Madame Thursday

Tartan

moniquill:

doobidoob:

Why is it okay for non Scots (or rather non celts, but I’m focusing specifically on Scotland in this post) to appropriate tartan? I don’t get it!

That tartan belongs to a specific clan, a family, whose heritage (and my culture) is being reduced to a miniskirt in Hot Topic. I mean, we’ve had to fight for our national identity; we’ve had to fight to be freaking recognized as our own people; our culture was made illegal in our own country and we’ve been the subject to mass genocide in the past. We’ve got a lot of baggage as a country, so why are there no social justice warriors out there fighting to stop the appropriation of Scottish culture? Is it because we’re mostly white?

Seriously? It’s okay to appropriate some cultures but not others?

EXPLAIN!!!!!

Ok so. Whenever anyone says something along the lines of ZOMG PLAID APPROPRIATES SCOTTISH PEOPLE, I have to laugh. Because I know some stuff about plaid.

Firstly, that not all plaid is Tartan - Tartan being the specific patterns representing specific scottish clans. Most fashion is plaid, not tartan.

Secondly, that the whole tartan thing was largely invented in the 19th century.

Check it out

“James Logan’s romanticised work The Scottish Gael, published in 1831, was one such publication which led the Scottish tartan industry to invent clan tartans.^[28] The first publication showing plates of clan tartans was the Vestiarium Scoticum published in 1842.”

It’s true that the people of the British isles have been weaving cloth with a crosshatch pattern roughly since they worked out how to dye wool, but it was -just clothes- until some super-romanticized exotified fucking fad in the 19th century.

But that said, hey, I will totally back serious Scottish people who are petitioning for the removal of specific tartan patterns from popular use in fashion; to my knowledge any plaid that I buy and wear (generally in form of flannel shirts and PJ pants) is just plaid and not tartan, but if a Scottish person saw me wearing it and said ‘hey that’s actually [this specific tartan] and you don’t have the right to wear it’ you better believe that I’d actually stop wearing that garment. Because i do in fact make it my business not to hurt people if I can avoid it and it is not that important to me to be able to keep wearing a specific article of clothing.

But really, I’ve never heard a Scottish person bring this up. I’ve only ever heard it brought up by Americans of Scottish descent who are uncomfortable in conversations of cultural appropriation that aren’t focusing on them.

You’re upset that no one is being a legitimate voice about Tartan? Be one.

I don’t blog about tartan because I am not Scottish. 

Oh, moniquill. How is it that you remain so quality and so awesome? I really just wish I knew the secret to your mighty powers because you. You’re just so wonderful and a treasure here on Tumblr, I gotta say. 

Thank you for knowing your history and doing your research and sharing with the class. 

Also, gotta love the assumption that Scottish will always equal white and that nobody of color could possibly EVER have Scottish heritage and therefore a right to wear specific clan tartans, and that you can just TELL by looking who is and isn’t Scottish or Scottish-descended!

(via karnythia)

Just a quick PSA

Since I’m seeing it on my dashboard from various sources. 

You may not want to have anything to do with Toxic Vision clothing.

Why?

Because they engage in cultural appropriation and shittery such as white women in faux-headdresses, and war paint, as you can see right here: http://toxicvisionclothing.tumblr.com/post/6197174483/new-toxic-vision-collection-warriors-for-sale

And when called out on it by ACTUAL NATIVE PEOPLE, their response was merely to tell them to take down the photos rather than apologize and remove those photos from their catalog, as you can see here: http://mycultureisnotatrend.tumblr.com/post/6352548222/please-remove-my-photo-from-my-blog-as-you-do-not-have#disqus_thread

This all happened last year in 2011 and I have yet to see any acknowledgment from Toxic Vision about it, and the photos of their fuckery remain up, as though they’re proud of the way they not only appropriate, but of how they demean and sexualize Native Women this way (which contributes heavily to the far higher rates at which Native and Indigenous women are raped).

If you want to buy, reblog, and support their stuff, that’s your decision. But understand what you’re supporting and giving your cash to if you do.

Good Pagan Tips

velocicrafter:

tide-and-wave:

littleojibwe:

sjbdoing:

pagantips:

Worship whatever gods you feel work for you! Like the Celtic gods? The Norse? Egyptian? Even Greek gods? Go right ahead. No one should dictate to you what gods you worship. 

…This needs a caveat.

Be aware of the culture you’re taking them from, especially if you’re white. Cultural appropriation is not cool, and odds are your preconceptions of the religion and the gods are prooobably going to be misinformed.

No one can tell you what gods to worship, except people of that culture, especially if there’s a history of colonialism involved.

THIS^^

The commentary ♥

the bolded.

not like white folks need another “it’s ok because I’m honoring this culture!” sort of excuse for appropriating whenever whatever however they think will enrich their lives at the expense of others

(via karnythia)

Tiki Culture=Cultural Appropriation of the Worst kind.

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

soydulcedeleche:

Do you know who Native Hawaiians are? They are the poorest, most worse off ethnic group in the United States because when the U.S. stole, yes, STOLE the Hawaiian islands (Hawaii was a sovereign independent country) they were populated by Hawaiian Natives who were all killed off and/or stripped of their land, culture and language. Only in the 70’s were they able to reclaim whatever bits of their culture they managed to retain in secret but not before AMERICANS reduced it to Tiki culture and kitchsy exotic artifacts.

To this day these people are suffering with no end in sight and NO help at all. Most are homeless! Everything was taken from them and along came WWII and all the racist douchefucks decided to make Native Hawaiians sacred Tiki Gods just cute little souvenir relics. They created 34058948756 Hawaiian pin ups of which all were white women.

And now Pin Up culture continues to usurp Native Hawaiian dress, Gods and general aesthetics shamelessly. Grass skirts, leis, Hula, Tiki Gods, their bright floral prints, etc. They have been reduced to just that….As if they arent real, valuable, horribly oppressed people with a rich language, culture and customs. Its a slap in the face from the same careless white people who didnt give a fuck about them and left them dying and on the streets without anything.

Everywhere you look Asians are claiming to be “Hawaiian” and everytime you look up a photo of  Hawaiian you are liable to find nothing but tan asian people and not one single Native Hawaiian. Basically asians immigrants to Hawaii have also appropriated Hawaiian culture and identities and are now even perpetrating as something they arent and further obfuscating Hawaiians plight.

Everytime some douchefuck with no Native Hawaiian ancestry (or 1/16th of it) who happened to be born in Hawaii insists on being called Hawaiian it is SPIT in the face of REAL Native Hawaiians. Hawaiian is an ethnicity, a nationality, a culture. Either you are born one or you arent. Being born in a Sioux reservation wouldnt make you Sioux by birth, either.

And no Samoans arent the Natives of Hawaii! Native Hawaiians are Hawaiis natives. Samoans are the natives of *gasp* SAMOA!!!!! Right race, wrong nationality. Hawaiians are polynesian and do look alot like Samoans, the Maori and Tahitians, who, not surprisingly have also been raped and pillaged by white colonizers. However they DONT look at all asian unless they are mixed with them. Get a fuckin clue, people.

Some are still even ignant enough to try to argue Native Hawaiians dont exist because thats like calling yourself Californian. Yeah, if California was a sovereign country before maybe there’d be a comparison, assholes. How do you just erase an entire ethnic group like that?

There are less than 3000 Native Hawaiians left at this point. I am sure in just one generation when they are finally dead and gone the U.S. will suddenly recognize them and give them useless scraps.

Its the plan.

Don’t be an ignant douchefuck. RESPECT people and their culture. Read. And not just what seems convenient to you, either. :)

For all the white people living there who cry about how mean all 3000 of those people are oppressing them.

(Source: bad-dominicana)

Cultural Appropriation: Dreadlocks

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

curiouslycool:

racismschool:

Are Dreadlocks really cultural appropriation?

YES

Here’s why:

Dreadlocks originated first with Jamaican Rastafarians and then in Indian Sages and Yogis. Specifically it was started by holy men. These men renounced all of their worldly belongings (Including combs) and as a result their hair started (and remained) to turn into dreadlocks. In the beginning, it was actually something very beautiful to show that you’d given yourself and all that you possessed to GOD. 

Then, it turned into something ugly. When these holy people were seen by others, they were looked down on. Seen as less than because as they gave up all they had, that also meant they gave up their money. They were the poorest of the poor and the dreadlock became a sign of being poor, dirty and less than human.

This was an extremely spiritual symbol. It was not a fad or something people did to show their love of weed. 

As time went on, the Indian culture did not see anything terribly interesting about the dreadlocks. However, Jamaicans as well as those in the Caribbean thought otherwise. They believed that the dreadlocks were part of a religious lifestyle and actually considered the hair to be holy and powerful.

Dreadlocks are believed to have made it to the USA during the time of slavery. Both Black slaves as well as Indian slaves were captured and both brought this holy symbol and belief with them. 

For the ignorant that want to get dreadlocks because they are Bob Marley fans or because they “Like the Rastafarian lifestyle.” I say, FUCK YOU. Many of you believe that the “Lifestyle” you like so much is about “Relaxing and smoking weed.” Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, if Bob Marley was any kind of representation for your wanting the locks in the first place, you know absolutely NOTHING about Bob Marley.

He was a truly spiritual man. His hair, his lyrics and the way he lived his life were representative of this. (Yes, he did some questionable things. That isn’t what this post is about though) For you to take a spiritual symbol and chalk it up to your love of weed, is not only appropriation, it is down right disgusting and cruel. There is this gross misconception that just because religion is a weapon, an afterthought or something to reference during political debate in this country that it is the same in others. IT IS NOT. Your actions are shameful and mean. You are acting disrespectfully and you have chosen to do so with no forethought or concern for who you are hurting.

This “Hair style” that you are choosing to believe is about sticking it to your parents, smoking weed, “loving” Bob Marley (even thought you clearly know nothing about him) or even about “Love and peace” is SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT. It is just not bigger than that TO YOU. It isn’t “That big a deal” TO YOU. That is how you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are in fact a bigoted cultural appropriator. You just don’t give a damn. Privilege and entitlement reign supreme. 

I have no respect or kindness for those that chose willful ignorance. It took me less than three seconds to find this information on Google. I don’t mean, it took three-ish seconds guys. I mean, I timed myself and found page after page after page of this information. I mean, I timed myself and withing those three seconds, I found more than one page that answered every single question I had. What is your excuse? You are CHOOSING to be a racist, bigoted, cultural appropriating piece of garbage. It is not okay.

 

[Image: A white cat with a small red and gold mitre (aka a Pope’s hat) tied on it’s head with the caption: “Bless This Post”.]

reblogging for white cat in a pope hat

(via karnythia)

usernames of white girls who tag shit #headdress #fashion

garconniere:

have usernames like:

• gypsylicious
• runfreelikewolves
• caught in a dreamcatcher
• gypsyocean
• the massacre alive

you can’t even make this shit up.

First World Art Problems.

jhameia:

thestoutorialist:

bossymarmalade:

havecrayonswilltravel:

glockgal:

havecrayonswilltravel:

glockgal:

havecrayonswilltravel:

My sweet, coming of age story that was supposed to be about a little girl discovering the wonders of British India, magic and growing into herself is morphing into some horror fantasy beast.

WHOOPS.

I need a better resource for Hindu mythology than Wikipediaaaahhhhh.

LOL ‘wonders’ indeed. One wonders why the British are there.

Exploitative conquering fuckheads aside, I hadn’t actually decided whether I wanted to make it accurate and critical or slam on the rose colored glasses and do this with painfully obvious shades of Kipling (because damn personal responsibility, I like Kipling) before the crazy jilted lover showed up plotting to kill a house full of posh British people.

Which I’m not sure if that sort of addresses the issue right there or not…  But when a mythology gives you flesh eating, shape changing ghouls with venomous fingernails, you are pretty much obligated to find a way to work that into the story.

This mythology (and still very current and very alive religion AND culture) belongs to a billion + people in the world, and it’s distributed in a variety of ways depending on where you worship - but there is one story that threads the beauty of Hinduism as well as the ancient mythological aspects in all variations of Hinduism. It was written by Hindus, for Hindus with glorious Hindu heroes doing the battles with fantastic Hindu villains.   I’d recommend you reading The Ramayan.  There are a billion versions of this story - I read the comicbook as a child; I watched the televised series as a teenager; I read a random (and rather sexy) novelization and feasted my eyes on a beautiful graphic design version as an adult. It still brings tears to my eyes.  

Just make sure you don’t watch, like, Sita Sings the Blues, please. Or any other version depicted by people who think that Hinduism is just a kooky-cool myth with elephant gods and ten-headed demons and Kali-Ma and rakshas, available for white people to congratulate themselves for foraging through or mocking or playing with or consuming. The mythology is still pretty prevalent for modern Hindus.

(and as a kid I also read The Little Princess and all the other British depictions of ‘Hindoo’. That’s growin’ up colonialised for ya!)

I will definetly look into it.  I do want to keep as much accuracy to Hinduism as I can, given it won’t be the focus of the story and there are already other bits of changes I need to make to the story to suit that may turn historical accuracy a bit on it’s head.  

Thank you so much for the rec and letting me know what to watch out for.  I was planning on focusing less on the religion and more on the mythological aspect (or more the beings that inhabit that religion?  I can’t think of a better way to put it), but given the two are intrinsically tied together and the setting of the story is actually in a country it’s practiced, seeing these things in context would be excellent.  I always have a hard time finding decent context for these things.

Based on your conversation here, I strongly urge you to not use any aspects of Hinduism AT ALL.  You can’t just arbitrarily separate the beings/avatars of Hinduism from the religion; that’s not how it works and it will just look like you trying to use them as stock monsters without any regard for the living religion.  I am especially wary about you using rakshasas as a “monster of the week” as they have very specific context.

Seriously, if you’re doing the British Raj Kipling Appreciation and all your characters are white British people and Hinduism isn’t the focus, just don’t go there.  For some of us the British Raj is horror beast enough.

Rakshasas as MOTW material I think can be firmly laid at the feet of the show Supernatural. They were used in the episode “Everyone’s afraid of clowns.” As it turns out, TV shows on the CW are not the best resource.

Echoing bossymarmalade, especially bolded.

Please, havecrayonswilltravel, listen to what bossymarmalade and glockgal are telling you. I mean REALLY listen to them. They are speaking from truth and lived experience. The world has enough literature that demeans, disrespects, belittles and misrepresents the religions of non-Western people already, especially from Western sources. Particularly white ones. 

I don’t know your race, but please don’t go through with such a project if it’s going to be anything like what you describe. Take what bossymarmalade and glockgal are saying to heart. What they’re saying is important and you need to listen closely. They know of whence they speak. Print their words out and pin them somewhere next to your computer screen. 

Bossymarmalade is particularly correct when, as is in bold, she tells you that the British Raj was horror enough for so many people, both in the past and the present. The British Raj and colonialism in India are nothing to be celebrated or fawned over or admired. 

Just say no to cultural appropriation, please. 

School Project

svnoyi:

cherokeechandrika:

I picked the Cherokee Tribe because of its culture and great history. I hope I do this tribe justice.

You’d do better if you didn’t make shit up and prance around “playing indian” and whatnot. What kind of school project is this anyway??

We dont live in fucking teepees. Chandrika doesn’t mean moonlight. And we arent Aztec. Where are you even getting this?

Holy crap. I actually went and looked at that tumblr. It’s in the running to beat out the woman who put on a headwrap with antler, bindi, cheongsam, and fake braided hair with a feather to talk being ~~~~*spiritual*~~~~ in her magical outerspace deer forest or something. 

Also? This person is basically just stealing images from things like the Visit North Carolina website and other pages and just re-posting them. 

I actually looked up “Chandrika” just to see where she’s getting that from. Basic googling says that it may mean “blessed moonlight” in either Sanskrit or Hindi (depending on which site you’re looking at).  Also, it is either a Malayalam newspaper founded in 1934 by the Kerala Muslim Printing and Publishing Co Ltd or a brand of herbal soap that’s been around since 1940.

Congrats, ignorant clueless white girl. You didn’t even manage to confine yourself to the correct side of the globe when appropriating this shit. I mean, how do you find out that the word means what it means without realizing that it has NOTHING TO DO with the Cherokee people or their language. 

I really, really am hoping this is a genius level type trolling or something. But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it was completely genuine either. 

(via atsilvsgi)