavery reparations, Banks added: “At the very least you owe me the right to my f--king identity and to not exploit that shit. That is all we are holding on to with hip-hop and rap.” Cultural commodification and appropriation—and particularly processes of diffusion and defusion—strip especially historically marginalized groups of what little has remained of their cultural identities. Africans who were stripped of their material possessions when they were forced onboard of slave ships at best were not stripped of their intangible cultural heritage (Morgan 1994: 650). Upon arrival in the New World colonies, however, their intangible cultural heritage was taken from them and their descendants through commodification and appropriation as well. Minority groups would soon learn that in the United States and many other Western nations, unincorporated group culture is not protected by intellectual property law, making authenticity-defenses or groupcompliance in commodification—and thereby gaining at least some social and economic capital—one of the few options at their disposal. Law scholar Susan Scafidi (2005: 21) observes that “the creative expressions of an unincorporated group, such as a particular race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, avocation, class, or even gender or age category” regularly fall outside of the domain of intellectual property law. In the Western world, intellectual property does not take alternative forms of culture production into account and is based on principles of individual authorship rather than group creation (Scafidi 2005). The concept of the Other provides a useful framework for understanding the importance of power inequality in Othering and processes of cultural commodification and appropriation.

The Other and Authenticity in Culture Appropriation At the start of the chapter, we referenced historical concerns about cultural appropriation in the field of entertainment. bell hooks’ (1992: 21–39) essay “Eating

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the Other: Desire and Resistance” allows insight into the contempt expressed in Langston Hughes’ (1940) “Note on Commercial Theatre.” Hughes believed that the blending of European American and African American cultural forms would lead to the peripheralization and erasure of African American culture in and from American society. As if forewarned by hooks’ essay, Hughes’ poem ends with the promise that within the confines of its own community—shielded from white society—African American culture would survive and flourish. Public Enemy’s symbolic identification of Elvis Presley with racism in the hip-hop anthem “Fight the Power” reflects the fear of African American cultural invisibility Langston Hughes and rapper Azealia Banks were referencing in 1940 and 2014, respectively. When a minority group loses agency over their culture production and cultural authenticity, they equally lose agency over the way in which they are represented in mass culture and remembered in the national consciousness. In a 2002 interview with the Associated Press, Public Enemy’s Chuck D explains the meaning behind the song’s suggestive “Elvis Presley” lyrics: “My whole thing was the one-sidedness like, Elvis’ icon status in America made it like nobody else counted . . . My heroes came from someone else. My heroes came before him.” Historian Michael Bertrand (2007: 63) acknowledges that “For many African Americans . . . Elvis was less about innovation and more about continuation, namely the perpetual exploitation and misappropriation of black labor and artistry.” Lastly, the first episode of white screenwriter, producer, and director Ryan Murphy’s fictional television serial Pose—inspired by white documentarist Jennie Livingstone’s Paris is Burning (1990)—aired to critical acclaim and praise from television critics and African American and Latinx lgbtqia2s+ communities alike in 2018. Livingstone’s documentary contrariwise continued to be met with resistance in the years following its theatrical release. The New York Times journalist Jesse Green wrote on April 18, 1993: “There is a lot of anger in the ball world about ‘Paris Is Burning.’ Some of it concerns what a few critics have called exploitation: making the lives of poor black and Latino people into a commodity for white consumption.” In a review of Pose’s first episode on July 20, 2018—and fittingly a nod to bell hooks’ 1987 classic scholarship—The Washington Post’s Nia Decaille emphasizes the importance of authenticity in mass media representations:

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Watching [Mj] Rodriguez as Blanca on “Pose” recalls the candor of feminist texts like Bell Hooks’ “Ain’t I a Woman?” Blanca Evangelista, a transgender woman of color, is a lead character and not a comical aside, a one-dimensional mother figure or a fallen Jezebel. Season 1 best illustrates how transgender women of color being cast as themselves isn’t just about showing people something they haven’t seen on screen; it’s also a political statement. July 20, 2018

Conditions of Cultural Appropriation To contextualize discussions of cultural appropriation in entertainment. we need to identify the conditions under which appropriation take place. Communications scholar Richard Rogers (2006: 477) uses the work of philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1975), multimedia scholar Roger Wallis and musicologist Krister Malm (1984), cultural studies scholar Andrew Goodwin and music journalist Joe Gore (1990), and law scholars Bruce Ziff and Pratima Rao (1997) to establish four conditions of cultural appropriation: exchange, dominance, exploitation, and transculturation.

Cultural Exchange Cultural exchange occurs between groups with identical levels of social, economic, or political power. When groups are equal cultural trading partners, they can exchange elements of culture—objects, languages, genres, symbols, rituals, technologies, or symbols—without concerns of Othering or social and economic exploitation (Rogers 2006). In the literature on cultural appropriation in creative industries, this condition is mostly used as an ideal-type—a moral standard against which other forms of appropriation are assessed. Because it is an ideal type, it will not be discussed in the remainder of the chapter.

Dominance In the condition of cultural dominance, a majority group imposes their culture upon a minority group. Because of the power imbalance between both groups, the minority group is expected to appropriate—and eventually internalize and

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assimilate—the majority group’s cultural elements. In addition to assimilation, Richard Rogers (2006: 481) identifies four alternative outcomes of cultural dominance: (1) integration (the co-existence of elements of majority and minority cultures); (2) obstinacy as overt form of rebellion; (3) mimicry as cultural survival performance; and (4) resistance as covert form of rebellion. Cultural dominance tends to occur within contexts of military or autocratic forms of government, colonialism, and in nations with historically oppressed or displaced minority populations. For instance, on June 29, 2013—eight months before the city of Sochi would host the Winter Olympics—the Russian Parliament unanimously approved Bill 135-FZ “for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Value.” The Bill was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on June 30, 2013. Under the law—commonly referred to as the “gay propaganda law”—the promotion of on-traditional sexual relationships among minors, expressed in the dissemination of information aimed at creating in minors a non-traditional sexual orientation, promoting the attractiveness of non-traditional sexual relationships, creating a distorted images of the social equivalence of traditional and non-traditional sexual relations, or imposing information about non-traditional sexual relationships, arousing interest in such relationships is punishable by fines (for citizens and organizations) and administrative suspension of activities for organizations and mass media (OECD 2020: 59). While homosexuality has been decriminalized in Russia since 1993, homophobia and transphobia are nonetheless widespread. The inability of lgbtqia2s+ support groups to reach out to minors and provide accurate scientific information has led to the further stigmatization—and because sexual identity is rooted in biology—enforcement of heteronormativity upon an already vulnerable group in Russian society (De Kerf 2017: 36; Voyles and Chilton 2019: 326). However, global news media reports offer support for Rogers’ (2006: 481) observation that assimilation is one of several outcomes of cultural dominance. In January 2020, twenty-seven-year-old Yulia Tsvetkova posted a drawing of same-sex families captioned “Family is where there’s love. Support LGBT families!” on Russian social media platform VKontakte and was charged with violation of Bill 135-FZ. Two months later, Tsvetkova was placed under house arrest and charged with the production and distribution of “indecent material” as moderator of the online group “The Vagina Monologues.” The group aimed to destigmatize

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the female body and featured members’ drawings of the female body. Her arrest and backing of lgbtqia2s+ equality led to mass media exposure and support from Russian entertainment and media celebrities and feminist and lgbtqia2s+ activists.

Exploitation For our discussion of cultural appropriation in entertainment, the conditions of exploitation and transculturation are the most pertinent. Exploitation takes places when a dominant culture appropriates or commodifies elements of a minority culture without permission, remuneration, or adequate reciprocity (Rogers 2006: 486). Bruce Ziff and Pratima Rao (1997: 8–16) identify four additional ways in which exploitation is harmful to a group. Firstly, it negatively impacts a group’s cohesion since collectivity is partly dependent on cultural heritage. Because exploitation is damaging to culture, it is equally harmful to the cultural group. Secondly, culture has authenticity and, therefore, should stay within its original setting; if it is commodified and exploited, it is taken from its natural environment. Ziff and Rao’s first and second observations reflect cultural essentialism—the idea that culture belongs to the environment in and the group by which it is produced. Thirdly and fourthly, the exploitation of culture allows others to unfairly profit from the contributions of others, which is why most countries have developed trademark and intellectual property laws. However, cultural exploitation in entertainment remains a contested topic because most of these laws are based on principles of individual authorship rather than group creation (Scafidi 2005). In the absence of legal protection, groups can turn to institutions such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and apply for “intangible cultural heritage” status. For instance, in 2018, reggae music of Jamaica was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO explained the diasporic political, religious, and cultural importance of reggae on its website (https://ich.unesco.org): While in its embryonic state Reggae music was the voice of the marginalized, the music is now played and embraced by a wide cross-section of society, including various genders, ethnic and religious groups. Its contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity

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Table 4.1 Reggae-inspired K-pop songs Artist

Song

Year

2NE1

“Come Back Home”

2014

K.A.R.D.

“Oh NaNa”

2015

PRIMARY

“Don’t Be Shy”

2015

EXID

“L.I.E.”

2016

SUNMI

“Gashina”

2017

BTS

“Go Go”

2017

EXO

“Ko Ko Bop”

2017

TWICE

“Three Times a Day”

2017

Block B

“One Way”

2017

CHUNG HA

“Love U”

2018

Red Velvet

“Sunny Side Up”

2019

underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, sociopolitical, sensual and spiritual. As musical inspiration, reggae—through rocksteady, dub, dancehall, and ska— has influenced genres such as punk, pop, reggaeton, Hindi-pop, hip-hop, postbhangra, and most recently K-pop. However, there exists a thin line between cultural inspiration and cultural exploitation, as the popularity of the Thai “Boys’ Love” television genre illustrates (Table 4.1).

(Sexual) Exploitation or Inspiration? The “Boys’ Love” Genre In recent years, the commodification of lgbtqia2s+ culture has become increasingly profitable as seen in the use of “gay pride” slogans and symbols— such as the pride flag—on merchandise marketed toward non-lgbtqia2s+ consumers in the United States. Similarly, lgbtqia2s+ culture has been commodified and appropriated to sell entertainment to non-lgbtqia2s+ consumers, which is exemplified by the Thai “Boys’ Love” television genre and

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related commercial franchises. Homosexuality has been legal in Thailand since 1956 (Yue 2014: 146), nevertheless lgbtqia2s+ representations in Thai media have long been characterized by problematic stereotypes (Ünaldi 2011: 59–80). Chookiat Sakveerakul’s critically acclaimed Love of Siam (2007), for instance, was the first Thai film to represent same-sex romance between men outside of a kathoey—since 1970 used to refer to male-to-female transsexuals (Jackson 2000: 410)—context. Thai “Boys’ Love” (BL) television serials have enjoyed local and global popularity since Thailand’s Channel 9 first aired Love Sick: The Series (2014). Its popularity with Thai and particularly online BL communities notwithstanding “Boys’ Love” held a subgenre status within the Thai entertainment industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Southeast Asia, in 2020, however, the genre’s popularity climbed sharply in Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations and moved into the mainstream with 2gether: The Series. The serial is adapted from the Thai BL novel of the same name, produced by Thailand’s entertainment powerhouse GMMTV, aired on GMM 25, and streamed on video platforms LINE TV and YouTube. 2gether: The Series follows a traditional—and exploitative and appropriative—BL formula. Self-identified “straight” college student and womanizer Tine (Metawin “Win” Opas-iamkajorn) asks the shy and good-looking musician and soccer player Sarawat (Vachirawit “Bright” Chivaaree) to play his “fake boyfriend” to fool a gay admirer. Sarawat’s self-identified sexual orientation remains ambiguous, although he clearly is infatuated with Win. Win slowly realizes that rather than “liking men” he just “likes one man only,” namely Sarawat—a case of opportunistic homosexuality. This is where exploitation and appropriation dynamics develop: the BL genre is mostly written “by straight women for straight women” and offers same-sex romance through a heteronormative gaze. The handsome, affluent, and always light (“fair”) skinned young men “pass” or are self-identified as straight before they find same-sex romance with other males—with some exceptions such as Tharn in TharnType: The Series (2019) and Korn in Bad Romance (2016) and Together With Me (2016, 2018), who both identify as gay. Openly gay or “kathoey” supporting characters are overwhelmingly portrayed through homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, and colorist stereotypes. To understand the heteronormative gaze of the BL genre, we need briefly discuss its origins in girls and women’s oppositional readings of the shõjo manga genre in Japan.

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Shõjo manga traditionally are written and drawn for Japanese girls and women. Literary scholar Tomoko Aoyama (2012: 64) observes: “As in many other cultures around the world, however, girls, being both female and underage, have long been marginalized by the ‘mainstream’ culture dominated by adult men.” In resistance against imposed patriarchy, girls and women developed “imagined communities” around fan-produced shõjo manga offshoots: shõnen ai and yaoi. Shõnen ai is the romantically suggestive version of yaoi’s sexually explicit depictions of “love between boys”—“boys’ love” (Wood 2006: 216). To use Richard Rogers (2006: 477) condition of cultural dominance: Japanese girls and women used oppositional readings of shõjo manga as resistance against patriarchal dominance. Aoyama notes that “in BL community, ‘freedom’ may involve the incorporation or transformation of non-BL texts and relationships [the imposed dominant culture girls and women are expected the appropriated and internalize] into BL” (2012: 64). BL communities additionally appropriate language as form of cultural resistance, for instance, referring to themselves as “fujoshi.” Cultural anthropologist Patrick Galbraith (2011) explains that “fujoshi” transforms the Japanese word “ladies” into a homonym for “rotten girls.” Galbraith (2011: 212) observes: “Fujoshi are rotten because they are enthusiastic about yaoi, a genre of fan-produced fiction and art, usually manga, that places established male characters from commercial anime, manga, and video games into unintended romantic relationships.” Film and media studies scholar Andrea Wood (2006: 396) points out, however, that localized understandings of the origins of shõnen ai and yaoi are linked to assumptions about BL communities’ interest in BL texts because of “the patriarchally oppressive environment in which Japanese women live, and the ways in which female sexuality in Japanese culture is confined to the reproductive function within the sanctioned space of marriage.” The transglobal popularity of BL television serials indicates that digital technology has expanded the imagined BL community beyond the borders of Japan (Wood 2006). The globalization—transculturation—of BL has created what Andrea Wood (2006: 396) refers to as “a global counterpublic that is both subversive and fundamentally queer in nature.” Wood’s observation has consequences for the “Boys’ Love” Studies discipline: BL texts are hybridized and indigenized and consequently need to be reterritorialized. Wood’s notion of a “global

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counterpublic” similarly has consequences for the analysis of Thai BL serials and the potential exploitation of lgbtqia2s+ subcultures. Thailand is not the only East or Southeast Asian nation where BL serials have become increasingly popular: pre-censorship China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines all have a tradition of producing BL serials based on BL novels and aimed toward female audiences. For this chapter, we reviewed twenty-seven recent Thai BL serials that are produced by Thai entertainment companies, featured Thai actors, and aired on Thai networks and video streaming platforms (Table 4.2). In our review of Thai BL serials and examination of the marketing and fandom practices surrounding the production and consumption of BL serials, we identified seven components that provide insight into the exploitation of lgbtqia2s+ subcultures and Japanese yaoi by the Thai BL genre.

Table 4.2 Thai “Boys’ Love” Serials 2014–20 Thai “Boys’ Love” Serial Title

Year

2gether: The Series

2020

My Engineer

2020

Why R U?

2020

Until We Meet Again

2019

Dark Blue Kiss

2019

Theory of Love

2019

TharnType: The Series

2019

He’s Coming to Me

2019

The Effect

2019

2Moons 2

2019

Together With Me: The Next Chapter

2018

Love By Chance

2018

What the Duck

2018

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Kiss Me Again

2018

Cause You’re My Boy

2018

2Moons: The Series

2017

Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey 2

2017

Water Boyy: The Series

2017

I Am Your King

2017

SOTUS S: The Series

2017

Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey

2016

My Bromance: The Series

2016

SOTUS: The Series

2016

Make It Right

2016

Together With Me

2016

Bad Romance

2016

Love Sick: The Series

2014

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Components of Thai “Boys’ Love” Serials (2014 and 2020) 1 Heterosexual gaze: BL serials are mostly based on original BL novels written by heterosexual women. 2 Oppositional consumption: Based on marketing materials provided by production and entertainment companies, information provided on BL review websites, reviews and comments posted in online BL fandom communities, comments posted in BL forums and on discussion boards, comments left on video streaming platforms, BL fan videos posted on video sharing platforms such as YouTube, and BL actor fan accounts on Instagram we determine that the majority of Thai BL consumers—the imagined Thai BL community—self-identify as female. 3 Opportunistic homosexuality: Practically all BL serials’ storylines feature at least one lead character who does not self-identify as gay or

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bisexual and who leaves a girlfriend, fiancé, or another opposite-sex love interest for their significant other-to-be. 4 Crude and offensive stereotypes: Lead characters are mostly portrayed as “straight acting,” however, supporting characters who are “openly gay” or “kathoey” are represented in ways which most Westerners would characterize as homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, and racist/ colorist. 5 Heteronormative presentations of self: Based on marketing materials distributed by entertainment companies, the actors’ social media accounts, and Thai media interviews virtually all BL actors are marketed as heterosexual, self-identify, or present themselves outwardly as heterosexual, or are ambiguous about their sexuality. There are only a handful of BL actors who openly identify as members of the Thai lgbtqia2s+ community. 6 Commercialization of BL: Popular BL actors host global fan events, appear on television variety shows, and promote products—from cosmetics to food—in commercials and advertising campaigns. The Thai BL community actively contributes to imaginary BL-ships by uploading fanfiction and art and “they are real” fan videos establishing “real” relationship timelines between BL actors. Some BL actors are known to have long-term girlfriends, yet “they are real” narratives are used to suggest that these relationships are now “in the past.” 7 BL microcelebrity and active fandom: BL actors—even more so than K-pop idols as we discuss in the third part of this chapter—use microcelebrity to establish an intimate connection with their fandom. This connection can lead to “fancom” or “fan company:” fans who consider BL actors “subjects” to be managed, marketed, or educated when they act “inappropriately. 2gether: The Series’ Vachirawit Chivaaree issued a nine-minute-long video apology after Chinese netizens were offended by his “like” of a photo that listed Hong Kong as a country and by comments his girlfriend had made about China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. SOTUS’ Perawat Sangpotirat issued a video apology after a four-year-old video emerged in which he

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allegedly had made an offensive remark about sexual violence. Dark Blue Kiss’ Thitipoom Techaapaikhun apologized to an international fan on his Instagram account after she claimed he had joked at the expensive of people with mental disabilities during a live-streamed GMMTV variety show. GMMTV filed a libel lawsuit on behalf of Theory of Love’s Atthaphan Phunsawat after netizens accused him of being the “third party” in the breakup of a YouTube personality’s relationship. BL as representative of a stripped-down homosexuality and erased of the most confrontational elements of lgbtqia2s+ members’ everyday-lived experiences in Thai society is used by Thai entertainment companies and Thai BL communities alike as commodity. Thai BL sexuality—constructed through BL serials, BL actors, BL fan events, the products marketed by BL actors, and the Thai BL community—is a sexual costume that can be put on and taken off (akin to “blackfishing”—the criticism aimed at white celebrities who commercially benefit from performing “black culture” as costume). While it creates some visibility for members of Thailand’s lgbtqia2s+ communities, the homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, and racist/colorist stereotypes used to portray gay and transsexual characters in many of the BL series void most of such potential gains. Without proper analysis of the function of Thai BL serials for members of the imagined Thai BL community, we cannot conclusively argue whether the internet has damaged yaoi’s Japanese authenticity and, therefore, if yaoi—or BL as oppositional genre—equally has been appropriated. Lastly, we approached the analysis of themes in Thai BL serials from a Western perspective which is problematic. The “crude and racist stereotypes used to portray gay and transsexual characters” we refer to are based on Western understandings of lgbtqia2s+ identities. In the article “An Explosion of Thai Identities: Global Queering and Re-Imagining Queer Theory,” Asian studies scholar Peter Jackson (2000: 405–24) examines how Thai discourses of gender and “eroticism” complicate universalist assumptions about gender and sexual identity. In Thailand, “phet” is used to embody both gender and sexuality. Jackson (2000: 416) explains that “The persistence of phet as the frame within which both gender and sexuality are understood in Thailand is

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reflected in the fact that even in Thai academic discourses only one expression exists to translate both ‘sexual identity’ and ‘gender identity’.” Since there is no distinction between sexual and gender identity, Jackson maintains that academics need to clarify if they are referring to an identity that is based on someone’s sexual desire or preference for gender performance. He observes (2000: 416): This means that it is extremely difficult, I suggest ultimately impossible, to consistently sustain a difference between the notion of desire for a particular type of sexed body (whether male or female), and hence of sexual identity, and the idea of a preference for enacting a particular gender performance (whether masculine or feminine), and hence of gender identity . . . Rather than a mere inadequacy in terminology, this situation reflects the fact that within Thai cultural understandings, including technical and academic discourses, gender and sexuality are indeed a unitary category and the single expression ekkalak thang-phet (“gender identity” and/or “sexual identity”) accurately reflects the prevalent form of subjectivity in Thailand, in which personal identification as a man, gay king, gay queen, kathoey, tom, dee or woman is simultaneously erotic and gendered. Jackson ends his article with a quote from anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s classic (1996: 17) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, which emphasizes the importance of contextualization when attempting to understand the impact of media representations on non-Western cultures from transglobal perspectives. Appadurai argues that: “Globalization is . . . a deeply historical, uneven and even localizing process. Globalization does not necessarily or even frequently imply homogenization or Americanization.”

Transcultural Appropriation Transcultural appropriation is particularly relevant in the context of globalization and indigenization. It raises questions about the loss of cultural authenticity, cultural degradation, and cultural homogenization because of “multiple cultural appropriations structured in the dynamics of globalization and transnational capitalism creating hybrid forms” (Rogers 2006: 477). We discuss transcultural

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appropriation—cultural hybridization and indigenization—in more detail in the production of culture analysis of K-pop and hip-hop later in this chapter. Exploitation and transcultural appropriation as they relate to entertainment and music are exemplified in ethnomusicologist Steven Feld’s (2000: 145–71) article “A Sweet Lullaby for World Music.”

Exploitation and Transculturation in the Digital Age The French group Deep Forest was founded by musicians Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet in 1992. The group is known for a genre referred to as world music, worldbeat, or ethnic electronica—considered controversial by some as it makes imperialist assumptions about “music” and non-Western Other genres. Feld (2000: 146) observes: “Circulated first by academics in the early 1960s to celebrate and promote the study of musical diversity, the phrase world music began largely as a benign and hopeful term,” yet in subsequent years turned into a phrase with “a clear populist ring.” Deep Forest’s first single was titled “Sweet Lullaby” and featured a sample of the unaccompanied voice of Afunakwa signing the children’s lullaby “Rorogwela” in the Baegu language. The sample was recorded in 1970 by ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp on the Solomon Islands, and included on a 1973 UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World LP titled Solomon Islands: Fateleka and Baegu Music from Malaita. Zemp’s recording of Afunakwa’s “Rorogwela” was digitally sampled and remixed with “synthesizer accompaniments and interludes of digital samples from Central African forest water splashing games and vocal yodels” (Feld 2000: 155). “Sweet Lullaby” became a commercial chart success and generated millions in profits through licensing for use in television commercials in the United States and France (Zemp 1996). In the article “The/An Ethnomusicologist and the Record Business,” Hugo Zemp reflects (1996: 36) on the commercial exploitation of ethnomusicological research in world music or worldbeat genres. Zemp describes (1996: 37) how ‘Are’are leaders and he came to the financial agreement that allowed him to record an album with Fataleka and Baegu music without owning the rights to their music: We decided that I would pay each musician the amount that the government of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate paid for labor, for example, for

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building a road or a school. In 1969 it was $1 a day. This amount was meant as monetary compensation for the time that the musicians did not work in their gardens or on coconut plantations; the aaraha insisted that I could never buy (hori) their music. In 1996, Zemp—who was editor of the record series “Collection CNRS/Musee de l’Homme”—was informed that the CD Deep Forest (1992) allegedly included a sample from one of the series releases Chad, Music from Tibesti (1990). After receiving a copy, he (1996: 46) observed: “To my surprise, I didn’t recognize any of my original Baule recordings from West Africa, but did recognize a sample of a lullaby from the Solomon Islands, published on the UNESCO record Fataleka and Baegu Music [10], and re-entitled ‘Sweet Lullaby’.” A lengthy back-and-forth between the Cultural Division of UNESCO, Deep Forest’s producers, their lawyer, Celine Music, and Hugo Zemp ensued. On July 30, Zemp (1996: 48) wrote a letter to Deep Forest musicians Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet: you used a sample from a recording which I made in the Solomon Islands and had published on the disc Solomon Islands: Fataleka and Baegu Music of Malaita . . . The piece which you entitled “Sweet Lullaby” which you improperly credited as your composition, stealing the tune which belongs to the Baegu people of Malaita, and stealing the voice of the singer, Afunakwa . . . You have been disrespectful first to the musical heritage of the Solomon Islands . . . and second to the ethno-musicological discipline in usurping my name. Richard Rogers (2006) and Ziff and Rao (1997) suggest that transcultural appropriation can lead to cultural degradation and loss of cultural authenticity. The potential of cultural degradation because of cultural hybridization is raised by Steven Feld (2000: 159–60) in “Pygmy (sic) Lullaby.” Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek recorded a “Sweet Lullaby”-inspired adaptation of “Rorogwela” on the album Visible World in 1996. As recounted in depth by Hugo Zemp (1996: 36–56) in the article “The/An Ethnomusicologist and the Record Business,” Deep Forest did not include an original source on the CD for the “Sweet Lullaby” composition. Garbarek assumed that the song was rooted in Central African musical traditions, titled his adaption arrangement “Pygmy

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Lullaby,” and credited the song’s composition “as a traditional African melody” (Feld 2000: 159). Likewise, Italian trance producer Mauro Picotto’s “Komodo (Save a Soul)” (2000) is credited as featuring a sample from Deep Forest’s “Sweet Lullaby” instead of crediting Afunakwa, the Baegu people of Malaita, and the lullaby “Rorogwela.” Concerns about cultural appropriation in entertainment reflect the ways in which Otherness is represented and negotiated by majority and minority groups in a society. Richard Rogers’ (2006) four conditions of cultural appropriation emphasize that contestations include calls for visibility and equality by historically marginalized groups. Transcultural appropriation furthermore highlights the difficulty of laying claim to authenticity when cultural (re)production is globalized and digitalized. Next, using the K-pop industry and the production of culture perspective we examine how social media contributes to changes in the Korean K-pop industry, K-pop consumption, and K-pop fandom, and intensifies concerns about K-pop and transculturation, specifically related to the US hip-hop music genre.

The Production of Culture in the Social Media Age The production of culture perspective (Peterson 1976, 1990; Coser 1978; Crane 1992; Peterson and Annan 2014) describes how the symbolic elements of culture are shaped by the industries—such as the sciences (Ellul 1964), education (Bourdieu 1967), non-Western (Kim 2018; Kim 2019) and Western pop music (Hirsh 1972; Peterson and Berger 1975; Ryan 1985; Peterson 1990; Hesmondhalgh 1998), the arts (DiMaggio and Hirsch 1976; Griswold 1981; Becker 1982; Zolberg 1990), news-making (Gans 1979; Tuchman 1978; Molotch et al. 1974; Fishman 1980; Gitlin 1983), non-Western celebrity (Leung et al. 2017; Jin and Lee 2019) and Western celebrity cultures (Rojek 2001, 2012; Sternheimer 2015), or fashion (Kawamura 2004; Crane 2000)—in which they are “created, distributed, evaluated, taught, and preserved” (Peterson and Anand 2014: 311). In Chapter 1, we discussed how Frankfurt School sociologists believed that culture and social structure are manifestations of one another: culture industries produce mass culture to boost the wealth and power of the elites. Because culture is social

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structural and mass culture produced by elite-owned industries, cultural change was perceived as a macro-level and gradual process. The production of culture paradigm differs from the Frankfurt School perspective in three important ways: (1) it emphasizes the characteristics of culture producing industries over the symbolic interpretation of culture (Grindstaff 2008: 208); (2) it treats culture as situational rather than fixed; and (3) it believes that developments in any of the six facets of the cultural production process (Peterson and Anand 2004)— technology, law and regulation, industry structure, organizational form, careers, and market—can lead to swift changes in the production, distribution, and consumption of culture products. Peterson and Anand (2004: 314) suggest that changes in the cultural production nexus not only lead to changes but “profoundly destabilize and create new opportunities in [the production, distribution, and consumption of] art and culture.” The six-facet model of the production nexus can provide insight into the intensification and globalization of debates about cultural commodification and appropriation among consumers of pop music and television culture in recent years.

The Production of Culture and the K-pop Industry In Chapter 3, we addressed social media users’ willingness to call out politically incorrect and socially and culturally unacceptable or offensive behaviors in the fashion industry. We argued that the reason they are willing to do so is because they possess the technological means. In the field of entertainment, social media similarly is a platform where symbolic boundaries of “the acceptable” and “the unacceptable” are drawn and redrawn. Reflecting on culture production at the start of the digital age, sociologists Eric Klinenberg and Claudio Benzercry (2005: 15) observe that “culture fields, and the economic, creative, and organizational forces that constitute them determine the uses of new technologies just as much as new technologies shape cultural objects.” A closer examination of the impact of digital technology—specifically the use of social media in the K-pop industry— demonstrates how advances in technology changes consumers’ willingness to engage in collective action. The transnational distribution and consumption of K-pop as one of the thriving forces behind hallyu 2.0 is integrated into a social media-driven cultural

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landscape (Jin 2018, 2016; Jin and Yoon: 2014). The K-pop entertainment industry integrated itself with Korea’s digitally hyperconnected society—fast and widespread Internet availability, high 4G LTE penetration, pervasive smartphone ownership, and all-around social networking services usage. Korea’s entertainment industry took on its current form after 1987—around the same time it laid the foundation for its renowned digital infrastructure. Until the nation’s democratization drive of 1987, mass media were restricted by governmental censorship. Journalism scholar Hun Shik Kim (2003: 345) states that President Roh Tae-woo’s (1988–93) liberalization drive initiative “paved the way for a significant expansion of the mass media industry, thus occasioning greater commercial competition, unprecedented under the rule of the authoritarian governments of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan.” Starting with the Presidency of Kim Young-sam (1993–8), Korea’s creative industries and popular culture were considered pillars of future growth for the economy. Because the nation’s entertainment culture was still young and not fixed in traditions, it was easier for the K-pop entertainment industry to adapt to and incorporate developments in new media technologies and cater to a global market in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (Leung et al. 2017). Social media became an important K-pop distribution channel, fundamental in marketing the K-pop idol celebrity construct and made K-pop fandom the K-pop entertainment industry’s most valuable capital. Entertainment companies—such as SM, JYP, Big Hit, YG, Mystic, FNC, and Star Empire—incorporated social media in their business models and used social media channels to engage with global K-pop fandoms and stimulate global consumer interest in their K-products (Jin and Lee 2019: 28).

K-pop and Social Mediascapes Social media platforms have become essential to the K-pop group’s chart success: online downloads of ringtones or songs, online popularity votes, or Vevo and YouTube music video views contribute toward chart rankings and trophy victories on television music shows such as The Show (SBS MTV), Show Champion (MBC Music Channel), M Countdown (Mnet), Music Bank (KBS), Music Core (MBC), and Inkigayo (SBS). When a group is set to make a

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comeback, global K-pop fandoms undertake collective action to generate social media “buzz”—defined by digital viewing and trending data collected from platforms such as YouTube, Vevo, Twitter, Weibo, or YinYueTai—in order for their release to top international charts, Korea’s Gaon charts, or to achieve an “all-kill” and top the daily and real-time charts of Melon, Genie, FLO, VIBE, Bugs, Soribada, and iChart. By making global K-pop fandoms simultaneously consumers and integral to K-pop marketing strategies—co-investors in the K-pop product—fandoms have become important financial and marketing capital to the K-pop entertainment industry. Media studies scholar Dal Yong Jin and documentarist and journalist Hark Joon Lee (2020: 27–8) argue that social media is one of the main contributors to the K-pop entertainment industries’ rapid global development. Jin and Lee note that “K-pop entertainment agencies and musicians deliberately utilize social media platforms to penetrate the global music markets. Several social media, in particular YouTube make it easier for K-pop musicians to reach a wider audience in the global music markets.”

Social Media and the Manufactured K-pop Idol In addition to globalizing K-pop consumption, social media has lowered the imaginary barrier that exists between the K-pop idol and their fans. This barrier is imagined because it is widely acknowledged within the K-pop entertainment industry that the K-pop idol is a commodity, manufactured through a celebrity-making mechanism process of what Leung et al. (2017: 47) refer to as “market fulfilment approach” (Fuhr 2016; Kang 2017; Kim 2018; Kim 2019; Jin and Lee 2019). The market fulfillment approach is documented in Dal Yong Jin and Hark-Joon Lee’s (2019) ethnographic study K-Pop Idols: Popular Culture and the Emergence of the Korean Music Industry. The study documents former idol group 9MUSES’s preparations for their debut stage performance of “No Playboy” on the Music Show M Countdown in 2010. Co-author Lee also directed a 2012 documentary—“Nine Muses of Star Empire”—about the idol group’s trainee period. Jin and Lee’s study supports Leung et al.’s “market fulfilment approach” argument and illustrates the process of selection (through auditions), training (to acquire the necessary traits),

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and fulfillment (substitution or adjustment based on market demands) of the idol product. The K-pop trainee system—popularized in the industry by SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man—is an adaptation of the Japanese idol trainee system, which was created by Johnny Kitagawa. Kitagawa founded the all-male J-pop idol agency Johnny & Associates, Inc. in 1962 and was responsible for perfecting a system for producing J-pop idols that awarded him three Guinness World Records titles: the most number 1 acts produced by an individual (2012), the most number 1 singles produced by an individual (2012), and the most number of concerts produced by an individual (2010). Johnny & Associates, Inc. has been foundational to the K-pop industry’s “rookies” trainee format as established through the “Johnny’s Jr.” concept. Johnny’s Jr. consists of boys who are recruited through auditions and live together in dormitories. Johnny & Associates, Inc. uses a pre-debut multi-media exposure strategy to determine which of Johnny’s Jr. debut with a group or as a solo artist. They receive training in dancing, singing, acrobatics, and acting and—to gain industry experience and media exposure—Jr. may dance or sing back-up for established Johnny’s artists or are featured on NHK’s Music Variety Show “Shõnen Club.” With pre-debut exposure establishing emotional attachment among audiences—akin to the “pre-debut” reality show format used in the K-pop industry—the most popular Jr. eventually debuts to a relative assurance of success. In recent years, idol survival reality shows such as “Produce 101 Season 1” (2016), “Produce 101 Season 2” (2017), “Produce 48” (2018), “Produce X 101” (2019), “The Unit” (2017–18), and “I-Land” (2020) have added a façade of authenticity to the idol construction process in the form of audience participation. However, on December 4, 2019, ABC News reported that producers of “Produce 101” had been indicted on allegations of business obstruction and fraud by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, suggesting that even in survival reality shows, the manufacturing of idols is an ongoing process.

The K-pop Idol and Microcelebrity The term “microcelebrity” first appeared in performance studies scholar Theresa Senft’s (2008) Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks—an

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ethnographic study of women’s identity, community, and celebrity formation through webcam performances. The allure of microcelebrity is the relatively simple fabrication of familiarity, intimacy, and authenticity through online staging of a public self: it requires access to social media, the Internet, smartphones, a laptop, and basic digital literacy skills (Marwick 2015; Van Krieken 2018; Baker and Rojek 2020). Because of its dependency on social media, microcelebrity is interactive, has the potential to reach an ever-expanding consumer base, and blurs the boundaries between “the production and consumption of celebrity” and between “audiences and performers” (Van Krieken 2018: 187). The use of social media by K-pop idols should be understood within the general context of celebrities turning to social media in the twenty-first century: a desire for visibility (Baker and Rojek 2020) and the aim “to create direct, unmediated relationships with fans, or at least the illusion of such” (Marwick 2015: 139). The illusion of unmediated relationships between fans and celebrities and the creation of “authenticity” is achieved through frequent interactions with audiences, revealing information about one’s personal live, and sharing digitally staged snapshots of “live as it happens”—uploading videos or selfies to social media such as Twitter, TikTok, Weverse, Instagram, or Weibo. On social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, celebrity and fans can “communicate” through Direct Messaging or by posting on messaging boards. These communicative opportunities turn parasocial interaction into the “potentially social and increase the emotional ties between celebrity and fan” (Marwick 2015: 139). Sociologists Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl (1956) coined the term “parasocial interaction” to refer to one-sided mediated relationships audiences develop with, for instance, television personalities, experiencing these relationships psychologically as if they were with close friends. Media studies scholar Alice Marwick’s (2015) observation of social media turning parasocial relations between fans and celebrities into expectations of something “potentially real” is important because of the manufactured nature of K-pop idol celebrity. The “idea” of K-pop idols reaching out to fans establishes an illusion of intimacy and familiarity; however, the major financial and time investments involved in the construction of idols (Jin and Lee 2019) make it unlikely that they will be allowed to independently manage their online performances of self.

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Social Media and Parasocial Interaction As we briefly discussed in the components of Thai “Boys’ Love” serials, the use of microcelebrity as an idol marketing strategy is a double-edged sword. The false sense of intimacy and normalcy created through microcelebrity may lower fandoms’ inhibitions when interacting with idols. Given social media’s effect on parasocial interaction (Marwick 2015), this can have a positive impact on dynamics between idols and their fans. This impact is exemplified in the events following the resignation of Lee Hoseok—better known as Wonho— from the K-pop group MONSTA X on October 31, 2019. Twenty-six-year-old Wonho left the group after allegations of teenage marijuana use emerged on social media. On October 31, 2019, the idol’s agency Starship Entertainment issued the following statement on Twitter: After a long discussion with MONSTA X’s member Wonho, we have agreed that it’s best to part ways amicably at this point. We greatly respect Wonho’s exciting things that are happening for MONSTA x now and what lies ahead in the future [the group signed with the US label Maverick in 2019 and was set to release an English language album in 2020]. We will continue to hold legal liability for malicious and distorted claims related to this matter. Collective action was taken by Monbebes—MONSTA X’s fandom—and other global K-pop fandoms using #FightForWonho and #ChangeForWonho, demanding that Starship Entertainment reinstate the singer’s group membership. The fandoms claimed that the drugs-use allegations were based on rumors and the agency failed to protect the idol’s reputation by prematurely accepting his resignation. On March 13, 2020, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency cleared the idol of drugs-use charges, and whilst Wonho did not rejoin MONSTA X, he did sign a contract with another agency as a solo artist. However, fan-based Net activism has successfully influenced K-pop industry decision-making in the past (Jung 2012). On June 10, 2011, SM Entertainment became the first Korean entertainment company to hold a joint concert in Western Europe, and tickets for the SMTown Live World Tour Concert in Paris sold out within minutes of their release. Hundreds of disappointed K-pop fans organized a flash mob event at the Pyramide du Louvre in Paris—through social media

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K-pop communities—hoping to persuade SM Entertainment to add a second concert date. The flash mob event was covered by Korean news media and SM Entertainment added a second concert date on June 11. The emergence of digital convergence technology and social media has provided Internet users and pop culture consumers with more opportunities to become proactive in the culture production process, leading to participatory culture and to participatory fandom (Jenkins and Shresthova 2012). Given the importance of social media in the K-pop industry, participatory fandom has taken on a significant position. This importance existed long before K-pop’s current global popularity. In the article “Fan activism, cyber vigilantism, and Othering mechanisms in K-pop fandom,” Sung Jung (2012) observes that “On the basis of the accumulated rules and customs within a strict power structure [of idol fandom], K-pop fans can collectively act in their star’s interests. Fans now hold enormous potential to influence the decision-making processes within the entertainment industries, and digital convergence technology explicitly drives this participatory fandom.” Jung identified three aspects of participatory K-pop fandom online in 2012: Net activism, cyber vigilantism (collective vigilantism or anti-fandom), and Othering mechanisms (through displays of a strong sense of nationalism expressed in K-pop). Net activism can be expressed through fund-raising or volunteering, but also reflects what Jung (2012) calls a “bottom-up participatory culture,” which she argues potentially could create a democratic entertainment industry environment. The type of bottom-up fan activism described in Net activism and “bottom-up participatory culture” is also referred to as “fancom”— short for “fan company,” which we discussed earlier in relation to the controversies involving Thai “Boys’ Love” actors Vachirawit Chivaaree, Perawat Sangpotirat, Thitipoom Techaapaikhun, and Atthaphan Phunsawat. Rather than passively worshipping idols, fans proactively manage, guide, and educate them if they feel this is warranted (Jung 2012).2 In the K-pop industry, fancom is reflected in international fandoms’ increasing willingness to address perceived culturally appropriative actions of idols. BTS’ J-hope was criticized for wearing “gel-twists” in the music video for the 2019 remake of the US East Coast hip-hop classic “Chicken Noodle Soup” with Becky G. In 2017, EXO’s Kai was criticized for wearing

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dreadlocks in the reggae-infused “Ko Ko Bop.” Jackson—a Hong-Kong-born member of GOT7—was similarly criticized for wearing dreadlocks in a 2017 advertisement for Pepsi China. He responded to his fans on Instagram: “But if you think this whole thing is disrespecting or mock [sic] a race, I’m really sorry but you are on the wrong page. I made this decision because I was too in love with the culture. No matter if it’s [sic] music wise, people, background or anything, and I truly respect it with my heart. It’s a complete misunderstanding.”

Cultural Hybridization and Cultural Appropriation We spent some time establishing a theoretical framework to understand debates about cultural appropriation in the social media age. The use of social media in the construction of K-pop idol celebrity is partially applicable to other culture industries in East and Southeast Asia. Based on size, audience, digital infrastructure, government policy, censorship law, and other social structural regulations, it is not possible to compare the entertainment industry in, for instance, Thailand with South Korea. Furthermore, although cultural proximity—the tendency of consumers to prefer media from one’s own culture or cultures similar to those of their own (Straubhaar 2003: 85)—can explain the pre-social media popularity of idol culture in East and Southeast Asia, it cannot explain the current popularity of K-pop in North and South America or Europe. Similarly, the global demand for J-pop or hip-hop cannot be assumed to be the same as for K-pop or Thai-pop. We explored hooks’ concept of the Other, the categories of cultural appropriation, the production of culture perspective, and the K-pop industry’s use of social media because these provide insight into the nature of global debates about cultural appropriation in the field of entertainment. While global contestations require individual contexts, they share universal characteristics such as roots in power inequalities and claims of cultural authenticity. In the final part of this chapter, we use the hip-hop and K-pop music genres to expose the complexity of identifying authenticity in transcultural appropriation.

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Hip-Hop as Genre or Global Movement There exists considerable debate around the nature of authenticity in the field of hip-hop studies—the degree to which hip-hop is seen as expressive of African American culture. One strand of thought locates the roots of hip-hop music and culture in heightened racial and class tensions because of the economic and social changes in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s (Forman 2002; Tickner 2008). African American studies scholar R. Scott Heath (2006: 846) summarizes this perspective as follows: What was initially developed as a mode of marginal expression, conceived as a countermeasure to the material social inequities of American postindustrialism, has, in the past several years, become perhaps the most prominent medium by which blackness is represented in the U.S. and by which blackness and Americanness are represented globally. The view expressed by R. Scott Heath and others connects the roots of hip-hop music to the lived experiences of African Americans in US society. However, as sociologist Raquel Rivera (2001: 235) points out, in the process it excises members of the Latinx community “from the hip-hop core on the basis of a racialized panethnicity.” African American studies scholars Marcyliena Morgan and Dionne Bennett identify hip-hop as a culture of the imagined hip-hop nation. Morgan and Bennett (2011: 177) suggest that global hip-hop emerged as a culture that encourages and integrates innovative practices of artistic expression, knowledge production, social identification, and political mobilization. In these respects, it transcends and contests conventional constructions of identity, race, nation, community, aesthetics, and knowledge production, social identification, and political mobilization. The global hip-hop perspective acknowledges the genre’s roots in African American culture, but additionally treats hip-hop as a global cultural movement. It studies how US hip-hop—of which music is just one element— has been reinvested with meaning across different cultures (Mitchell 2001). Asian American and African American studies scholar Nitasha Tamar Sharma’s (2010) Hip Hop Desis, for instances, explores how South Asian Americans appropriate hip-hop culture and rap music to connect with African Americans

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as racialized minorities in American society while simultaneously negotiating their diasporic identities as “Desis.” Media studies scholar Fabienne DarlingWolf (2015: 82) emphasizes the importance of a glocal framework when analyzing global hip-hop, as its “significance cannot be fully captured with a lens too broadly fitted to its global dimensions or too narrowly focused on its localized incarnations.” Darling-Wolf (2015: 82) adds that due to “the politics of representation permeating hip-hop’s discourse,” scholars are unable “to clearly articulate the multiple ways in which the global and the local are mutually constitutive elements of hip-hop’s (trans)cultural influence.” A passing overview of global hip-hop studies supports Darling-Wolf ’s argument: hip-hop culture resonates globally for a variety of reasons—leading to different cultural reproductions and, therefore, requiring glocal frameworks of analysis.3 The need for glocal analytical frameworks brings us to one of the most proposed concepts in hip-hop studies: cultural hybridity.

Non-Western Groups Appropriation Western Minority Culture The question at the center of debates on cultural appropriation and hip-hop in K-pop music is: Who can perform hip-hop? If hip-hop is an expression of African American culture and authenticity is related to racial origin, then claims of cultural appropriation are easier to substantiate and less ambiguous. The idea of hip-hop as a global cultural movement turns cultural appropriation debates more contentious, as the core of the argument rests on a group’s motivations behind cultural blending. The use of hip-hop by African students in Kharkiv (Helbig 2011) or Turkish Germans (Brown 2006), for instance, could be perceived differently from the use of hip-hop in Trap EDM due to the perceived lack of identity politics involved in the latter (even though Trap EDM is similarly rooted in hip-hop). Yet if hip-hop is inherently a hybrid music form akin to K-pop, then accusations of cultural appropriation— depending on who they are issued by—can be viewed as a means to maintain Western hegemony in the global pop music industry. In hip-hop studies literature, there exists consensus on the music form’s transnational African roots, ranging from the West African griot tradition

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(Bollig 2002) to Jamaica’s sound system culture (Tickner 2008). Culture studies scholar Richard Zumkhawala-Cook (2008: 311) observes that hip-hop “has long been involved in the polyphonic borrowing and reinscription of transnational African traditions, from Brazil to the Congo, to acknowledge diasporic sources of counterhegemonic racial identity.” One of these diasporic sources has been the United Kingdom’s British Asian music community— especially since 2001 when Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” (2001), Truth Hurts’ “Addictive” (2002), Erick Sermon “React” (2002), and Panjabi MC’s “Beware of the Boy” featuring Jay-Z (2003) found mainstream popularity in the US charts. Ethnomusicologist Sarah Hankins (2011: 194) notes that Crunk—a hip-hop subgenre that gained mainstream success during the mid-2000s— regularly integrated. Bollywoodesque violin stabs and swells, tabla (a pair of twin hand drums from the Indian sub-continent) fills over heavy low end, and, most distinctively, an array of synthesizers that evoke in texture and mode the Indian instrumental samples used elsewhere in hip-hop. Hankins (2011) suggests that hip-hop’s turn to bhangra and Bollywood sampling in the early twentieth century is another instance of the music form’s foundation in innovative sampling and its inherent cultural hybridity. Hip-hop’s global reach is further illustrated by its foundational contributions to the British South Asian post-bhangra scene— similar to the role of hip-hop in South Asian American’s diasporic racial and ethnic identity formation discussed by Nitasha Tamar Sharma (2010) in Hip Hop Desis. Bhangra influenced the hip-hop genre via the United Kingdom and not the Punjab region in northwestern India and northeastern Pakistan. Bhangra—a folk dance and music associated with the Vaisakhi festival in the Punjab region—was first brought to the United Kingdom by Punjabi immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s, where it was mostly performed to construct an imagined “South Asianness.” Next-generation British South Asians such as Panjabi MC turned to bhangra as a space of cultural and political resistance in the late 1980s and 1990s. Once digital sampling and remixing technology became available, they fused traditional bhangra with hip-hop, reggae, and electronica to create a hybrid music style that represented their British and South Asian cultural duality (Bakrania 2013: 4). Post-bhangra consisted of bhangramuffin (a blend

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of bhangra and reggae), Bollywood-remix (a blend of electronica music and Bollywood film music), acid-bhangra, and garage-bhangra (Hankins 2011). Post-bhangra musicians such as Fun^Da^Mental and Asian Dub Foundation identified with hip-hop because of its perceived association with blackness and in symbolic support of African Americans who—similar to British South Asians—faced racial discrimination on a daily basis (Taylor 2004: 219–44). The use of hybridity to explain music forms such as hip-hop or postbhangra raises an important question about cultural appropriation: Is the use of bhangra and Bollywood samples in Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” (2001), Truth Hurts’ “Addictive” (2002), and Erick Sermon “React” (2002), or of hip-hop in Panjabi MC’s “Beware of the Boy” featuring Jay-Z (2003) considered cultural appropriation? Missy Elliott thought that the samples producer Timbaland had collected during his travels to incorporate in “Get Ur Freak On” were “Japanese sound or Chinese, whatever—it’s hot. Let’s put a beat up under it” (as cited in Hankins 2001: 201). Truth Hurts’ “Addictive” features a sample of “Thoda Resham Lagta Hai” (1981) sung by renowned Bollywood playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and Erick Sermon’s “React” features samples of Asha Bhosle and Mohammad Rafi’s “Chandi Ka Badan” (1963). Panjabi MC’s “Beware of the Boys” combines the vocals and lyrics of Punjabi artist Labh Janjua, the baseline of Busta Rhymes’s “Fire it Up” (1997), a hook from the theme of the television serial “Knight Rider” (1982), and Jay-Z’s rap. In other words: How do we characterize cultural appropriation in global music genres that are inherently hybrid such as hip-hop, post-bhangra, or K-pop?

K-pop, Hip-Hop, and Transcultural Appropriation K-pop has been frequently subjected to criticisms of cultural borrowing, particularly involving African American musical and cultural aesthetics. Even though K-pop performers such as Clon, H.O.T., Fin.K.L., BoA, Rain, TVXQ, g.o.d., Sechs Kies, S.E.S., Shinhwa, and Seo Taiji and Boys enjoyed popularity in East Asia prior to 2012, the one song considered responsible for K-pop’s “global” or “Western” breakthrough is a satirical rap hit—Psy’s “Gangnam Style” (2012).4 American Studies scholar Crystal Anderson (2016: 291) suggests that K-pop is a transnational and hybridized music culture that “invites us to revise

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our definitions of authenticity.” Anderson connects the hybridized nature of K-pop to America’s military presence in the aftermath of the Korean War, which was accompanied by an influx of African American music and other Western pop cultural influences. It has to be noted, however, that the dominance of J-pop in East Asia toward the late twentieth century also had an impact on the formation of the K-pop music industry particularly after Korea officially lifted its prohibition on Japanese pop music and television programming in 1999 (Lie 2012: 349) (Figure 4.4). The first full radio and television network—American Forces Korea Network-TV (AFKN-TV)—was launched in Seoul in 1957 to provide American military personal stationed in Korea with US television and radio broadcasting services. AFKN-TV had a significant impact on the pop cultural flow from the US into South Korea—especially during the 1970s and 1980s— as it had a “shadow audience” of Koreans who longed for media alternatives

Figure 4.4 South Korean singer Park Jae-sang, also known as Psy, performs during a press conference in Seoul (photo by Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/GettyImages).

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during the repressive government regimes of Presidents Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan (Klein 2012: 19). US rock music moreover entered Korean society via military camptown bars and dance halls (Lie 2012: 343) which—as cultural studies scholar Hyunjoon Shin and sociologist Pil Ho Kim observe— turned the traditionally powerful symbols of American hegemony into incubators of a young counterculture movement (2014: 276). In addition to Anderson’s (2016, 2020) suggestion to revise definitions of authenticity in the context of the transnational and hybridized nature of K-pop and the Western influences on the genre, a further distinction needs to be made between “Korean hip-hop”—within the context of global hip-hop—and the use of hip-hop in the K-pop industry. Korean hip-hop culture started to fully develop after President Kim Yông-sam was inaugurated in 1993 and the relaxation of state censorship on popular music enabled artists to explore their creative freedom. Ethnomusicologist Hae-Kyung Um (2013: 53–4) explains that it was during this period that among the shinsedae generation—young, materialistic, and Western-oriented—different forms of Korean hip-hop emerged. The first genre of Korean hip-hop to emerge was “rap dance”—a pop-oriented hip-hop influenced by artists such as Seo Taiji and Boys, Deux, and Hyun Jin-young which became the K-pop industry format for groups such as H.O.T. and others in years to follow. Like South Korea’s introduction to Group Sound Rock (Shin and Kim 2014: 275–95), its first contact with hip-hop also came via the US military and dance clubs—such as the Moon Night where Seo Taiji and Boys, CLON, and Deux started their careers—close to the former United States Forces Korea headquarters in Yongsan Garrison. Vulture music critics T.K. Park and Youngdae Kim (2019) argue that the connection between Korean hip-hop and dance clubs is reflected not only in today’s mainstream K-pop—which standard includes rap elements or other forms of hip-hop cultural aesthetics—but also in the different types of hip-hop that appeared in the Korean music community (Um 2013). Rap dance caused a rift leading to the emergence of transnational Korean hip-hop—which more closely aligned with the American original— and local or national Korean hip-hop. Rappers with transnational connections— such as Drunken Tiger’s DJ Shine and Tiger JK—introduced US hip-hop aesthetics such as urban wear, sampling, lyrics-focused rap, and breaking into

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Korean hip-hop culture. The local rap genre developed on the Internet and is considered Korea’s first underground hip-hop community (Park and Kim 2019). Moving away from rap dance and transnational Korean hip-hop, underground artists such as Garion’s MC Meta and Nach’al and Verbal Jint began a process of “reterritorialization” (Um 2013: 61)—glocalization or indigenization—by redefining Korean hip-hop’s authenticity and including Korean linguistic and musical cultural elements (Park and Kim 2019). While not all K-pop music is hip-hop, many of Korea’s leading K-pop entertainment agencies have roots in the early rap dance genre—for instance, YG was founded by Seo Taiji and Boys member Yang Hyun-suk, and Hyun Jin-young released his first album—New Dance 1—with SM Entertainment. As part of K-pop’s hybridization, rap dance as “American soundscape” (Jin 2016: 113) is one of its global elements—in addition to its incorporation of other global music genres such as electronica, R&B, reggae, and J-pop. Other hybridizing elements are: the K-pop industry’s use of non-Korean songwriters, producers and choreographers; the recruitment of non-Korean trainees from East Asia; its appropriation of the Japanese-style trainee system; the incorporation of Western visual aesthetics in music videos; and the mixing of English and Korean lyrics.

Who is the Other in K-pop? Fashion styles and accessories for which K-pop idols once upon a time were criticized are now influencing the styles of idols in other countries. The colorful visuals, hip-hop-inspired dance moves (choreographed US duo Nappytabs), and eclectic music style—which includes drum and bass and electropop—in Girls’ Generation’s “I got a Boy” (2013) music video were copied by Thailand’s Candy Mafia in their music video “Cliché” (2013). In 2019, the K-pop community was in uproar when British producer Simon Cowell announced he wanted to create “UK-Pop” to rival the success of K-pop groups such as BTS, EXO, and BLACKPINK—to reproduce K-pop but without South Koreans. On April 29, 2020, KAACHI—the United Kingdom’s first K-pop group consisting of Korean, Spanish, and British members—debuted with the music video “Your Turn” in which they fused European pop, K-pop, and hip-hop genres. Lastly,

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5High—India’s first all-girl K-pop group—introduced themselves with a music video cover of Dreamcatcher’s “Piri” in May 2020. These examples raise questions about cultural authenticity and the Other when K-pop—already a cultural hybrid product—is reproduced or culturally appropriated. In 2016, Dal Yong Jin (2016: 128) observed “contemporary K-pop is struggling in making an authentic local culture through the hybridization process, regardless of burgeoning attempts to make a hybrid popular culture.” hooks argues that part of the process of Othering is erasing any confrontational elements of the commodified product so that the majority group can consume the Other without having to take on and experience their potential subversive position. If K-pop is struggling to create an authentic local culture, can the K-pop industry challenge attempts of cultural appropriation—particularly since it has origins in cultural hybridization to begin with?

Conclusion On August 21, 2020, K-pop supergroup BTS released the English language music video “Dynamite,” which on August 31, 2020 became the first K-pop song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number 1. The song was co-written by British duo David Stewart and Jessica Agombar and produced by David Stewart. “Dynamite” is a cheerful nineties-inspired retro-disco song, an energy which is reflected in the video’s nostalgic pastel-colored retro throwbacks to a record shop, am ice-cream truck, a diner, and a basketball court. Is BTS’ “Dynamite”—or its 2021 follow-up “Butter,” a disco-pop, EDM, and dance-pop influenced track co-written and co-produced by Jenna Andrews, Alex Bilowitz, Sebastian Garcia, Robert Grimaldi, Ron Perry, and Stephen Kirk—cultural appropriation? Is BTS—a K-pop group—by way of Western songwriters and producers appropriating African American, lgbtqia2s+, and Latinx cultures since it was in these New York City’s ethnic communities that a disco counterculture originated in the late 1960s and 1970s (Hubbs 2007: 232)? In this chapter, we used hooks’ essay “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” (1992: 21–39) to understand the importance of historical power inequalities in Othering—processes of cultural commodification and appropriation. We used

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Richard Rogers’ (2006) categories of cultural appropriation to gain insight into the different conditions under which appropriation take place, particularly the exploitation of culture in global environments. Lastly, we built on Richard Peterson and N. Anand’s (2004) production of culture model to demonstrate how social media complicates claims of authenticity and facilitates contestations about cultural appropriation in the K-pop industry. All these discussions help us answer the question: Is BTS “Dynamite” cultural appropriation? We have also shown that transcultural appropriation complicates the territorialization of culture. Women studies scholar Nadine Hubbs (2007: 231–44) reflects, for instance, “First, I regard disco as a musical, social, and cultural space with critical African-American, Latino/a, and variously queer involvements. . . Historical accounts locate disco’s origins in Manhattan clubs whose clientele were African American and Latino, and gay.” Since then, disco has been appropriated and re-appropriated numerous times leading to music genres such as euro disco, dance-pop, electro, house, Eurodance, techno, trance, nu-disco, deep house, and recently BTS’s “Dynamite.” One could argue that disco has become mainstream and, therefore, no longer is considered the creative expression of one minority group’s culture. The essence of cultural exploitation or cultural appropriation rests in a majority culture or majority group misusing the culture of a marginalized group. Disco in its current form is no longer identifiable is as the product of one group’s creative expression, let alone of that of a minority group. The use of culture as local or transglobal costume—whether ethnic, racial, sexual, religious, or in any other form—in entertainment continues to be a frequently occurring reality. This suggests that culture continues to be used in offensive and exploitative manners in the field of entertainment and that for marginalized groups in Western and non-Western societies, claims of cultural authenticity remain one of the few tools at their disposal to make their voice heard.

Further Discussion Examples ●

The impact of globalization on the authenticity of hybrid music genres such as post-bhangra, EDM, hip-hop, and K-pop. Do these genres lose their authenticity all together?

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The cultural appropriation and commodification of gender in the entertainment industry. Is this possible, and if so, what would this look like?

Suggested Further Reading Crystal S. Anderson, 2020. Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop. Lauren Michele Jackson, 2019. White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue . . . and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation. Tamara L. Brown and Baruti N. Kopano (eds), 2014. Soul Thieves: The Appropriation and Misrepresentation of African American Popular Culture.

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5 Ambivalence and Paradox YUNIYA KAWAMURA

Objectives: ●

To place the cultural appropriation debate within a larger theoretical framework of globalization.

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To explore cross-cultural encounters in a historical context.

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To learn the paradoxical nature of globalization in reference to cultural borrowing and appropriation.

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To examine globalization as a source of deterritorialization and reterritorialization.

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To recognize culture as epistemological relativism.

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To address ambivalence in fashion globalization.

A plethora of case studies and accounts on cultural appropriation and misappropriation were provided in the previous chapters. The latent and implicit factors in the general issues of cultural appropriation in any field are found in a broader theoretical framework of globalization which continues to be a critical subject area to focus, analyze, and theorize. It is also a contested topic within the field of social sciences through its various meanings and perspectives. Globalization basically has three dimensions: economic, political, and cultural. Cultural globalization ideally fosters cultural exchange, assimilation, and acculturation, but if the world was going through the process successfully, we would not need to write a book on the negative aspects of 149

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cultural borrowing and transmission that offend large groups of people who have been historically oppressed and marginalized. In this chapter, an ambivalent and paradoxical nature of cultural globalization is explored with its merits and demerits in reference to cultural borrowing and cultural flow. Cultural appropriation and misappropriation cause symbolic and psychological territory invasions which occurred as a result of a heterogeneous and hierarchical society, since it has become easier for anyone to “borrow” cultures that are not their own. At a time when it was difficult for people to travel far due to the limited means of transportation, their territories were more or less confined, fixed, and also secure. Once the trains, steam engines, and planes were invented and developed, and people became more mobile, they were able to transcend or expand their territories that were constantly shifting and becoming flexible, and as a result, the original territorial spaces were deterritorialized and further reterritoriazlied. Having access to the outside world is no longer the privilege of the rich in today’s globalized world as it used to be, and any communication and reference to a foreign culture is a democratic one, and it is no longer the exclusive right of the selected few. Therefore, cultural appropriation or excessive cultural borrowing, whether it is offensive or not offensive, is an unexpected outcome of globalization and a multicultural, heterogeneous society. Globalization, which began in the 1970s with the start of decolonization, has led to transnational capital, international trade and business transactions, manufacturing networks, and human interpersonal connections. The world is divided into national territories, and those territories are again subdivided into numerous cultural territories and spaces, and deterritorialization and reterritorialization—the well-known terms drawn from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (2009 [1972], 2009 [1980])—can occur geographically and physically in a literal sense as evidenced in the immigration flow, but also happen in an intangible, symbolic sense as in cultural transmission through global media. We are urged, therefore, to investigate further the precise meaning of globalization, modernization, deterritorialization, reterritorialization, and other relevant terms that are useful in further understanding cultural appropriation issues and searching better compromises and solutions. Deterritorialization has often been associated with globalization, since globalization deterritorializes

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cultural boundaries and reterritorialize them. In the discussion of culture, deterritorialization refers to the boundary weakening between places and spaces. Humans create boundaries, groups, categories, and classifications to confirm and reconfirm where or which side they belong to. If each country were socially and politically isolated and confined among themselves, we would not worry about cultural appropriation, but we live in a society where people are mobile and move from one region to the next, from one nation to the next, through which cultural transmission occurs. Local people frequently encounter others from different cultures with different values, norms, traditions, dress, food, and customs, and globalization transforms the relation between the places we live and our cultural activities, experiences, and identities (Hernandez 2006: 92). Human beings are instinctively and historically territorial, and they want to know where they physically and emotionally fit in or should fit in while making sure that they are not interfering or intervening into other people’s geographical and symbolic territories. Metaphorically speaking, going into someone else’s space often requires permission. People migrate, and there is the population deterritorialization in addition to cultural deterritorialization. Negative responses against cultural borrowing were an unintended consequence of cultural globalization where cultures were supposed to coexist in harmony and unison. What is unclear is whether each culture could/should remain as is, or whether they have altered their originality, compromised their authenticity, and assimilated into the host culture. However, if people become too protective of their culture, they become nationalistic, and nationalism is an antithesis of globalization, and it has no place in globalization because national boundaries no longer serve the interests of finance capital or corporations. It also supports protectionism, and protectionism denies developing societies income-generating opportunities, contributes to global inequalities and political instability, and deepens the impact of recessions globally (Robertson 2014 [1992]: 793–4). As people move, they take their culture with them in order to preserve them in a foreign land, such as their food, language, religious beliefs, dress, and so on. How one can compromise or negotiate the two—cultural preservation and globalization—is a continuous and complex concern for the world. Societies that defined themselves as exclusively homogenous are now diverse, and everyone must learn to cope with differences.

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Cross-cultural Encounters in a Historical Context As indicated earlier, Western cultures have historically been influenced and inspired by the non-Western cultural traditions, artifacts, beliefs, and lifestyle, as early as the eighteenth century, especially in the field of the arts, but there is hardly any historical evidence that treated them as an act of theft or malicious stealing; on the contrary, it was an act of appreciation of and a respect for a foreign culture that only a few had visited. For example, a strong cultural connection between East Asia and eighteenthcentury British literature is evidenced in academic research. Eugenia ZuroskiJenkins in her A Taste for China: English Subjectivity and Prehistory of Orientalism (2013) explains how England was mesmerized and obsessed with Chinese cultural objects in the eighteenth century and how chinoiserie helped shape English identity through literature and material culture. Adventure fiction and satirical poetry, such as that by Defoe, Pope, and Swift, referred to chinoiserie to construct, question, and reimagine the relationship between English people and Chinese artifacts (Zuroski-Jenkins 2013). But in the second half of the eighteenth century, English began to separate themselves from Chinese objects, and passion for chinoiserie began to decline and ultimately disappeared at the end of the century. Similarly, according to Chi-ming Yang in her Performing China: Virtue, Commerce, and Orientalism in 18th Century England (2011), China was a superpower in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was considered the greatest empire. It had a big impact on English ideas and values shaped by the trade with the East Indies. Based on the literature, drama, philosophy, and material culture of the period as evidence, Chi-ming Yang discusses the ways in which English understandings of Eastern values transformed their morals. Similarly, Japonisme was also a movement that became popular in France in the nineteenth century, and it influenced European taste of that period. Japan opened its doors to the West in 1858 after 250 years of political, social, and economic isolation from the rest of the world. In addition to ceramics, metalwork, and lacquerware that were unique to Japan, Japanese woodblock prints became a source of creative inspiration to many of the famous European artists and painters, and they were brought to the West initially by the Dutch

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merchants. Elizabeth Emery in her Reframing Japonisme: Women and the Asian Art Market in 19th century France (2020) discussed the role of French women in promoting Japanese art and culture who are often forgotten in the study of Japonisme. Her work pays attention to women such as Clémence d’Ennery (1823–1898), who purchased objects from the Far East and began collecting Japanese and Chinese chimeras in the 1840s, built and decorated a house for them in the 1870s, and eventually bequeathed it to the state as a free public museum at the end of the century. Other wealthy women who traveled to Japan, such as salon hostesses, art dealers, writers, and actresses who actively collected Japanese art, had connections with auction houses and art dealers, and many of the historical artifacts are now stored at major museums around the world, such as the Louvre, the Musée Guimet, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The popularity of Japonisme also spread to Britain. Ayako Ono in her Japonisme in Britain (2006) explores Japanese influence on four artists who were in Britain: the American James McNeill Whistler, the Australian Mortimer Menpes, and the Scottish painters, George Henry and Edward Atkinson Hornel. She examined how these Western artists were influenced and inspired by Japanese art and techniques. Robert Markley’s study on The Far East and the English Imagination 1600–1730, China, Japan and the Spice Island (2006) examined how the European markets sold spices and luxury wares brought back from the East in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Japonisme influenced not only art but also literature. Pamela Genova in her Writing Japonisme: Aesthetic Translation in Nineteenth Century French Prose (2020) explored how nineteenthcentury French prose was influenced by the aesthetic traditions of Japanese culture. These cross-cultural and transnational exchanges, encounters, and movements occurred centuries prior to globalization when traveling was still the privilege of the wealthy, and therefore, anything that was foreign and mysterious attracted the interests of the upper class. Artifacts and experiences that could not be attained easily elevated their value and status. Many of these phenomena in history would be under scrutiny and accused of appropriation today, in our more culturally and socially sensitive world. For example, in 2015 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts displayed Claude Monet’s painting titled “La

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Japonaise” (1876) which depicts his wife Camille in a bright red Japanese kimono with a blonde wig and holding a Japanese fan. The visitors were encouraged to try on the exact same kimono made as a replica and take photos in front of the painting. The museum’s intention was “to give visitors a ‘tactile experience’ with the kimonos made in Japan ‘to understand and experience the painting in a new way’.” However, on the first night of the event, a couple of protesters showed up holding up a sign which said: “Try on the kimono, learn what it’s like to be a racist imperialist!” As the protest grew, the museum’s Facebook page was filled with harsh criticisms and accusations of racism and racial discrimination. Wearing an ethnic dress purely for entertainment is considered politically incorrect and culturally offensive because many of the immigrants were ridiculed for wearing their ethnic dress. Similarly, when a Utah high school student wore a vintage Chinese dress known as qipao or cheongsam to her prom and posted pictures of herself on Twitter in 2018, a Chinese-American student reacted with a harsh response: “My culture is not your Goddam prom dress . . . I’m proud of my culture, including the extreme barriers marginalized people within that culture have had to overcome those obstacles. For it to simply be subject to American consumerism and cater to a white audience is parallel to colonial ideology.” However, this opinion does not reflect the voice of all Chinese people in the world, especially those who were born, raised, and live in China. As indicated in this chapter, our views and perceptions are shaped and formed by our epistemological standpoint since culture is not absolute.

Globalization and Deterritorialization In his Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (2014 [1992]), Roland Robertson defines globalization as deterritorialization and reterritorialization which constitute both sides of the same coin. It is important to remember that the deterritorialization of localized cultural experience not as a deterioration of cultural interaction, but as a transformation produced by the impact of the growing cultural transnational connections have on the local realm (Hernandez 2006: 3). The concepts of globalization, deterritorialization,

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and reterritorialization overlap with one another and are all in one package which cannot be separated or disconnected since these are relational processes that are interrelated and intermeshed with one another. Therefore, there is the difficulty of discussing a single term in isolation from others, and scholars must trace the evolution of the notion of the term “deterritorialization” in reference to globalization (Holland 1991: 56). Gabriel Popescu defines “Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization” in the Encyclopedia of Geography (2010: 723–4) as follows: the processes of these two as spatial manifestations of contemporary changes are under way in the relationship between social life and its territorial moorings, and the two terms were originally employed in the 1970s in the work of French theorists Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, who are often associated with poststructuralism and postmodernism. Using insights from philosophy and psychoanalysis, they developed a sophisticated understanding of capitalism, power, and identity, which are locked in a fluid process of territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization of social structures and processes. These terms have subsequently been adopted by the social sciences and humanities, such as geography, anthropology, international relations, linguistics, and others. Deleuze and Guattari published Anti-Oedipus (2009 [1972]) and A Thousand Plateaus (2009 [1980]) in which the common theme was territorialization, and brought up deterritorialization and reterritorialization in abstract and symbolic ways. These are metaphors of oppositions between spaces, flows, and classifications of identities peculiar to states versus nomadic forms (Kearney 1995: 553). They pointed out that there is “relative deterritorialization,” which is always accompanied by reterritoriliazation, and “absolute deterritorialization”. However, in both forms of deterritorialization, the idea of territory as an original form remains an idea and reference point. They draw from Jacques Derrida’s idea on deconstruction and make an attempt to deconstruct binary oppositions. Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of deterritorialization involves a “double-becoming” where one deterritorialized element serves as a new territory for another deterritorialized element, and the least deterritorialized element reterritorializes on the most deterritorialized (Holland 1991: 59), and

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deterritorialization and reterritorialization exist simultaneously. When a cultural component is transported to another cultural space and is displaced from its local culture, in what form does/can it remain in a reterritorialized, new contextual space? Does reterritorialization erase and debunk cultural hierarchies? If not, what is a purpose of cultural globalization if cultural equalities are not achieved? Instead of the term “deterritorialization,” Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist in his The Consequences of Modernity (1996 [1991]), uses “distanciation” in reference to modernity which inevitably goes through the process of globalization; he explains that modernity is not possible without globalization, and vice versa, and they are directly correlated with each other. Modernity and globalization are inseparable. Modern people are distanced from each other, but familiar and local places are interconnected with distant forces as a result of globalization while combining the micro and the macro social dimensions through global media. People still preserve their local identity even if they are displaced in a distant land, and they continue to keep their cultural tradition, beliefs, and dress consciously or subconsciously. This is a hybrid of the local and the global. But whether a complete hybrid between two cultures is a realistic possibility or not demands further discussions. Similarly to Giddens, Mauro Guillén in The Limits of Convergence: Globalization and Organizational Change in Argentina, South Korea, and Spain (2010) wrote that globalization coincides with modernization which is an outgrowth of the Western world view. The author rejects a common idea that globalization has a positive outcome for economic convergence which also leads to cultural homogenization across national borders. Guillén argues that globality should be about a multiplicity of conceptions, not about cultural or paradigmatic hegemony; it is about the proliferation of cross-national network ties of an economic, political, social, and cultural nature (2010). According to Malcolm Waters, one of the positive aspects of globalization is that it offers more exposure to ethnic minorities and their cultures which are otherwise hidden or left invisible on the periphery (2013: 289–392): Globalization equally contributes to ethnic diversity. It pluralizes the world by recognizing the value of cultural niches and local abilities. Importantly, it weakens the nexus between nation and state releasing absorbed ethnic

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minorities and allowing the reconstitution of nations across former state boundaries. This is especially important in the context of states that are confederations of minorities. It can actually alter the mix of ethnic identities in any nation-state by virtue of the flow of economic migrants from relatively disadvantaged sectors of the globe to relatively advantaged ones. Previously homogeneous nation-states have, as a consequence, moved in the direction of multiculturalism. At the same time, immigration and migration result in reterritorialization of boundaries that are unfixed, unstable, and constantly changing. Frank J. Lecher and John Boli argue that globalization is the set of processes by which more people become connected in more and different ways across evergreater distances, and an academic definition of globalization equates it with “deterritorialization” which is the process through which the constraints of physical space lose their hold on social relations (2015: 5). The reterritorialized boundaries are newly established and secured spaces that are often symbolic and psychological, and these territories shift as people relocate to new places and are used as a tool to identify these people. Reterritorialization is equivalent to a new identity construction. In addition, Sudhir Kale and Natalina Zlatevska (2009) write that accelerated globalization has dramatically altered the ways in which people consume, work, gather information, play, and define their identity, and discourses on globalization often dismiss the impact of globalization on the identity of those affected. One of the key characteristics of globalization that leads to deterritorialization also results in reterritorialization, and deterritorialization potentially destabilizes people‘s identity. Individuals undertake activities and behaviors that help them “reterritorialize” and restore their sense of identity that begins to fade away with globalization. As a homogeneous nation becomes multicultural, are the ethnic minorities urged to assimilate into the host culture and remove their own ethnic identity? There is still a conflicting view as to how multiculturalism exists or can exist in practice. We need to expand discussions beyond economic and political globalizations, and bring in the cultural appropriation debate in relation to ethnic diversity in reference to dress, fashion, popular culture, entertainment,

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and the arts, among others. If globalization supposedly allows all peoples to mingle and coexist while removing and erasing any hierarchical power structures and inequalities, we would not see so many negative reactions against many of the images and practices in this book which clearly show that there is the reality of cultural hierarchy in people’s mind, and that is why the historically oppressed cultures raise their voice and express their objections against certain practices.

Immigration and Cultural Globalization Through Mediascapes The concept of culture refers to distinctive characteristics of peoples rooted in national territories, but today’s reality is slightly different as millions of people are living outside their birth countries and are scattered around the world as a result of wars, unemployment, and poverty, and many have no roots or new roots, and culture is increasingly deterritorialized (Kearney 1995: 557). According to the 2020 World Migration Report, there were 281 million international migrants in 2020, which accounts for 3.6 percent of the world’s population, and the United States and Germany are the top two destinations for migrants in 2020, followed by Saudi Arabia, the Russia Federation, and the UK. Most of the migrants to the US come from India followed by Mexico and China. Globalization has not only made national boundaries less relevant, but it has made their transcendence necessary (Robertson 2014 [1992]: 1), and the meaning of globalization includes cultural transmission as people immigrate to other places. In the discussion of cultural transmission, there are distinct theories for the interconnections between globalization and culture (Crane 2011; Hale 2014; Hernandez 2006; Nederveen Pieterse 2010). In the context of cultural globalization, deterritorialization is a cultural feature developed by the mediatization, migration, and commodification which characterize globalized modernity and that the concept of deterritorialization describes the essence of the condition of globalization, and is a central feature of globalization, and examines the signs of the deterritorialization of culture through globalization (Hernandez 2006).

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According to Diana Crane, a cultural sociologist, broadly speaking, there are two major theoretical frameworks on the effects of cultural globalization (2011: 2): 1 Cultural/Media Imperialism It refers to the imposition upon other countries of a particular nation’s beliefs, values, knowledge, behavioral norms, and lifestyle (Salwen 1991). This theory points out the gap in the structural mechanism and relationship between the powerful West and the powerless non-West. Media imperialism treats media as a source of hegemonic dominance to media conglomerates, based in a few western countries, that control production, program content and worldwide distribution in the television, film, music and publishing industries (Kellner 1999: 243). Both cultural imperialism and media imperialism keep reproducing homogeneous, hegemonic types of culture in which indigenous, or minority communities are forced to assimilate the attitudes and values of Western capitalist societies. Therefore, cultural/media imperialism results in homogenization which consists of the growing similarities across cultures and there is a weak barrier between cultures. As a result, there is more a global homogeneous culture instead of a heterogeneous cultural system. McDonaldization, Disneyfication, and Barbiefication are examples of this growing convergence and the development of a global homogeneous culture, making all cultures more or less the same (Ritzer 2010). 2 Cultural Hybridization This theory states that cultural globalization is accompanied by a desirable outcome, the hybridization of national cultures, which is defined as the ways in which forms become separated from existing practices and recombine with new forms in new practices (Nederveen Pieterse 2010: 64). Hybridity occurs through “global localization” in which a globally disseminated product is altered in order to fit the cultural outlook or tastes of people in a specific country or members of a specific ethnic group within a country (Iwabuchi 2003; Pieterse 2004; Robertson 2014 [1992]). Culture is treated as a hybrid social product,

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and hybridization combines differentialism and convergence by exhibiting an interconnection between the external and internal flows resulting in a new cultural hybrid, and hybridization is counter to the doctrines valuing racial purity and nationalist doctrines, and individuals who have been marginalized in society due to cultural differentialism are no longer marginalized and their culture is now incorporated into society; hybridization occurs at the surface level of the culture and not at the deeper individualized level (Nederveen Pieterse 2010). In a global, heterogeneous society, we investigate and become aware of the components which are homogenized or hybridized in cultural analysis. In the previous chapters, we have seen clearly that ethnic and religious minorities find the ways that their culture had been borrowed extremely offensive and insulting. While cultural components such as food, fashion, arts, and entertainments are seemingly hybridized on the surface, other cultural elements, such as attitudes and values remain unchanged and not open to hybridization. Cultures can combine old traditions with modern-day elements (Nederveen Pieterse 2010), but the central problem of today’s global interactions is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization (Appadurai 1990: 1). This means that both of the above processes are occurring almost simultaneously, and they cause a cultural conflict, chaos and struggle. In his essay “Disjuncture and Difference” (1990), Arjun Appadurai explains that deterritorialization, which is caused by globalization, is one of the most important themes in modern societies while exploring the deterritorialized population of certain countries, and that cultural distancing from the locality is intensified when people are able to expand and alter their imagination through the mediatization of alien cultural conditions, making the culture of remote origin one of a familiar material. He continues to argue that it is difficult for a local entity to sustain and retain its own local cultural identity, which also affects the national identity of the region, and that could jeopardize its identity, and cultural globalization creates new markets for film companies, art impressions, and travel agencies, which thrive on the deterritorialized population for contact with its homeland, and these invented homelands, which constitute the

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mediascapes of deterritorialized groups, can often become sufficiently fantastic and one-sided, and they provide the material for new ideoscapes in which ethnic conflicts can begin to erupt (Appadurai 1990: 11–12). According to Appadurai, global spaces contain current five dimensions of cultural flow: ethnoscapes, technoscapes, finascapes, mediascapes, and ideoscapes. Ethnoscapes refer to the movement of people, such as tourists, immigrants, and refugees, and there is no such a thing as a single, pure, ethnic community in the globalized world (1990: 9). Technoscapes discusses cultural transmission through technology, especially the Internet, which results in various forms of cultural interactions and exchanges, and mediatization and migration accelerated the process of deterritorialization along with cultural globalization. The speed and amount of cultural flow is established by social media, which connects people around the world. They are far apart geographically but close virtually. Mediascapes refer to the electronic capabilities of production and dissemination of information through media, and ideoscapes are the global flow of ideologies; these two have a close relationship as they usually work upon the reliance of the other scape. Ideas can be disseminated via media platforms. Financescapes, which refers to economic globalization, is about the global movement of money, including currency, trade, and commodity, which leads to competition amongst corporations. Many of these dimensions of cultural flow proposed by Appadurai overlap virtually. Everything occurs online while constructing and producing virtual communities, identities, and information access made possible by the Internet. Everything moves beyond a specific space and territory at a rapid pace while expanding the cultural horizons through the media. Social relations are deterritorialized and relocated along with ideological values as globalization continues and intensifies. Media is undoubtedly a source of deterritorialization and cultural transmission, and culture is diffused and disseminated rapidly due to the development of global media in the past few decades. It gives a voice to those who had limited means to express their opinions. Mediascapes bring diasporas to the forefront, and express their views to the world, and mass media is the cause and effect of globalization and deterritorialization. As John Tomlinson points out in his Globalization and Culture (1999), mediatization is absolutely omnipresent in everyday contemporary cultural experiences, and it therefore appears as clearly decisive in deterritorialized cultural experience and that

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globalization transforms the relation between the places where we live and our cultural activities, experiences, and identities. Furthermore, Lori Hale makes a provocative statement about cultural globalization and argues that cultural transmission includes the transmission of racial bias, stereotypes, and prejudice, particularly through the use of media. The offensive images of cultural appropriation reproduce racial stereotypes and are definitely one of the negative consequences of globalization and mediatization. Globalization should be examined within all forms of transmission, racial bias in particular (Hale 2014). The world cannot escape from the concept of “the developed core and de-developed or underdeveloped periphery” (Kearney 1995: 554) which may have been reinforced by globalization instead of erasing the concept. This became more apparent in the creative fields, as indicated in the previous chapters. Instead of “hybridization,” Robertson suggests a concept of “glocalization” which meshes globalization and localization, and explains that deterritorialization speaks of the loss of the “natural” relation between culture and the social and geographic territories, and describes a deep transformation of the link between our everyday cultural experiences and our configuration as preferably local beings (2014 [1992]). His idea on the universalization of particularism and the particularization of universalism has been applied to many areas including the creative industry. For example, Anneke Smelik, a Dutch scholar, in her article, Fashion Matters: The “Glocal” Mix of Dutch Fashion (2019), provides a new materialist approach and shows how Dutch fashion designers, such as Viktor and Rolf, use global fashion by reusing local material crafts and putting in an immaterial phenomenon of globalized identities. Her analytical framework entails detailed attention to clothes and designs as well as its cultural traditions and background while reconsidering existing dualisms between the natural and the social, the local and the global, and the material and the immaterial.

Culture as Epistemological Relativism In a heterogeneous society caused by globalization, the understanding of Thomas Kuhn’s concept of epistemological relativism (1970 [1962]) in reference

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to culture is imperative because in each cultural context, there is a specific viewpoint. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, relativism refers to a wide range of ideas and positions which may explain the lack of consensus, and it is the view that truth and falsity, right and wrong, standards of reasoning, and procedures of justification are products of differing conventions and frameworks of assessment and that their authority is confined to the context giving rise to them (2020 [2015]). We are unable to separate our perspectives, realities, knowledge, and beliefs from a context and epistemic system because they are all context-dependent. In addition, epistemic relativism is defined as cognitive norms that determine what counts as knowledge, or whether a belief is rational or justifiable, could vary with and is dependent on local conceptual or cultural frameworks and lacks the universality it aspires or pretends to (Kuhn (1970 [1962]). And this explains different reactions against and opinions about cultural appropriation and borrowing. A style that was taken from another culture simply looks pretty and beautiful if one has never been mocked or ridiculed by that style, but those who had been subjected to prejudice and discrimination because of that style take it in a different way. Our past experiences no doubt shape our views and realities which are socially constructed, but in a globalized society, these two polar opposite values clash and cause friction and tension. Stuart Hall correctly pointed out that the main challenge and most urgent question of the twenty-first century is precisely the capacity to live with difference (2005 [1993]), and he adds that since cultural diversity is increasingly the fact of the modern world, and ethnic absolutism a regressive feature of late modernity, the greatest danger now arises from forms of national identity which adopt closed versions of culture or community and refuse to engage with the difficult problems that arise from trying to live with difference. In anthropology, deterritorialization means weakening of ties. In his article “The Local and the Global: The Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism” (1995), Michael Kearney explains that the term deterritorialization is useful in thinking through the ethnographic, economic, theoretical, historical, and personal dynamics and trends. As indicated earlier, globalization which is mediated by migration, commerce, communication technology, finance, and tourism entails a reorganization of the bipolar imagery of space and time of modern world

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views, and it should entail a shift from the idea of center and periphery to a multidimensional global space lifting sharp boundaries (Kearney 1995: 549). Concerns for globalization are how production, consumption, communities, politics, and identities become detached from local places (Kearney 1995: 552). Migrants go to a foreign culture and construct a transnational space in order to free themselves from their home country, but they could still be under the control of their homeland intentionally or unintentionally and consciously or subconsciously, and some may attempt to assimilate completely into the host country while others preserve their own culture. We have much to learn from anthropologists’ research which constantly shows and proves to us that what is considered valuable and important is not universal. What we think is beautiful may be perceived as ugly and unpleasant by others since cultural realities are socially constructed. When we are oblivious to other people’s sensitivities, we unknowingly offend them. Whose standpoint is the right one or the best one? That is an impossible question to answer. Diversity is about appreciating differences. If we were all the same, everyone’s behavior will be so predictable, and that will make our life tedious and unexciting. Horace Miner’s classic piece on The Body Ritual among the Nacirema (1956) shows the readers how to observe one’s own culture from an outsider’s perspective and realize how an insider takes things for granted and loses an objective viewpoint. The article looks at tribal people’s ritual behaviors that occur on a daily basis. Miner explains: “the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.” (1956: 503). He continues (1956: 504): Their ritual activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which are dominant concern, and every household has one or more shrines with which their rituals are associated. There is a chest built into the wall which has many charms and magical potions. People often go and consult medicine men . . . Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm box, mingles different sorts of holy water in front, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution . . .

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The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships . . . and seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. The term “Nacirema” is “American” spelled backward, and readers realize that Miner is writing about American culture and customs. A medicine man refers to a doctor while a holy-mouth-man refers to a dentist. We go into the bathroom every day and stand in front of the cabinet and wash our faces. In conclusion, he writes (1956: 509): Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden people. It is hard to understand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed upon themselves. But even such exotic customs as these take on real meaning because we interpret things based on our knowledge that we had acquired.

Transcultural Literacy and Cultural Intelligence The ability to take an outsider’s viewpoint as Miner had suggested can be acquired through training and practice. To better understand when and what is culturally appropriate or offensive, there needs to be more studies on how to raise a new type of literacy. In a multicultural, globalized world, there is an urgent need for the public to acquire transcultural literacy and develop a higher level of cultural intelligence (CI), also called cultural quotient (CQ), which is a term first coined and developed by Christopher Earley (2002). Cultural intelligence refers to the capability to relate and work effectively across cultures and interact with those from other cultures. The concept has similarities with emotional intelligence (EI), which was proposed by Daniel Goleman in 1995; he explained that this type of intelligence can be learnt and taught. Goleman explained that EI is “a propensity to suspend judgment—to think before acting”; similarly, CI is also a propensity to judge oneself in an unfamiliar cultural context to better understand how they feel, think, and act. Something that is neither universal or idiosyncratic can be explained with culture, according to Earley (2002).

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Furthermore, Earley and Masakowski defined cultural intelligence and cultural quotient as the ability to make sense of the unfamiliar contexts and then blend in, and it has the following three components: cognitive, behavioral, and emotional/motivational. In a heterogeneous society where different cultures come together, it has become routine to engage in cross-cultural encounters, and CI/CQ becomes an important skill to acquire. Ang Soon and Linn Van Dyne later worked on the measurement for CQ to assess people’s level of cultural quotient as in intelligent quotient (IQ) (2009). Those with a higher CQ are able to interact and communicate successfully with people from other cultures while others are unable to handle unfamiliar intercultural situations and contexts. The research and application of CI are developed by the Cultural Intelligence Center in the U.S. and Nanyang Business School in Singapore, and it has been gradually adopted by schools, businesses, and various organizations. A study on the role of CI in MBA curricula was conducted by Mark Ahn and Larry Ettner (2013). The authors utilized the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) to collect data from MBA students attending three universities in the USA. Findings show that many students have a firm understanding on why CQ is essential in an increasingly globalized business world with a strong desire to interact with other cultures. However, although students appear highly motivated to study other cultures, the results indicate that many of the MBA students lack an in-depth knowledge of the values, beliefs, and practices of other cultures (Ahn and Ettner 2013).

Ambivalence in Fashion Globalization According to Paul Gilroy (2004: 75), diaspora dispersal, mass immigration, military travel, tourism, and the revolution in global communications are routine features of the postmodern and postcolonial processes that condition metropolitan life. Therefore, we must consider and include the role that fashion plays, as an example, in cultural transmission and cultural globalization. When people immigrate to a Western country, they take their cultural dress or ethnic costume with them, which can be considered a part of cultural globalization while others abandon their unique outfit and adopt Western dress as an act of the assimilation process since European and American styles symbolize

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industrial progress, modernity, and cultural dominance whose idea needs to be revised. The ideas of cultural acceptance and resistance are found during the process, and there is also the tension between the hegemony of Western dress over the traditional dress which results in a sartorial hierarchy as discussed in Chapter 3. In addition to a general concept of globalization and cultural globalization, this section further investigates various approaches to the meaning of “fashion globalization” which is used rather loosely in ambivalent and ambiguous ways. What exactly do we mean by fashion globalization? Which or what aspect of fashion is going global? Are we referring to offshore clothing manufacturing? Are professional designers racially diverse? Did the centralization of the fashion world shift from Paris to somewhere else? Are immigrants in the West keeping their own traditional dress as everyday wear?

Global/World Dress Margaret Maynard, an Australian fashion scholar, attempted to theorize “global dress” and investigated how people in the global world dress. Dress is caught up in fundamental paradoxes between global sameness of appearance and disjunctures, made up of ever-shifting and incomplete processes of identity formation (Maynard 2004). She refers to Appadurai’s concept of disjunctive flows to dress which states that objects circulate in different regimes of space and time, acquiring meaning and new value in the process of exchange, or in the local context of wearing (Appadurai 1986: 4). Maynard denies any hierarchical or social inequalities between different types of dress, and states that cultural differences are never absolute; she argues that global dress is the mixture of style, a form of creolization or hybridity where nothing is dominant, entirely traditional, or fully modern, and she debunks the idea of sartorial hierarchy. Clothes may have no intrinsic meaning in themselves but are open for interpretation and reinterpretation, based on particular uses, social circumstance and social evaluation, all of which are dependent on the context; thus, it is impossible to come up with an absolute meaning of a particular dress or absolute sartorial rules (Maynard 2004). Meanings are ambivalent and undecidable, and dress is an expression of one’s identity and status whose meaning may change in various social situations and occasions so we

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need to focus on a context in which dress is placed. Maynard provides an example of a Muslim woman wearing hijab, Western dress, or a combination of both when living in a country other than her own. Maynard writes (2004: 239): Ambivalence is a fundamental characteristic of fashion and dress in the developed world and some see the cultural unsettling as a feature of the postmodern experience . . . Fundamentally ambiguous nature of both the body and fashion engenders a further instability between opposing factors of self and social differentiation . . . Our current cultural uncertainty and social fluidity parallels constant experimentation with appearance management and style. Globalization homogenizes the way people dress in which everyone dresses in the same way, and that is the Americanized or Westernized style of appearance often called world/cosmopolitan fashion which a symbol of economic advancement, civilization, and sophistication. Instead of the term “global dress,” Sandra Niessen examines the term “world dress” closely; its definition is often believed to encompass all types of dress, both Western and non-Western, but the term implies pervasive Western dress. Fashion began with a Eurocentric view and attitude, and for centuries, ethnocentric bias has been expressed by fashion (2020: 861). Classical theorists talked about fashion as an expression of European superiority while comparing Western dress styles that change constantly on a regular basis while non-Western dress is static, and therefore is not fashion. Niessen goes on to say that fashion scholars do not dissect the need to emphasize Western superiority in the definition of fashion (Niessen 2020: 864). She evaluates the term “world fashion” as follows (2020: 866): The term “world fashion” was coined to designate the “dress of ordinary people” including apparel items such as “jeans, sweatshirts, T-shirts, trench coats, parkas, trousers, skirts, blouses, shirts, blazers, business suits, school uniforms, and athletic shoes” rooted in Euro-American heritage, but now found across the globe (Eicher 1995, 4; Eicher and Sumberg 1995, 300). The emphasis here is consistent with a positivist analysis of style change through time; the authors considered this designation timely because, due to their

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adoption globally, the Western dress forms could hardly be accurately labeled “Western” anymore. Nevertheless, the designation could scarcely be more contradictory because “world fashion” really does reference Western dress styles and in real time the emergence of “world fashion” has been serving to eliminate Other dress systems of the world. Simply put, “world fashion” marks the moment when the Other started to dress like we do in the West. Niessen raises an important question: Can fashion be dissociated from its Eurocentric origins or is it time to tear it down from its pedestal? (2020: 864). While Maynard argues that global dress is an ambiguous term which may encompass all types of dress and erasing any social differences, Niessen makes it clear that it still has an Eurocentric connotation, and unless we decolonize fashion, it will always remain within a Eurocentric context.

Territoriality, Inclusivity, and Exclusivity In her article, “I am an Immigrant: Fashion, Immigration and Borders in the Contemporary Trans-global Landscape,” Flavia Loscialpo wrote: “ ‘I am an immigrant’ is a phrase that appeared in fashion campaigns and collections in the UK as a pro-immigration movement which changes an assumption about cultural homogeneity” (2020: 619), and ideally, that would be the globalization of fashion in practice. However, fashion is not as global and international as one may think it is. As Loscialpo (2019) points out, fashion discourses are still often based on national tropes, such as Britishness, Englishness, Frenchness, or Made in Italy, with territoriality still playing an important role in the fashion scenario, and national identity is an important selling point and marketing strategy for fashion. The author raises important questions: how can fashion contribute to an understanding of immigration as a constitutive aspect of contemporary society? In times of global migration, how can contemporary fashion theory understand displacements and conceptualize the figure of the immigrant? How can it unravel the concepts “tradition” and “identity”? Europe is moving politically to the right in support of nationalism and protectionism that are on the rise, which goes against the fundamental philosophy of globalization. At the same time, immigrants are demonized, and borders are

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reinforced. Under such circumstance, fashion studies need to address how fashion can deal with these nationalistic tendencies and open up a different understanding of immigration (Loscialpo 2019). The author argues that fashion is the site where the Anglo-British identity is constructed and materialized and, at the same time, the site where this identity is questioned, parodied, and unstitched while pointing out the dual nature of fashion. One might then ask whether, beyond parodies of an idealized version of AngloBritishness, Englishness in dress can be defined at all (Loscialpo 2019). It has become increasingly difficult to express one’s identity in dress as people’s identities are in flux. Intense negative reactions against cultural borrowing have the danger of regressing back to nationalism and protectionism which are counter to modernity, but at the same time, fashion should never be used as a tool for racism, discrimination, and religious blasphemy.

Adornment as a Universal Practice When an item or practice is brought to the Western context from the non-West, it is almost automatically converted into fashion. As long as it stays in the non-West, it remains merely a garment and will never be fashion. This is due to the widely spread belief that fashion originated in the West and has the mechanism to turn it into fashion. A designer in the West has the ability to make fashion and legitimates clothes into fashion. This is a false assumption. The essence of fashion is change and novelty so scholars often evaluate dress based on its changing speed and come to a quick conclusion that non-Western dress rarely changes its shape and is therefore not fashion, but such a perception needs to be reconsidered, as Nancy Micklewright (2017: 6) explains: Traditional dress in places outside of Europe and North America has been described repeatedly as timeless and unchanging (as opposed to the fastpaced changes of “fashion”), despite clear evidence to the contrary. Unwinding the reasons for this phenomenon is a complicated process, but it perhaps begins with the fact that early costume histories were written by scholars who were specialists in European dress, looking outward to other parts of the world. Understanding the changes that took place in traditional dress requires extensive research and access to a wide range of source

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materials that were not necessarily available for those formative early studies. Finally, perhaps these studies reflect an overlay of Orientalist constructs of an unchanging “Orient” that persisted well into the twentieth century. Studies on ethnic dress was not documented professionally and academically in the Western language. Academia is English-dominated by Western scholars, and we need more bilingual and multilingual scholars, who are able to read and understand non-Western languages for research and translate and publish them in English. This is a void that needs to be filled in academia. We must move beyond the divide between the timelessness of traditional dress and the fast-paced changes of fashion; Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun point out that the discovery that change is a universal feature within the universal human proclivity to dress and adorn the body can convince us that fashion as a phenomenon occurred historically around the world (2018). I argue that rather than emphasizing the process of change in fashion, scholars need to focus on fashion as an adornment practice since it is known as a universal act found in any culture. Of the three functions of dress, protection, modesty, and adornment, adornment is a practice that is universally found (Brenninkmeyer 1963).

Eurocentric Territoriality of the Global Cultural Scene Fashion can be analyzed as an urban space and a system that produce and reproduce an abstract image of fashion that transforms clothes into fashion (Kawamura 2018). Fashion has historically been centralized in Paris, where the latest styles are born and are followed by other cities. The world looked up to Paris fashion. As the world goes through globalization, how is the power structure of the global fashion industry changing? Frederic Godart attempts to answer that question in his article, “The Power Structure of the Fashion Identity; Fashion Capitals, Globalization and Creativity” (2014). Godart analyzes fashion cities like a political regime, such as monarchy, oligarchy, and polyarchy. The four major fashion cities—Paris, New York, London, and Milan—are placed in the center of the fashion map while other cities, such as Tokyo, Seoul, Mumbai or São Paolo, are peripheral. The fashion world is not

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flat or equal, and power is distributed unevenly, and this is based on the socially constructed image and identity of an urban fashion space that has the authority to make decisions. The fashion industry in Paris had worked hard to dominate the industry to maintain the myth of Paris, and it had managed to keep its throne for centuries (Godart 2014; Kawamura 2016 [2004]; Rocamoa 2009). The city of Paris was a fashion monarchy, especially strong in womenswear, and it resulted in a very real territorialization of economic activities in the metropolitan Paris area, and then the structure of fashion became an oligarchy with London, New York and Milan added one by one as members of the fashion regime. Before the Second World War while Paris was known for womenswear, London was known for menswear. After the war, New York emerged as a fashion capital with the popularity of sportswear and ready-to-wear, and Paris further strengthened its power and image by introducing new designers, such as Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and Coco Chanel, in the 1950s. There was a new style of fashion coming out of youth subculture on the streets of London in the 1960s, and Mary Quant led the London fashion scene. Milan was added in the oligarchy in the late 1970s as a place of production and creation, and the industrial power of Milan was combined with a long traditional history of luxury, a strong textile industry, and skilled artisans. Paris is now part of a wider oligarchic power structure in which four fashion capitals dominate the global fashion scene (Godart 2014). Godart persuasively writes that to be a successful fashion city, there needs to be the development of the local industry sectors. Can fashion evolve toward a polyarchy in which power is distributed across various elites that represent all components of society and become more democratic? Two decades into the twenty-first century, we still see the structure of oligarchy with these four cities, and the fashion industry is far from being global in the true sense of the word.

Cultural Authentication Process We are at a stage where people from all walks of life should respect each other’s culture. Debates on cultural appropriation is about stealing a culture that is not

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your own. Then it implies that there is a clear boundary delineated between two cultures, and one is transcending, invading or trespassing into someone’s territory. Who is an insider, and who is an outsider—this becomes clear in this debate. It also assumes rather bluntly and clearly that something that is “borrowed” is not authentic or pure. However while accepting the fact that some practices are indeed culturally inappropriate and unacceptable, we can question if anything is pure and truly authentic in the globalized world. Tonye Erekosima and Joanne Eicher have suggested a concept called cultural authentication decades ago (1981, 1995) which deserves more attention in the cultural appropriation debate. This concept refers to the transfer of artifacts from one culture to another, and Eicher and Erekosima defined cultural authentication as “the process of adaptation as a strategy of change or cultural authentication process (C.A.P.)” (1995: 145). Other scholars have slightly revised or added to the definition. Lynch, Detzner, and Eicher (1995) added that the “borrowed cultural element . . . becomes integrated and meaningful to the host culture” (1995: 117) while Christopher Burghard Steiner (1997) stated that cultural authentication refers “to the transforming of a selectively borrowed cultural object by the receiving culture into four differing possible levels of adaption” (1994: 90), and these four levels of cultural authentication are selection, characterization, incorporation, and transformation during the process of transmission or assimilation (Erekosima and Eicher 1995: 145): 1 Selection refers to the acquiring, borrowing and using of cloth or artifact as it exists, and when a particular external cultural practice or product is selected as acceptable and desirable by members of another culture out of an almost unlimited number of other options or offerings. 2 Characterization is a second stage which occurs when the symbolic reference of the borrowed item has changed so characterization as the naming of a cloth to make it more easily visible. The item may be renamed by members of the culture, in their own language, choosing the item or process or translating in any other expressive form into the mapping system of order by which members of the culture conceptually define or portray their experiences and artifacts.

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3 Incorporation is defined as the extensive owning of a specific cloth by a particular group (family or house), and incorporation occurs when the innovation occupies some functional role within the receiving cultural system by being incorporated toward meeting some adaptation need in the society, at either individual or collective levels, and often at both. 4 Transformation occurs when the adopted artifact or practice is transformed in itself by changing and adding design on it. This entails an accommodation of its old form and purpose to the new setting in a holistic way. The outcome of this final phase involves a creative or artistic change. The authors used the Kalabari of Nigeria as an example who used madras gingham of India, named it in their own language as pelete-bite, and altered the fabrics to create unique Kalabari textiles. Their textile is not as authentic or unique to their culture as we may think. It is worn as men’s and women’s wrappers, to cover the face of a masquerader, and to dress the funeral bed of a female elder. Starting with existing striped or checked patterns, new designs are made by cutting parts of the white threads with a razor and removing them, and the technique produces little holes, which add a unique visual effect to the fabric. A decade later, Eicher discussed the ping-pong effect of cultural authentication (2004). Indian suppliers of madras to the Kalabari became aware of the cut-thread designs of the Kalabari and in the 1980s began to have their weavers mass-produce madras that had the appearance of cut-thread cloth for their Kalabari customers. These textiles were sold successfully to the Kalabari who called them “machine-cut” pelete-bite as opposed to the hand-cut version. In 2003, a contemporary Indian textile designer used the cut-thread design as inspiration for handwoven silk scarves for a fashion market in both India and the United States. This is a ping-pong effect of cultural authentication in which the cut-thread design originally created by the Kalabari on Indian madras in Nigeria becomes culturally authenticated in India on silk for a global market. What we learn from Erekosima and Eicher’s work is that cultural products and artifacts are almost always influenced by external cultures especially in today’s multicultural, heterogeneous society, and go through the process of

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assimilation or hybridization to create its uniqueness so that they can call it their own. In that sense, nothing is pure or authentic in this world. As the Kalabari were explicit about their adoption of madras textile, we need to give credit and pay homage to the host culture. Anything that appears to be pure, if we trace its history, it may have been altered from its original shape and form and taken from another culture. Drawing a boundary and protecting a territory between you versus me, or insider versus outsider, may be a futile argument. Their research is applicable to many other areas discussed in the previous chapters, such as entertainment, cuisine, literary works, and so on. We need transcultural and transnational collaborations to achieve the true meaning of cultural globalization.

Conclusion After the review of a number of specific case studies in the previous chapters, discussions on cultural appropriation and appreciation are placed within a broader framework of cultural globalization, which results in deterritorialization and reterritorialization. Even prior to globalization, there were cross-cultural encounters between the West and the non-West, and cultural borrowing was never perceived as a theft or appropriation, since people in general could not travel overseas easily and any access to foreign “exotic” cultural artifacts was a status symbol. That changes with globalization, which is characterized by dispersion and displacement of people, decentering of systems, and the complexity of transnational and multicultural communities. Deterritorialization is neither new nor uniform, but recent deterritorialization is the effect of global media which supposedly makes the world flat, democratic, and egalitarian, and it is experienced in different ways by different people in various globalized contexts. Cultural experience created by globalization is complex and varied because each person has his/her standpoint and interprets the reality based on his/her cultural knowledge and epistemological standpoint. Fashion is used as an example to assess whether globalization is truly occurring in the field. The fashion cities are centralized in the West, designs are territorial, and the term “world dress” actually refers to Westernized and Americanized styles. We still have much work to do.

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Suggested Further Reading Anderson, Walter Truett (2020), All Connected Now: Life in the First Global Civilization, New York: Routledge. Anheier, H. and Isa YR (eds.) (2007), Cultures and Globalization: Conflicts and Tensions, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bhabha, Homi K. (1994), The Location of Culture, New York: Routledge. Crothers, Lane (2021), Globalization and American Popular Culture, 5th edition, New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Dickinson, Edward Ross (2018), The World in the Long Twentieth Century: An Interpretive History, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Elliott, Anthony (2015), Identity Troubles: An Introduction, New York: Routledge. Kortti, Jukka (2019), Media in History: An Introduction to the Meanings and Transformations of Communication over Time, New York: Springer. Lemire, Beverly, and Giorgio Riello (eds.) (2020), Dressing Global Bodies: The Political Power of Dress in Global History, New York: Routledge. Sachs, Jeffrey (2020), The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions, New York: Columbia University Press. Shea, Elren (2020), Mongol Court Dress, Identity Formation, and Global Exchange, New York: Routlege. Sorrells, Kathryn (2015), Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice, New York: Sage.

Conclusion YUNIYA KAWAMURA

This book tackled a very complex issue of cultural appropriation, misappropriation, and borrowing, which has become a political issue, and examined many controversial examples found primarily in the fashion and entertainment industries. There are no easy answers because everyone has his/her own perspective and interpretation of a culture, which consists of multiple layers and dimensions. Tracing the history of the concept of culture reminds us that some cultures are value-free while others are value-laden, and such ideas suggest a dichotomous relationship between the two. As shown in the previous chapters, the current analytical framework which is used to understand non-Western fashion is the application of oppositions and polarities such as colonial/postcolonial, exotic/indigenous, local/global, East/ West, superior/inferior, and so on, but for our future research, we are eventually urged to move beyond such framework (Craik 2020). Bhabha argued in his book The Location of Culture (1994) that postcolonial relations and theoretical discourse collapse these binaries which imply ambivalence, contradiction, uncertainty, and hybridity, the terms he coined. According to Bhabha, postcolonial migrants destabilize traditional identities and violate supposedly mutually exclusive categories because they are simultaneously of both the East and West. Cultural appropriation debate is an outcome of such a phenomenon and challenges us to find constructive solutions to the problem. Based on the case studies discussed in this book, a line delineated between cultural appropriation and appreciation can be murky or obvious. Before making a 177

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decision, it requires a close investigation and exploration of a relevant culture, its history, tradition, and artifacts. It also requires education and knowledge since no one is familiar with all the cultures that exist in this world, no matter how international and cosmopolitan a person may be. Even for an image that is obviously culturally offensive and insulting for insiders, for someone who only knows the surface of a culture may unknowingly and unintentionally offend others. When we take a trip abroad, we read a guidebook and inform ourselves about the country and cities that we are going to visit. In the same way, we need to research about a culture when we borrow ideas from them. It is about educating ourselves. The key concept in the cultural appropriation debate is a proper understanding of “culture.” Many tend to react and respond immediately to specific images that are relevant to their racial and ethnic community which is often referred to as someone’s “culture,” but this book first shows the significance of analyzing the concept of culture and understands that culture has many layers, angles, and approaches. I traced the classical and sociological perspectives of the three important sociologists, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim who had laid a foundation and future theories of culture, which developed into different schools of thought in relation to culture. For example, the Frankfurt School in Germany in particular proposed very strongly that culture is something that comes out of highly sophisticated community, and popular culture has no place in culture. High art and high culture are far more superior to mass and popular culture. In contrast, the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in UK focused on subculture which stemmed from a culture and that is subordinate to the dominant culture, and resisted the idea of social and value differences between high and popular culture. Broadly speaking, culture is a way of life, and that is the definition implied in the cultural appropriation debate. Conceptual tools for cultural analysis, such as cultural imperialism, cultural hegemony, and symbolic boundaries, are also introduced in the book, and they are very much relevant to and can be applied to analyses of cultural appropriation and misappropriation, and differentiate between appropriation and appreciation. Similar to the concept of culture, we find a number of explanations from various reliable dictionaries, writers, and scholars that were introduced to understanding how the concept is defined. Some specify a relationship between a

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dominant and subordinate group (Scafidi 2005; Ziff and Rao 1997) while others say that it depends on a person’s intent (Holmes 2017). Some break it down to different activities and categories (Rogers 2006; Young 2010). Furthermore, this topic is not confined to and unique to the creative industries. In order for us to better understand the issues of cultural appropriation in general, academic studies in other areas are introduced. Cultural appropriation is a multidimensional phenomenon where visual images are not always the target. It also pays attention to other concepts, such as cultural exchange, transculturation, authenticity, and colonialism. As examples, cultural appropriation in four areas, such as the use of logos, mascots, and nicknames, gastronomy and cuisine, literary works, and adornment styles and practices are reviewed. We find much interdisciplinary scholarship on collegiate and professional American Indian mascots that critiques the use of mascots because of their negative, biased racist implications and colonialist attitudes. Similarly, food scholars discuss the authenticity of ethnic food and restaurants, how it is made, and by whom it is made. Eating ethnic food can be an experience of an Exotic Other and culinary colonialism. Literary works involve “subject appropriation” which is also called “voice appropriation” when outsiders represent the lives of insiders in the first person. Narratives tell stories of a culture and its people and they are the conveyers of cultural traditions, history, and people. Some minority authors reject the idea of a story told by an outsider and insist that it should only be told by an insider. In addition, there is a long history of physical adornment practices in human history. Whether it is permanent or temporary, human beings instinctively have a desire to decorate their bodies to make them appear better than what they really are. These decorations often have cultural meanings and rules. The bulk of this book pays attention to specific case studies taken from the fashion and entertainment industries which can be used in class discussions for further nuanced implications. We collect and use visual images as texts. By exploring European designers and couturiers who were inspired by the exotic non-Western countries, we understand that cultural borrowing was never considered theft or appropriation in the past. As early as Simmel’s writing on fashion, which states that the adoption of exotic elements in fashion meant that they did not originate locally, and therefore, they are exclusive, new, different,

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conspicuous, and trendy (Simmel 1906), and the adoption of foreignness is not appropriation but appreciation and legitimation by the dominant, ruling class. Cultural appropriation or borrowing is explained as not a new phenomenon. Creators, designers, and artists had always been inspired by foreign, unfamiliar, and exotic cultures especially at a time when commoners were unable to travel freely to other countries. People in Europe and the US were fascinated by things that were different and fresh. Fashion enthusiasts were often considered neophilias (Koenig 1973: 77). French couturiers in particular, such as Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet, were mesmerized by the non-West, and they were a source of inspiration. Social Darwinism is used to explain cultural hierarchies which in turn relate to sartorial hierarchies between complex Western dress and simple non-Western dress. Traditional, non-Western dress which is referred to as ethnic dress is often devalued from the Western perspective. This book’s most significant contribution is the suggested analytical typologies which will help readers put things into perspective amid controversies and heated debates. For anyone who is confused and puzzled about this topic, the typologies suggest how to analyze the images and stories in dispute. Each typology is explained clearly with relevant examples. We all have different physical and facial characteristics. Our skin and hair have different colors, our eyes and noses have different shapes. The texture of our hair is different. These are undeniable biological facts but contain no inherent social differences. We as a society create value differences between these biological traits that are reinforced and used to discriminate others, and it results in a ranking based on biology and causes biological racism. They become negative stereotypes. Some physical features are part of one’s civil rights issue. Oppressive and abusive social power is imposed on the powerless, subordinate groups and communities. By perpetuating negative stereotypical images, they perpetuate the lower social status of a group, and this typology is called stereotype reinforcement and biological racism, which lead to and develop into another typology called racial fetishism in which minority women are fetishized because of their looks and treated as sexual objects. They are eroticized and objectified. Fetishism is a sexual preoccupation toward an object. A fetish object can be a tangible object or a human being that is treated as a tangible object without any emotions or feelings and giving the person no respect. Racial fetishism is a specific type under a

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general perception of fetishism in which it focuses on a sexual interest in a particular racial group, especially minority women who are dehumanized as the mysterious “Other.” An ethnic dress worn by a white woman is racialized and hyper-sexualized. Another analytical typology in cultural appropriation, which I call the reinforcement of historical oppressions, requires us to study one’s cultural history and traditions. It stems from our ignorance and a lack of cultural literacy. It raises our awareness of the historical global power relationships between oppressors and the oppressed, and between different cultures and countries and religious communities. Some ideas and items of clothing taken from atrocious facts, incidents, and events, such as slavery and the Holocaust, are incredibly offensive and insulting to certain groups; thus, creative inspirations cannot be justified for such cases. The understanding of one’s religious and spiritual culture is also a way to avoid cultural appropriation and religious and spiritual blasphemy. All major religions have deep and long historical roots that need to be respected. One’s ignorance about a religion could cause a conflict and upset in society. Those outside of a religion may think a part of someone’s religious attire may look different and fresh and may incorporate it into a design. Gods in any religion are believed to exist above humans and possess supernatural power which should never be ridiculed or made fun of. Items of religious attire all have important philosophical code and meanings. Religious items and objects are commercialized and popularized, and we need to reevaluate them and reconsider their use. Furthermore, since the essence of fashion is novelty and change, creators strive to look for styles, designs, motifs, and ideas that are still undiscovered and unfamiliar to the public because introducing something new is exciting and entertaining. There are countless cultures in remote territories that people in the industrialized countries still do not know about. With the advent of the Internet, researching and finding new things has become extremely convenient, easy, and fast; as a result, ideas are stolen from indigenous people and cultures that are often hidden and voiceless. These include weaving techniques, embroidery techniques, unique design motifs, and use of colors. I have compiled a list of textile-related intangible cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO as invaluable and unique methods and techniques that need to be locally and globally guarded (Table 3.1).

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In addition, we need to go beyond culture as race and ethnicity that is often the focus of the cultural appropriation discussions since appropriation occurs in other social categories and groupings, such as class appropriation, that are often forgotten and neglected. Fashion was always defined as a phenomenon that started at the upper echelon of the class, and it slowly trickled down to the masses and the working class. Fashion was never defined by those who are in the lower end of the social hierarchy. But some creators began to look to these communities that are socially and economically disadvantaged for inspiration, and incorporated ideas from their lifestyle. Creators find these styles unique and original, although fashion does not exist for people in dire need and poverty. Do we not have a moral obligation to respect those who are socially challenged and remain in poverty? These typologies allow us to interpret the controversies and go deeper into the debates and discussions on cultural appropriation and borrowing and investigate further that some cases may be fuzzy while others should definitely be avoided in any instances. At the same time, it requires us to further research and examine the history, tradition, beliefs, values, and norms of a specific culture that is in dispute. We are urged to converge the two territories, the local and the global, and create a new territory for the “glocal.” In his article “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity” (1995), Roland Robertson attempts to blur or eliminate the boundaries between the local and the global and uses the term “glocalization,” which is a shift in historical phase, as a response to globalization which is often viewed as an antithesis of localization. In order to create a unified and fully integrated human culture, we need to respect both the local and the global, and let the homogenization and heterogenization coexist because local cultures make up global culture. It is not a break but a continuum between the two phases. In glocalization, intercultural ties are “selected, processed, and consumed according to the local culture’s needs, taste, and social structure” (Robertson 1995). This could be one of the possible solutions for the practice of cultural appropriation and borrowing. Furthermore, research on cultural appropriation suggests a new methodological approach, and it emphasizes and confirms the importance of and makes suggestions for a phenomenological approach on subjectivism.

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Phenomenology, which was founded by Edmund Husserl (1887–1938) and later developed by Alfred Schütz (1899–1959), is the study of the structures of experience and consciousness from a first-person viewpoint. Holocaust survivors can never exactly share how they feel about a striped shirt with a yellow patch; they are the only ones who can articulate their personal and subjective emotions. Non-blacks can never truly understand how offended and insulted a black person feels when a white person paints his or her face black for entertainment. Outsiders can only imagine other people’s thoughts and experiences. There is no objective reality to an image that is perceived as demeaning and insulting because the feelings are part of one’s subjective reality. The general public often attacks creators and designers to do more “research” to avoid cultural appropriation. But this “research” should go deeper than simply reading about foreign cultures and collecting information online. It requires work on subjectivism. In the previous chapters, we have included a number of quotes taken from publications and social media posts to introduce the voices of those who expressed their concerns, anger, disappointment, and disgust. While an approach to phenomenology is criticized as merely descriptive, it offers advantages to the researcher who studies what the actors perceive and think, who analyzes the stock of knowledge they use to act and infer, and who studies the different horizons and plans the actors involved (Aspers 2001: 163). A methodological strategy used in phenomenology is long, structured or unstructured personal interviews and requires careful and attentive listening to a person’s stories, experiences, and feelings. That is what we need to do to genuinely understand the intense emotions surrounding cultural appropriation. Throughout the book, we have focused on the negative interpretations of and responses to cultural borrowing, but it would be fair for us to say that future research demands to include those who are protective of cultural borrowing and do not think it is a theft or appropriation. An increasing number of informative and educational essays, commentaries, and opinion pieces are found in recent years. Kenan Malik, an Indian-born British writer, published an essay in Art Review about “Cultural Appropriation” (2017): What really lies behind the debate about cultural appropriation is not ownership but gatekeeping—the making of rules or an etiquette to

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determine how a particular cultural form may be used and by whom. What critics of cultural appropriation want to establish is that certain people have the right to determine who can use such knowledge or forms, because at the heart of criticism of cultural appropriation is the relationship between gatekeeping and identity. It is not the content of appropriation that should be in dispute but the right to police cultures and experiences, and we should focus those who claim to have a license to be arbiters of the correct forms cultural borrowing (Malik 2017). Similarly, John McWhorter, professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, also contributed an article “You Can’t Steal a Culture: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation” (2017) in the Daily Beast, and points out how the focus has shifted: The debate over what we call cultural appropriation has roots in the justifiable resentment of white pop musicians imitating black genres for monetary gain . . . But over time, the concept of cultural appropriation has morphed into a parody of the original idea. We are now to get angry simply when whites happily imitate something that minorities do. We now use the word steal in an abstract sense, separated from any kind of material value. He argues that what we are witnessing is often not cultural appropriation but cultural exchange which is enriching, not impoverishing, and he questions whether imitation remains the sincerest form of flattery, or a kind of dismissal (2017). Furthermore, in The New Statesman, a British cultural and political magazine, Yo Zushi, wrote (2015): Appropriation tests imaginary boundaries. It questions them and exposes . . . the performative aspects of our racial and cultural identity: much of our yellowness, brownness, blackness or whiteness is acted out and not intrinsic to our being. It shows that we can select who we are and who we want to be. By opposing it unilaterally under the banner of racial justice, activists often end up placing themselves on the side of those who insist on terrifying ideals of “purity”.

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Cultural appropriation can hurt those whose traditions, religions and ways of life have been lifted, taken out of context, and repackaged as a new aesthetic trend or exotic bauble, but it is also dangerous to excessively pursue cultural essentialism and pure authenticity (Zushi 2015). These strong opinions in support of cultural appropriation coming from the minority writers and scholars will open up doors for a new dialogue and research to follow in the future.

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Notes Chapter 3 1 Charles Frederick Worth (1825–95), Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971), Jeanne Lanvin (1867–1946), and Alix Gres (1903–33) also used Japanese-style motifs, such as chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, irises, and wisteria, and birds such as swallows. In the mid-twentieth century, Yves Saint Laurent, a French couturier and designer, was very much inspired by the Chinese culture although he had never visited China. He says in an interview with Elle in 1995: “All I need for my imagination to blend into a place or a landscape is a picture book . . . I don’t feel any need to go there. I have already dreamt about it so much.” In 1977, Saint Laurent showed Les Chinoises (the Chinese) collection. 2 Hair has been a contentious issue also for the black servicewomen in the US military, which has specific grooming regulations. When a new grooming policy to ban specific hairstyles, such as large cornrows, twists and dreadlocks, which are popular to black women, was issued in 2014, it sparked a backlash with black servicewomen. These styles are not for fashion or adornment but are necessary to organize their curly hair, which does not grow straight down but grows out. After a few months of reviewing the definition of “acceptable styles,” the military rolled back the restrictions. 3 Antik Batik filed a lawsuit against Isabel Marant in a Paris court and accused her of plagiarism while Marant argued that she was inspired by the traditional patterns used by Mexico’s Tlahuitoltepec community, and therefore, Antik Batik could not claim any property rights on the design. The court ruled in favor of Marant, and Antik Batik was ordered to cover Marant’s legal fees (Szmydke 2015). 4 Gypsy Sport’s 2017 collection by Uribe was also inspired by people living on the streets. At the beginning of the show, Rio Uribe, the creative director, said to the audience from the backstage: “I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about my show . . . The fall/winter ’17 collection was inspired honestly by people who live on the street and just don’t have much fashion in their life or any of the luxuries that we take for granted” (quoted in Leon 2017). Uribe’s reviews were far better than that of Obana’s because of his collaborations with the homeless organization.

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Chapter 4 1 The Korean television drama “Winter Sonata” first aired on Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) on January 14, 2002 and is widely considered one of the foundational hallyu pop cultural products in East Asia. The term “hallyu” first appeared in Chinese print media—Light Music in July 1999 and the newspaper Beijing Youth Daily in November 1999—that reported on the surprising popularity of Korean television dramas “What Is Love All About?” (1997) and “Stars In My Heart” (1999) and K-pop groups NRG, H.O.T., S.E.S., and Baby V.O.X among Chinese consumers (Sun and Liew 2019; Kuwahara 2014; Jin 2012; Huat and Iwabuchi 2008). Hallyu—commonly referred to as the Korean Wave—is a world-wide pop cultural movement and form of soft power (Nye and Kim 2013) that encompasses television serials, film, beauty products, fashion, online games, and music. Joseph Nye (1990: 153–71) describes soft power as a nation’s power of persuasion that does not involve tangible resources or “hard power” such as the military. A nation that engages soft power turns to intangible resources—such as media culture or ideology—in its pursuit of global hegemony. 2 Early twenty-first-century (Western) Korean Wave literature makes a distinction between two different stages: hallyu 1.0 and 2.0. In this literature, hallyu 1.0 is perceived as “incidental”—not driven by government policy and the result of South Korea’s cultural proximity to its neighbors—and lasts from 1997 to the mid-2000s (Song 2020; De Kloet and Kooijman 2016: 113–28; Huat and Iwabuchi 2008; Jin 2016; Kim 2004). Hallyu 2.0 differs from hallyu 1.0 in several aspects. Firstly, the Korean government began to see economic and political promise in the export of pop culture. Secondly, creative industries employed social media technology to promote the transnational consumption—beyond East Asia—of pop culture which subsequently lowered the average age-range of hallyu consumers (Jin 2016, 2012; Lee and Markus Nornes 2015; Kim 2011). Thirdly, Korean pop culture (K-culture) expanded beyond the export of television serials and film to include K-pop, online games, and animation. Hallyu 2.0 lasted from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, when hallyu 3.0 heralded the global dominance of K-pop and K-culture and added beauty products and fashion (Song 2020). 3 The year 2019 witnessed the suicides of K-pop idols Sulli (a former member of the group f(x)) and Goo Hara (a former member of the group Kara), who both became victims of sexist cyberbullying after refusing to conform the Korea’s patriarchic gender norms. It saw the criminal convictions of K-pop idols Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon and the retirement of former BIGBANG member Seungri because of their involvement in the Burning Sun sex scandal. The events of 2019 show that fan activism and bottom-up participatory culture are confined by the (historical) social structures of the society in which entertainment industries exists. 4 For instance, see the following global hip-hop studies conducted in: Austria (Norman 2006; Hafez 2016), Australia (Mitchell 2006), Brazil (Bollig 2002), China (Amar and

Notes Buchanan 2018), Columbia (Tickner 2008), Cuba (Baker 2005), France (Whidden 2007), Germany (Ickstadt 1999; Hoyler and Mager 2005; Brown 2006), Jamaica (Marshall 2006), Japan (Fink 2006; Condry 2008), Kenya (Githiora 2008; Eisenberg 2012), Nigeria (Fariudeen Liadi 2012), South Africa (Hammett 2010), Tanzania (Perullo 2005; Kibona Clark 2014), and the Ukraine (Helbig 2011).

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Index absolutism 163 ancestors 38 antithesis 151, 182 artifacts 3, 27, 28, 53, 54, 152, 153, 173, 174, 175, 178 artisan ix, 82, 84, 172 Aspers, Patrik 183 assimilation 27, 35, 57, 117, 166, 173, 175 attachment 6, 95, 96, 133 Barthes, Roland 14, 52 Bhabha, Homi 70, 177 bindhie 42 blog 94 Blumer, Herbert 10 boys’ love genre 119–26 Shõjo manga 121–2 Thai “boys’ love” serials 122–6 boundary 21, 26, 58, 92, 151, 173, 175 cultural 21 symbolic 21, 26 Bourdieu, Pierre 18–19, 65, 107, 129 Canada Goose 97 caricature 67, 68 categorization 2 Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies 11–13 Chanel 67, 100, 172, 187 Chicago School 10–11 Christian Dior 71, 84, 90, 172 choli 62 civilization 12, 21, 50, 52, 58, 168 classification 21, 53, 64, 91, 151

collective action 19–20 colonizer 15, 16, 35, 51, 52, 58, 59, 86 commentaries 183 conditions of cultural appropriation 116–27 cultural exchange 116 dominance 116–18 exploitation 118–19 transcultural appropriation 126–7 cornrows xv, 66, 67, 89, 110 costume 53, 54, 55, 96, 110, 125, 146, 166, 170 Coutts-Smith, Kenneth xiii couturier 22, 50. 51, 54–6, 64, 179, 180, 187 Crane, Diana 91, 93, 129, 158, 159 cultural anthropology 8–10 cultural authentication 172–5 cultural capital 19 cultural hybridization remix and sampling technology 127–9 hip-hop and globalization 138–40 British bhangra music 140–1 cultural intelligence 165–6 dashiki 52–3 dastar 79 definitions 3, 7, 22, 23, 25, 26, 54, 64, 70, 106, 142, 143 Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari 22, 150, 155 deterritorialization 22, 150, 151, 154–63, 175 dhoti 62 215

216

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discrimination 67, 74, 76, 80, 141, 154, 163, 170 domination 4, 5, 8, 15, 49 dreadlocks 67, 110, 137, 187 Durkheim, Emile 3, 4–6, 13, 21, 51, 92, 93, 95, 96, 106, 178 economy 4, 5, 131 education xv, xvi, 15, 19, 29, 30, 64, 76, 94, 118, 129, 178, 183 Eicher, Joanne 2, 7, 9, 11, 50, 53, 58, 59, 168, 173, 174 Elia, Ariele xv elk’s teeth 62, 63 employment 43, 67, 158 ethnocentrism 16–17 epistemology 17–18 epistemological relativism 149, 162–3 eurocentrism 58 fads 54 folkways 17 food 19, 31, 33–6, 46, 124, 151 football team 20, 30 Frankfurt School 7–8 Geertz, Clifford 9, 13, 14, 50 geisha 59, 69, 71–2, 100 Godart, Frederick 171, 172 Gramsci, Antonio 14–15, 108 headdress 53, 72, 73, 101 Hebdige, Dick 12, 109 hegemony 15, 16, 30, 31, 58, 69, 70, 108, 109, 139, 143, 156, 167, 178, 188 henna 41–2 historical oppressions 74–7, 181 holocaust 74, 75, 181, 183 ideology 2, 4, 16, 36, 51, 52, 53, 154, 188 imitation 54, 64, 92, 184 individuality 8, 89 insider xiii, xv, 3, 30, 36, 46, 64, 68, 164, 173, 175, 179

intangible cultural heritage 82, 84, 85, 96, 114, 118, 181 Inuit 97, 83 invasion 100, 150 Jacobs, Marc 67, 90 Japonisme 54, 101, 152–3 Jean-Paul Gualtier ix, 80, 81 Jeremy Scott 76, 90 John Galliano x, 71, 90, 96, 101 journalist 1, 37, 111, 115, 116, 132 K-pop entertainment industry 131–45 K-pop fandom 135–7 K-pop idols and microcelebrity 132–4 Korean hip-hop and transcultural appropriation 143–5 social mediascapes 131–2 Kalabari 174–5 Kanchipuram 41, 62 kimono xv, 15, 54, 55, 59–62, 69, 71–2, 100, 154 knowledge 9, 15, 17, 18, 26, 27, 40, 64, 77, 84, 85, 99, 138, 159, 163, 165, 166, 175, 178, 183, 184 Koda, Harold 52, 54, 55 Kota 62 laws 17, 67, 93, 118 lawsuit 125, 195 linguistics 13, 92, 155 logos 26, 29, 31, 46, 179 Louis Vuitton 83, 84, 90 Martin Margiela 96 Martin, Richard 52, 54, 87, 96 Marx, Karl 3–5, 15, 21, 106, 108, 178 mendhie 42 methodology 8, 9, 10, 22 migration 150, 157, 158, 161 modernity 4, 5, 91, 92, 93, 126, 156, 158, 163, 167, 170 monarchy 171, 172 mores 17

Index multiculturalism 35, 36, 42, 54, 157 museum xiv, xv, 3, 23, 52, 54, 55, 56, 100, 153, 154 muslin 57 nationalism 136, 151, 169, 170 neophilia 52, 180 network 57, 95, 122, 131, 142, 150, 156 Niessen, Sandra 52, 168–9 novel 11, 37, 38, 39, 40, 46, 83, 106, 120, 122, 123 novelty 51–2, 170, 181 oligarchy 171, 172 oppression 4, 8, 11, 15, 65, 74, 76, 181 orientalism 16, 46, 52, 54–8, 152 outsider xiii, 3, 18, 30, 35, 36, 37, 40, 51, 54, 68, 94, 99, 164, 165, 173, 175, 179, 183 parody 67, 184 petticoat 62 phenomenology 183 pillars 4, 131 planes 150 Poiret, Paul 22, 50, 55, 56, 180 polyarchy 171, 172 Polhemus, Ted 52 politicization 21 postmodernity 91, 92, 93 production of culture 129–31 protectionism 151, 169, 170 qipao 100, 154 racial “othering” bell hooks 109–10, 113 imperialist nostalgia 110–12 racial fetishism 22, 50, 64, 65, 69–74, 180 racial plagiarism xv racism 29, 57, 170 biological 50, 65–9, 180 rebellion 13, 117 reciprocity 28, 95, 118

217

reterritorialization 22, 144, 154–7, 175, 201 Robertson, Roland 151, 154, 158, 159, 162, 182 Said, Edward 16, 28, 55, 57, 58 sari 53, 61–2 savage 10, 51 Scafidi, Susan xiv, 27, 114, 118, 179, 208 scholarship xv, 29, 49, 106, 111, 115, 179 Segre-Reinach, Simona 58 semiotics 13–14 sentiments 93, 95 sexuality 70, 89 silk x, 55, 56, 62, 69, 174 Simmel, Georg 51, 57, 64, 179, 180 simulation 92 skin 39, 42, 62, 65, 67, 69, 77, 98, 109, 180 slavery xv, 70, 76, 88, 103, 114, 181 Smelik, Anneke 162 solidarity mechanical 6 moral 6, 21 organic 6, 21 social class 4, 15, 18, 106, 107 Social Darwinism 50, 57–9, 180 social life 14, 21, 155 social sciences 4, 10, 17, 58, 149, 155 Square, Jonathan xv steam engines 150 Steele, Valerie 70 stereotypes 22, 30, 37, 38, 39, 65, 68, 69, 120, 124, 125, 162, 180 structuralism 13–14 subordination 4, 49 Sumner, William Graham 16–17 superiority 16, 30, 58, 168 supremacy 52, 109 symbols 3, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 37, 43, 96 taste 18–19 tattoo 43–5 Japanese 43 pe’a 43 tribal 43 territorialization 21, 146, 149

218 theorists 4, 11, 21, 106, 108, 155, 168 thinkers 3 trains 150 transculturation 28, 105, 116, 118, 121, 127–9, 179 transportation 150 typology 51, 64, 70, 86, 180, 181

Index Veblen, Thorstein 106 Vionnet, Madeleine 22, 50, 55, 56, 180 Weber, Max 3–5, 6, 21, 106, 178 Wikipedia 26 Williams, Raymond 11, 12 world dress 167–9

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