appropriation / appreciation

this may turn out more of a rant than a fairly balanced argument because i think i know where my loyalties lie on this one.

first of all, i personally think there's a stark contrast between "cultural appropriation" and appreciation and fascination. globalisation has brought light to many cultures people have considered primitive of "backwards" and i think this is the most important part because if you study imperialism particularly in southeast asia / asia in general in the 17th-18th century [ because this is the only kind i know forgive my ignorance and lack of broader perspective, maybe i'm just being pushy about my beliefs ] you will understand that much of spreading influence was a result of "white man's burden". the asians with their deep-rooted cultures and whom found comfort in traditionalist ideas were shoved into a blinding light of commercialism, that perhaps tainted many different cultures. so we get to see, i suppose, what the "white people" [ a term i will use loosely because quite frankly i hate it ] thought of many of the asian and other so-called exotic cultures. [ exotic is another one of those weird words because like just because it's different from yours that doesn't mean it has to be globally classified as exotic; cheeseburgers were exotic in asia before macdonalds blew up globally ] anyway back to appropriation. "white people" didn't exactly love us and took it upon themselves as a personal mission to socialise western behaviours. this would tamper with cultural beliefs don't you think? i mean look at us now, scaling into singapore specifically. we were a land sat on the richest of malay heritage. we had ingrained into our system a belief we thought would be unshakeable but as the days age [ and so do the people because i like to make up pseudo-witty remarks about ageing population which really doesn't make me laugh as much as it pressures me when i think about it so perhaps it is a story for another day when i get a degree in political science and can make every single politically incorrect joke ] how many people wear the baju kurung out anymore? it is our culture isn't it, and a long time ago, it was about the only thing people wore out. and fuck that look how they wrapped different influences around even the traditional clothes -- how many people wear the real shit anymore? but its justifiable, hey, it's called fucking globalisation. we adapt to orientate ourselves to the current state of things and this is the world we live in now. but, hey, again you could argue that there are so many places where heritage is untouched by time. i think i would cite India [ again based on personal experience; i apologize for my ignorance ] because i know certain women who still don saris everyday, complete with the red smear of a bindi. and you would argue that these women get oppressed because of what they wear [ honestly what even why would people think that maybe again this is my ignorance after all i've lived in a racially diverse society all my life ] but really how would a "white person" who wears it, who can hardly understand it's poignance in the indian culture and so wears it to a tacky, over commercialised event like coachella get appropriation? she's just fascinated if not my the beauty of the bindi, it's by how beautiful the bindi looks on her. there is no appropriation here only because that culture was seized, westernized, socialised the minute the british flag was mounted everywhere. [ this is really what i feel and i doubt anyone will read this because really i like to type long passages because who even has the patience to deal with my ramblings? ] and henna. for that, i really really rEALLY DO NOT SEE THE CULTURAL APPROPRIATION? maybe it's the context i was raised upon but from what i've gathered, it's not a cultural thing. the people of the middle east and india and anywhere else around that area had lathered themselves in henna due to the immense heat in places surrounding the equator that kept them cool. and it became a tradition i suppose, when people realised how pretty it looked. so how is that an appropriation?

bottom line is, don't moralise i suppose. i suppose we don't have the right to pass judgments [ even when i do it all the time ] because really some people are trying to appreciate these endangered cultures, trying to preserve what's left of it. and that itself shouldn't be labelled appropriation. i think that's downright courage because so many of us don't have the capacity to appreciate our own heritage anymore. so when someone else adopts what you thought was unique to a certain group of people, think about it. how many people still practice such things anymore? when they pick up what you left behind, it's not their fucking fault. its yours. [ now i'm moralizing but really this post has gone places it wasn't supposed to go and i didn't expect this length but oh well i'm quite impressed with myself i never knew i had the patience ]

so adieu till the next time i decide to over-analiyse and rage about little things people do that bug me.

-dina xx