Cultural Appropriation Analysis

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Fashion brands are quick to apologise after appropriation-related controversies. Is this what fashion is all about ? And how is it manifested in cat-walk high fashion? Cultural appropriation raises many issues, for example the difference between appropriation and appreciation. Cultural appropriation is something that not many people talk about, some considers that just because it has a cultural background that does not mean people cannot enjoy it and on the other hand, others believe that everything is cultural appropriation. For example, Karlie Kloss from the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show runway in a war headdress and not much else. The question rises, why do fashion brands have a bad reputation for knowing the difference between cultural appropriation and appreciation? (Baker, 2012) Therefore, it shows that the designers do not take enough time to do basic research, before launching or promoting clothing lines or campaigns that use misappropriated cultural references. As research shows that people of colour are constantly bombarded with acts of cultural appropriation, but with the help of celebrities, 2013 had to be cultural appropriation’s most visible year yet, this was stated on the Arts-Entertainment blog, (Sanchez , 2013). The main topics, that I will be focusing on are the Native American culture, Black culture, Japanese and Indian culture, using different cultural appropriation examples from both fashion and popular culture, to gain a better understanding of how aspects of these cultures have been appropriated....

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...l appropriation is the British pop singer Lily Allen, who decided to compose a song to protest, regarding pop music’s sexy standards in music video. “Don’t need to shake my a*s for you cause I’ve got a brain” Allen’s idea of how the pop music industry is today (Manders, 2013), which led to heated and debated controversies regarding racism and cultural appropriation. Evidently, music videos are stereotyping the portrayal of black women. And relating this back to the Miley Cyrus incident, using black women dancer, acting improper shows a tool of objection (Lang, 2013). Even though Allen denied any intension of using black women as an accessory in her music video, and only trying to show how the music industry treats black women (Allen, 2013).

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