Cultural Appropriation In Society

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Cultural appropriation can be defined as the process of borrowing and changing the meaning of cultural products, slogans, images and elements of fashion. In todays society we see more and more of this, especially in the celebrity world. This essay will give insight as to what cultural appropriation is and it will examine the reasons and consequences of celebrities that “borrow” from other cultures.
Fordham University Law Professor Susan Scafidi defines cultural appropriation as “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 …show more content…

For one, it is seen as being exploitative because it takes away the cultures credability they deserve. People that appropriate culture, especially in the arts and music form, usually use negative stereotypes and are very degrading to the minority culture. Another issue when it comes to cultural appropriation is that the history, beliefs and traditions of some cultures can be distorted. As a result, the history of cultures can be lost.
In our society today there are many celebrities that appropriate culture. Whether it be intentional or not it is a worldwide phenomenon. These celebrities include Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Katy Perry. Katy Perry is considered the “queen of cultural appropriation” when it comes to her music videos and performances. Katy Perry tends to be extreme at this and whether she know it or not she is upsetting many different cultural …show more content…

The royal image of a royal woman would be elaborate grown, jewellery, plaited wig, hair ornaments and scented cone. The clothing that a royal woman would wear was sheaths with broad shoulder straps, the sheaths were decorated with gold thread and colourful beadwork. Egyptian elite had hairdressers that took care of their hair. Woman wore head pieces, wigs which often had braided pieces with beads. Elite Egyptian woman enhanced their appearance with make up.
Katy Perry is appropriating the Egyptian culture by wearing a costume that represents Cleopatra. The clothes she is wearing resembles the cloths an elite woman would wear but the clothes that Perry is wearing is more revealing and this show that she has no respect for the culture. Katy appropriates by wearing a head piece and a wig that is braided. She is conveying herself as an elite woman. She also wears make up like how the Egyptians used to wear and she also had the eye of Horus painted on her eye. Many people were offended by this music video because they felt like it was being racist and was not a true representation of the Egyptian

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