Bevin's Stuff

shoomlah:

chocolaterabbit:

omgthatdress:

When differentiating between cultural exchange an cultural appropriation, this first and most important thing that you have to acknowledge is that it’s fucking complicated. While there are no hard-set rules about what isn’t appropriation, there are a lot of things that definitely are…

…When it comes down to it the best way for people to avoid cultural appropriation is to do their research and listen to what people of color have to say. And it goes beyond asking [ethnicity] friends what they think because a lot of people need to learn about domination and privilege. If someone from an underprivileged group is saying something’s offensive they should be listened to when they’re often accused of nitpicking.

Bingo.  The original article isn’t perfect, but that’s a pretty damn nice tl;dr summary of the thing.  It’s so easy to immediately get on the defensive when someone calls you out on your (usually unintentional) racist/culturally appropriative nonsense (I am completely guilty of pulling this shit in the past), but it feels way better to actually back off and listen to what people have to say.  Plus it ends up making your art/design way better, and way more informed.

Also the idea that not wearing a corset is appropriation is far fetched to me…but meh.

Also yes to this.  It just seems weird to conflate the dress reform movement with racism in a way that muddies the topic at hand.