The cinema of the United States
has dominated most of the world's medias markets since the 1910s, and
is the chief medium by which the international community sees American
fashions, customs, scenery, and way of life. The majority of the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time
have been made either entirely or partially in the United States or
were financed by U.S. production companies, even with limited or no
artistic involvement. The top 50 constituents set and filmed entirely in the United Kingdom, like some of the Harry Potter franchise, or with deliberately and quintessentially British source material, like the Lord of the Rings
series, count as American productions for solely financial reasons.
This coopting of the works of other nations and cultures into "American"
works (and the hegemonic ability to do as such) forms part of many
critical definitions of Americanization.
During the Cold War, Americanization was the primary soft power method chosen to counter the more hard power-orientated polar process of Sovietization
around the world. Education, schools, and particularly universities
became the main target for Americanization. Resistance to
Americanization within the university community restrained its
effectiveness, though it was still much more successful than Sovietization. Americanization has become more prevalent since the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991, which left the United States as the world's sole superpower
(the full soft power of China as a potential competing influence has yet
to manifest within Occidental pop culture). Americanization found yet
another gear with the advent of widespread high-speed Internet use in the mid-2000s (notably heavily censored in China).
Criticism of Americanization has included opposition to U.S. investments in Europe during the 1960s, which subsided by the 1970s. A new dimension of anti-Americanism is fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology.
Definitions
Like many concepts in social sciences, the term has been called ambiguous, however, a rough consensus on its meaning exists. Harm G. Schröter
who focused on the economic dimension of the process, defined it as "an
adapted transfer of values, behaviours, institutions, technologies,
patterns of organization, symbols and norms from the [United States] to
the economic life of other states".Mel van Elteren defined this in a negative way, as "a process in which
economic, technological, political, social, cultural and/or
socio–psychological influences emanating from America or Americans
impinge on values, norms, belief systems, mentalities, habits, rules,
technologies, practices, institutions and behaviors of non-Americans".
Media and popular culture
Hollywood, the American film and television industry,
has since the 1910s dominated most of the world's media markets. It is
the chief medium by which people across the globe see American fashions,
customs, scenery, and way of life. The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket selling movies in the world. The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made entirely or partially in the United States.
In general, the U.S. government
plays only a facilitating role in the dissemination of films,
television, books, journals etc. However, after the occupation of the
former Axis countries during World War II,
the U.S. government played a major role in restructuring the media in
those countries to eliminate totalitarianism and to promote democracy
against fascism and Nazism.
For example, in Germany, the American occupation headquarters, Office
of Military Government (OMGUS), began its own newspaper based in Munich in 1945. Die Neue Zeitung was edited by German and Jewish émigrés who had fled to the United States
before the war. Its mission was to destroy Nazi cultural remnants and
encourage democracy by exposing Germans to the ways American culture
operated. There was great detail on sports, politics, business,
Hollywood, fashions, and international affairs.
Despite the restrictions placed by communist authorities, Americanization would continue to spread out over the Iron Curtain even before the collapse of the Soviet Union and accelerated afterwards. The first McDonald's in Soviet Russia had a grand opening on Moscow's Pushkin Square on 31 January 1990 with approximately 38,000 customers waiting in hours long lines, breaking company records at the time. By 1997, there were 21 locations of the Russian chain.
The importation of Little Golden Books
(Petits Livres d'Or) to France under the publisher Cocorico after World
War II is discussed as a subtle way of implementing cultural
productions that "presented the economic principles of American
liberalism in a favorable light" in a study by Cécile Boulaire.
American films have been historically extremely popular around the
world and often dominate cinemas as a result of a high demand of U.S.
product exported to consumers to clear away the outlook of World War II. The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made entirely or partially in the United States. Often, part of the negotiating in free trade agreements between the U.S. and other nations involves screen quotas. One such case is Mexico, which abolished screen quotas after the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the U.S. and Canada.
Many American musicians, such as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, are popular worldwide and have sold over 500 million albums each. Michael Jackson's album Thriller, at 100 million sales, is the best-selling album of all time internationally.
Baseball's
international spread is largely because of historical American
influence on the rest of the world; the sport was seen as being
connected to military ventures abroad.
The desire to spread baseball came partially from the American values
it was said to impart, as it was identified in the late 19th century as
being egalitarian in nature. It is now prevalent in parts of Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, having become an integral part of local cultures.
Basketball and other American sports also played a role in spreading American influence into the world.
In addition, the United States's influence played a role in elevating
and altering the role of sports in general on a global level, such as in
the Olympic Games.
Many of the world's biggest computer companies are also U.S.-based, such as Microsoft, Apple, Intel, HP Inc., Dell, and IBM, and much of the software bought worldwide is created by U.S.-based companies. Carayannis and Campbell note, "The [United States] occupies, also in global terms, a very strong position in the software sector."
Even as far back as 1900, some observers saw "Americanization" as synonymous with progress and innovation. In Germany during the 1920s, the American efficiency movement
was called "rationalization" and was a powerful social and economic
force. In part, it looked explicitly at American models, especially Fordism.
"Rationalization" meant higher productivity and greater efficiency and
promised that science would bring prosperity. More generally, it
promised a new level of modernity and was applied to economic production
and consumption as well as public administration. Various versions of rationalization were promoted by industrialists and social democrats,
by engineers and architects, by educators and academics, by
middle-class feminists and social workers, by government officials and
politicians of many parties. As ideology and practice, rationalization
challenged and transformed not only machines, factories, and vast
business enterprises but also the lives of middle-class and
working-class Germans.
Department stores threatened the more local businesses, with low
prices and chain-managed stores. The small businesses were determined
and fought back to protect their source of income from the U.S. market.
During the Cold War, Americanization was the method to counter the processes of Sovietization
around the world. Education, schools, and particularly universities
became the main target for Americanization. However, resistance to
Americanization of the university community restrained it, although it was still much more successful than Sovietization.
From 1950 to 1965, American investments in Europe soared by 800% to $13.9 billion, and in the European Economic Community
they rose ten times to $6.25 billion. Europe's share of American
investments increased from 15% to 28%. The investments were of very high
visibility and generated much talk of Americanization. Even so,
American investments in Europe represented only 50% of the total
European investment and American-owned companies in the European
Economic Community employ only 2 or 3% of the total labor force. The
basic reason for U.S. investments is no longer lower production costs,
faster economic growth, or higher profits in Europe but the desire to
maintain a competitive position based largely on American technological
superiority. Opposition to U.S. investments was originally confined to
France but later spread to other European countries; for example,
Finland has been considered a particularly Americanized country, even
"the most Americanized in Europe", since the 1960s, which is why there
was concern about Americanization at first, and some tried to limit it
by regulating American television programs on the Finnish television channels.
Public opinion began to resent American advertising and business
methods, personnel policies, and the use of the English language by
American companies. Criticism was also directed toward the international
currency system which was blamed for inflationary tendencies as a
result of the dominant position of the U.S. dollar.
However, by the 1970s, European investments in the U.S. had increased
even more rapidly than vice versa, and Geir Lundestad finds there was
less talk of the Americans buying Europe.
Recent trends
Americanization has become more prevalent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Until the late 1980s, the communist press could be counted on to be
especially critical of the United States. To some extent, Russia
continued that role under Vladimir Putin, and there are similar tendencies in China. Putin in 2013 published an opinion piece in The New York Times
that attacked the American tendency to see itself as an exceptional
indispensable nation. "It is extremely dangerous," Putin warned, "to
encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the
motivation."
A new dimension of anti-Americanism is fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology. Americanization has arrived through widespread high-speed Internet and smartphone technology since 2008, with a large fraction of the new apps and hardware being designed in Silicon Valley. In Europe, there is growing concern about excess Americanization through Google, Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, and Uber,
among many other American Internet-based corporations. European
governments have increasingly expressed concern about privacy issues, as
well as antitrust and taxation issues regarding the new American
giants. There is a fear that they are significantly evading taxes and
posting information that may violate European privacy laws. The Wall Street Journal in 2015 reported "deep concerns in Europe's highest policy circles about the power of U.S. technology companies."
In 1902, the British journalist William Stead used this term in the title of his book, The Americanization of the World, in which he discussed the growing popularity of the "American ideas".
Berghahn (2010) analyzes the debate on the usefulness of the
concepts of 'Americanization' and 'Westernization'. He reviews the
recent research on the European–American relationship during the Cold
War that has dealt with the cultural influence of the United States upon
Europe. He then discusses the relevant work on this subject in the
fields of economic and business history. Overall, the article tries to
show that those who have applied the concept of 'Americanization' to
their research on cultural or economic history have been well aware of
the complexities of trans-Atlantic relations in this period, whether
they were viewed as a two-way exchange or as a process of circulation.
Criticism
Some critics believe that the result of the rivalry between Sinicization
and Americanization may lead to the emergence of a third power or turn
one of the two into the actor with the most bargaining power. In the
midst of this competition, the interests and rights of local businesses
may be violated.
Others such as Francis Fukuyama argue that the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989 prompted a unipolar global capitalist reality that meant the
"end of history".
Some see this as a flawed view, mired in US exceptionalism. John Fousek
said "the triumphalism embedded in Francis Fukuyama's view that the end
of the Cold War marked the end of history, constitutes a new,
historically contingent variation on the ideology that framed conflict
in the beginning".
Instead Americanisation, in the eyes of Mary Nolan, is not an all
consuming force and what emerged during 1990 was "a multipolar global
order".
Therefore, the actual impact the U.S. and Americanisation has on the
globe is hotly debated and runs deep into modern political policymaking.
The traditional exceptional image of U.S. complete hegemonic power can
be "quite dangerous" because it prompted American intervention in Iraq
and Afghanistan, which just like in Vietnam, proved to show the
limitations of American power across the globe.
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. This can be especially controversial when members of a dominant culture borrow from minority cultures.
When cultural elements are copied from a minority culture by members of
a dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their
original cultural context – sometimes even against the expressly stated
wishes of members of the originating culture – the practice is often
received negatively.
Cultural appropriation can include the exploitation of another
culture's religious and cultural traditions, customs, dance steps,
fashion, symbols, language, history and music.
Cultural appropriation is considered harmful by various groups and individuals, including some indigenous people working for cultural preservation, those who advocate for collective intellectual property rights of the originating cultures, and some of those who have lived or are living under colonial rule. According to American anthropologist Jason Jackson, cultural appropriation differs from other modes of cultural change such as acculturation, assimilation, or diffusion.
Opponents of cultural appropriation see it as an exploitative
means in which cultural elements are lost or distorted when they are
removed from their originating cultural contexts. Such displays are
disrespectful and can even be considered a form of desecration. Cultural elements that may have deep meaning in the original culture may be reduced to "exotic" fashion or toys by those from the dominant culture.
Kjerstin Johnson has written that, when this is done, the imitator,
"who does not experience that oppression is able to 'play', temporarily,
an 'exotic' other, without experiencing any of the daily
discriminations faced by other cultures". The black American academic, musician, and journalist Greg Tate argued that appropriation and the "fetishizing" of cultures, in fact, alienates those whose culture is being appropriated.
The concept of cultural appropriation has also been subject to heavy criticism, debate, and nuance.
Critics note that the concept is often misunderstood or misapplied by
the general public and that charges of "cultural appropriation" are
sometimes misapplied to situations. For example, some scholars conclude
that trying food from a different culture or attempting to learn about a
different culture can not be considered an instance of cultural
appropriation.
Others state that the act of cultural appropriation, usually defined,
does not meaningfully constitute social harm or that the term lacks
conceptual coherence.
Additionally, the term can set arbitrary limits on intellectual freedom
and artists' self-expression, reinforce group divisions, or promote a
feeling of enmity or grievance rather than of liberation.
Overview
Russian Cossack man wearing the chokha, a clothing the Russian Cossacks appropriated from the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus along with other cultural traits
Cultural appropriation can involve the use of ideas, symbols,
artifacts, or other aspects of human-made visual or non-visual culture.
As a concept that is controversial in its applications, the propriety
of cultural appropriation has been the subject of much debate. Opponents
of cultural appropriation view many instances as wrongful appropriation
when the subject culture is a minority culture or is subordinated in
social, political, economic, or military status to the dominant culture or when there are other issues involved, such as a history of ethnic or racial conflict. Linda Martín Alcoff
writes that this is often seen in cultural outsiders' use of an
oppressed culture's symbols or other cultural elements, such as music,
dance, spiritual ceremonies, modes of dress, speech, and social
behaviour, when these elements are trivialised and used for fashion,
rather than respected within their original cultural context. Opponents
view the issues of colonialism, context, and the difference between
appropriation and mutual exchange as central to analysing cultural
appropriation. They argue that mutual exchange happens on an "even
playing field", whereas appropriation involves pieces of an oppressed
culture being taken out of context by a people who have historically
oppressed those they are taking from and who lack the cultural context
to properly understand, respect, or utilise these elements.
Academic discourse
The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation for the phrase was a 1945 essay by Arthur E. Christy, which discussed Orientalism. The term became widespread in the 1980s in discussions of post-colonial critiques of Western expansionism though the concept of "cultural colonialism"
had been explored earlier, such as in "Some General Observations on the
Problems of Cultural Colonialism" by Kenneth Coutts‐Smith in 1976.
Cultural and racial theorist George Lipsitz
has used the term "strategic anti-essentialism" to refer to the
calculated use of a cultural form outside of one's own to define oneself
or one's group. Strategic anti-essentialism can be seen in both
minority and majority cultures and is not confined only to the use of
the other. However, Lipsitz argues that when the majority culture
attempts to strategically anti-essentialize itself by appropriating a
minority culture, it must take great care to recognize the specific
socio-historical circumstances and significance of these cultural forms
so as not to perpetuate the already existing majority vs. minority
unequal power relations.
Historically, some of the most hotly debated cases of cultural
appropriation have occurred in places where cultural exchange is the
highest, such as along the trade routes in southwestern Asia and
southeastern Europe. Some scholars of the Ottoman Empire and ancient Egypt argue that Ottoman and Egyptian architectural traditions have long been falsely claimed and praised as Persian or Arab.[49]
In 2017, Mehgan Gallagher spoke about what exactly the debate
concerning cultural appropriation entails within the modern age,
specifically within the United States. She used contemporary examples of
cultural appropriation to highlight cases of controversy. In
particular, the Washington Redskins of the Nation Football League
provided an example that led into a broader conversation regarding the
representation of Native Americans when it came to sports mascots.
In 2021, Jason Baird Jackson,
attempted to create a model by which instances of cultural
appropriation could be understood systematically. He argues that
understanding the modes of cultural change most similar to cultural
appropriation is key to discussing the outcomes and implications of
instances of appropriation as their meaning are often used
interchangeably. Jackson offers his definition of appropriation as the
"structural inversion of assimilation",
being that it is an instance in which "a powerful group takes aspects
of the culture of a subordinated group, making them its own."
In 2023, Jonas R. Kunst, Katharina Lefringhausen, and Hanna
Zagefka set about to determine what were the differences between
cultural appropriation and genuine cultural change. They detailed what
they determined as the "dilemma of cultural ownership", a concept that
challenges the idea that "cultures are [not] discrete entities owned by
specific groups" and therefore do not have the ability to be stolen or
appropriated, and instead offers the rationale that the "impact of power
disparities" is too large to ignore in cases of cultural appropriation.
In 2024, Angela Gracia B Cruz, Yuri Seo, and Daiane Scaraboto
released the results of a study that went about determining strategies
consumers used to "self-authorize" how they consumed media that could be
considered to be culturally appropriated. They performed a six-yearlong
study on international K-Pop
fans concerning how they felt when it came to determining what was
cultural appreciation vs appropriation. One comment they chose to
highlight from redditor
named Sam said "Based on my experience, I've observed both. It depends
on the context. As an Asian-American, K-Pop fans in America is more
appreciation, as opposed to Koreaboos who just use Korean names for
comedy are appropriating."
Examples
Art, literature, iconography, and adornment
A model wears a Native American-inspired war bonnet while campaigning to support body modification in the workplace, 2015
A common example of cultural appropriation is the adoption of the iconography of another culture and its use for purposes that are unintended by the original culture or even offensive to that culture's mores.
For example, the use of Native American tribal names or images as mascots.
Author Kevin Bruyneel discuss the damage inflicted on indigenous
communities from the overwhelming presence of these symbols, as they
often reinforce colonial dynamics and perpetuate stereotypical, Euro-
American perspectives.
Other examples include people not from the originating culture wearing
jewelry or fashion that incorporates religious symbols such as the medicine wheel, or wearing items of deep cultural significance and status that must be earned, such as a war bonnet, without having earned the right. Authentic Native American war bonnets
are sacred ceremonial items earned by people of high status in a
traditional tribal society, much like military medals. People from
cultures who have this sacred regalia
typically consider it disrespectful and offensive when someone who has
not earned the right to wear one dons an authentic or imitation
headdress, whether as part of pretending to be Native American or as a costume or fashion statement.
Copying iconography from another culture's history, such as Polynesian tribal tattoos, Chinese characters, or Celtic art,
and wearing them without regard to their original cultural significance
may also be considered appropriation. Critics of the practice of
cultural appropriation contend that divorcing iconography from its
cultural context or treating it as kitsch risks offending people who venerate and wish to preserve their cultural traditions. A term among Irish people for someone who imitates or misrepresents Irish culture is Plastic Paddy.
The adoption of First Nations' art forms and strong geometric
forms was in sympathy with the Arts and Crafts Society's commitment to
modernist design but without serious consideration of the ethics of the
appropriation of Aboriginal motifs by Western artists. During the 1920s the works of artists like Frances Derham, Allan Lowe, Olive Nock borrowed or copied Aboriginal motifs. In 1930, Margaret Preston advocated the use of Indigenous Australian motifs in contemporary art. In 2017, Canadian visual artist Sue Coleman
garnered negative attention for appropriating and amalgamating styles
of indigenous art into her work. Coleman, who has been accused of
"copying and selling indigenous-style artwork," has described herself as
a "translator" of indigenous art forms, which drew further criticism.
In his open letter to Coleman, Kwakwak'awakw/Salish
Artist Carey Newman stressed the importance of artists being
accountable within the indigenous communities as the antidote to
appropriation.
Religion and spirituality
Many Native Americans have criticized what they deem to be the cultural appropriation of their sweat lodge and vision quest
ceremonies by non-Natives, and even by tribes who have not
traditionally had these ceremonies. They contend that there are serious
safety risks whenever these events are conducted by those who lack the
many years of training and cultural immersion required to lead them
safely, mentioning the deaths or injuries in 1996, 2002, 2004, and several high-profile deaths in 2009.
The modern New Age
movement frequently adopts spiritual ideas and practices from
non-Western cultures; according to York, these may include "Hawaiian Kahuna magic, Australian Aboriginaldream-working, South American Amerindianayahuasca and San Pedro ceremonies, Hindu Ayurveda and yoga, Chinese Feng Shui, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi." The movement has faced criticism for cultural imperialism exploiting intellectual and cultural property of indigenous peoples.
Bindi
From 2020 to the present, there has been a persistent issue regarding the white adoption and convolution of Hindu
(a religion originating from South Asia) religious practices, coining
them with the umbrella term of "spirituality". These were practices,
including the usage of the Evil Eye, Hamsa, etc., that people growing up as Hindus report being bullied for in their past, and even the present. For some members of the South Asian community, the wearing of a bindi dot as a decorative item by a non-Hindu can be seen as cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation is controversial in the fashion industry due to the belief that some trends commercialise and cheapen the ancient heritage of indigenous cultures.
There is debate about whether designers and fashion houses understand
the history behind the clothing they are taking from different cultures,
besides the ethical issues of using these cultures' shared intellectual property without consent, acknowledgement, or compensation. According to Minh-Ha T. Pham, writing for The Atlantic, accusations of cultural appropriation are often defended, instead, as cultural appreciation.
The necktie or the cravat was derived from a scarf worn by Croatian mercenaries fighting for Louis XIII, and the brightly coloured silk waistcoats popularised by Charles II of England were inspired by Ottoman, Indian, and Persian attire acquired by wealthy European travelers.
By the 19th century, the object of fascination among Europeans had shifted to Asian cultures. Regency-era dandies adapted the Indian churidars into slim-fittingpantaloons and frequently wore turbans within their own houses. Subsequently, Victorian-era gentlemen wore smoking caps based on the Islamic fez, and fashionable turn-of-the-century ladies wore Orientalist Japanese-inspired kimono dresses.[Moreover, this obsession with Orientalism was visible in how one company named its passenger shipping line "The Orient Line". During the tiki culture fad of the 1950s, white women frequently donned the qipao to give the impression that they had visited Hong Kong, although the dresses were frequently made by seamstresses in America using rayon rather than genuine silk. At the same time, teenage Teddy Girls wore Asian conical hats due to their exotic connotations.
In Mexico, the sombrero, which was associated with the mestizo peasant class, was adapted from an earlier hat which was introduced by Spanish colonists during the 18th century. This, in turn, was adapted into the cowboy hat worn by American cowboys after the US Civil War. In 2016, the University of East Anglia prohibited the wearing of sombreros to parties on campus in the belief that these could offend Mexican students, a move that was widely criticised.
In Britain, the rough tweed cloth clothing of the English, Irish and Scottish peasantry, including the flat cap and Irish hat were adopted by the upper classes as the British country clothing worn for sports such as hunting or fishing, in imitation of the Prince of Wales. The country clothing, in turn, was appropriated by the wealthy American Ivy League and later preppy subcultures during the 1950s and 1980s due to both its practicality and its association with the British upper class. During the same period, the British comedian Tommy Cooper was known for wearing a Fez throughout his performances.
When the keffiyeh became popular in the late 2000s, experts made a clear distinction between wearing a genuine scarf and wearing a cheaper, inauthentic one made in China. Palestinian independence
activists and socialists denounced the wearing of scarves not made in
Palestine as a form of cultural appropriation but encouraged fellow Muslims and progressively minded non-Muslim students to buy shemaghs made in the Herbawi factory to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people and improve the economy of the West Bank.In 2017, Topshop caused controversy by selling Chinese-made playsuits that imitated the keffiyeh pattern.
For the [Native American]
communities that wear these headdresses, they represent respect, power,
and responsibility. The headdress has to be earned, and gifted to a
leader in whom the community has placed their trust. When it becomes a
cheap commodity anyone can buy and wear to a party, that meaning is
erased and disrespected, and Native peoples are reminded that our
cultures are still seen as something of the past, as unimportant in
contemporary society, and unworthy of respect.
Both Victoria's Secret and Kloss issued apologies stating that they had no intentions of offending anyone.
The culturally significant Hindu festival, Holi, has been imitated and incorporated into fashion globally. For example, pop artist Pharrell Williams and Adidas
collaborated in 2018 to create the Holi-inspired apparel and shoe line,
"Hu Holi." The collection was stated to be a "trivialization of
traditions-concepts-symbols-beliefs of Hinduism," according to Raja Zed,
president of the Universal Society of Hinduism. The collection included
many items which contained leather, a violation of Hindu beliefs.
Ex-Archbishop Justin Welby of the Anglican Church said that the crucifix is "now just a fashion statement and has lost its religious meaning". Crucifixes have been incorporated into Japanese lolita fashion by non-Christians in a cultural context that is distinct from its original meaning as a Christian religious symbol.
In 2018, Gucci designers were criticised for sending white models for a catwalk at Milan fashion week wearing a Sikhreligious headpiece. Thousands of members from the Sikh community shared anger and disappointment that the brand had used Sikh sacred religious symbol for profit. Traditionally in Sikhism, a turban is worn by both men and women as a symbol of piety, honour, and spirituality, however, many people from Sikh community, including Avan Jogia, found it "offensive" and "irresponsible" for a white model wearing a turban.
The popularity of the 2018 Thai period drama "Love Destiny," which depicts the Ayutthaya Kingdom era, has sparked a trend of Cambodians adopting traditional Thai clothing, including the Sabai
and Thai-style jewelry. This trend raises concerns about cultural
appropriation. While this phenomenon might stem from admiration, critics
argue that it overshadows unique Cambodian sartorial traditions,
potentially leading to a decline in the popularity of garments like the
Cambodian Sampot.
However, Cambodia also grapples with ensuring the accuracy of its own
cultural representations, as evidenced by efforts to regulate costume
rentals at Angkor Wat.
An example of appropriation showcasing James and Mary Lowman wearing Kimonos, photographed ca 1909.
In June of 2019, Kim Kardashian launched a clothing line under the
name of "Kimono". This clothing line was centered around shapewear
lingerie, and the use of the word "kimono" seemed to largely be a play
on words for Kardashian's name. However, as noted to in Kalled's
article, there was immediate outrage from the Japanese community, both
located in the US and Japan itself. The controversy reached a point
where the mayor of Kyoto at the time sent a letter to Kardashian asking
her to reconsider the name, and the celebrity eventually relented. In
August of the same year, Jes Kalled published an article for Savvy
Tokyo. This article spoke on the nature of the controversy and also
featured interviews from Japanese citizens concerning the matter, with
some feeling confusion and disappointment, while others seemed to
dislike the notion of cultural appropriation at all.
Hairstyles, makeup, and body modifications
The
leaders of ancient Israel condemned the adoption of Egyptian and
Canaanite practices, especially cutting the hair short or shaving the
beard. At the same time, the Old Testament distinguishes the religious circumcision of the Hebrews from cultures, such as the Egyptians, where the practice had aesthetic or practical purposes.
During the early 16th century, European men imitated the short, regular haircuts and beards on rediscovered Ancient Greek and Roman statues. The curled hair favoured by the Regency eradandyBeau Brummel was also inspired by the classical era.
During the 17th century, Louis XIV began wearing wigs to conceal his baldness. Like many other French fashions, these were quickly appropriated by baroque era courtiers in England and the rest of Europe, to the extent that men often shaved their heads to ensure their wig fitted properly.
During the early 2000s, it was popular in the West to get tribal tattoos appropriated from African and Polynesian culture, as well as earlobe piercings known as plugs, famously associated with the Buddha.
Since the early 2000s, it has become increasingly popular for people not of East Asian or South Asian descent to get tattoos of Devanagari, Korean letters, or Han characters (traditional, simplified, or Japanese), often without knowing the actual meaning of the symbols being used. In 2000, footballer David Beckham received a tattoo in Hindi. Beckham does not have Indian heritage.
There is debate about non-black people wearing dreadlocks – a hairstyle many associate with African and African diaspora cultures such as JamaicanRastafari – and whether their doing so is cultural appropriation.
In 2016 a viral video was published of a young black student arguing
with a young white student and accusing him of cultural appropriation. In 2018, white actor Zac Efron was accused of cultural appropriation, when he posted a picture of himself in dreadlocks.
In Scotland and Ireland, non-speakers of Scottish Gaelic or Irish get tattoos in those languages, often not understanding what their tattoos mean.
While the history of colonisation and marginalisation
is not unique to the Americas, the practice of non-Native sports teams
deriving team names, imagery, and mascots from indigenous peoples is
still common in the United States and Canada and has persisted in some
extent despite protests from indigenous groups. Cornel Pewewardy,
Professor and Director of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University,
cites indigenous mascots as an example of dysconscious racism which, by
placing images of Native American or First Nations people into an
invented media context, continues to maintain the superiority of the
dominant culture.
It is argued that such practices maintain the power relationship
between the dominant culture and the indigenous culture and can be seen
as a form of cultural imperialism.
Such practices may be seen as particularly harmful in schools and
universities that have a stated purpose of promoting ethnic diversity
and inclusion.
In recognition of the responsibility of higher education to eliminate
behaviours that create a hostile environment for education, in 2005, the
NCAA initiated a policy
against "hostile and abusive" names and mascots that led to the change
of many derived from Native American culture, with the exception of
those that established an agreement with particular tribes for the use
of their specific names. Other schools retain their names because they
were founded for the education of Native Americans and continue to have a
significant number of indigenous students. The trend towards the
elimination of indigenous names and mascots in local schools has been
steady, with two-thirds having been eliminated over the past 50 years,
according to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).
In contrast, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, in what the Washington Post called an unusual move, approved of the Florida State Seminoles use of their historical leader, Osceola, and his Appaloosa horse as the mascots Osceola and Renegade. After the NCAA attempted to ban the use of Native American names and iconography in college sports in 2005, the Seminole Tribe of Florida
passed a resolution offering explicit support for FSU's depiction of
aspects of Florida Seminole culture and Osceola as a mascot. The
university was granted a waiver, citing the close relationship with, and
ongoing consultation between, the team and the Florida tribe.
In 2013, the tribe's chairman objected to outsiders meddling in tribal
approval, stating that the FSU mascot and use of Florida State Seminole
iconography "represents the courage of the people who were here and are
still here, known as the Unconquered Seminoles". Conversely, in 2013, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
expressed disapproval of "the use of all American Indian sports-team
mascots in the public school system, by college and university level and
by professional sports teams".
Music
The
history of jazz and improvisational music has been one of many
misconstrued details. Many scholars argue that jazz music is rooted in
African American culture, specifically the practice of "scatting",
or improvisational singing. Scholar George E. Lewis highlights the
major differences between "Afrological" and "Eurological" perceptions of
music, the former being more concerned with conveying personal
expression and community experiences while the latter is more focused on
adherence to a typical musical structure. This "Eurological" perception
of music, Lewis argues, often leads to the simplifying of black
improvisational music, labeling it as "folk" or "pop" music, while the
title of "high art" is saved for European forms of classical music. This
distinction highlights a pattern of cultural appropriation, one in
which a form of African American music, such as jazz, is borrowed, and
commodified by artists from outside communities, sometimes obscuring the
original context and cultural significance.
The phenomenon of white people adopting elements of black culture has been prevalent, at least since slavery was abolished in the Western world.
The concept has been documented in the United States, Canada, the
United Kingdom, Australia, and other white-majority countries. An early
form of this was the white negro in the jazz and swing music scenes of the 1920s and 1930s, as examined in the 1957 Norman Mailer essay "The White Negro". It was later seen in the zoot suiter of the 1930s and 1940s, the hipster of the 1940s, the beatnik of the 1950s–1960s, the blue-eyed soul of the 1970s, and the hip hop of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, an article in the UK newspaper The Independent described the phenomenon of white, middle-class kids who were "wannabe Blacks". The year 2005 saw the publication of Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America by Bakari Kitwana, "a culture critic who's been tracking American hip hop for years".
African American culture
Robert A. Clift's documentary Blacking Up: Hip-Hop's Remix of Race and Identity
questions white enthusiasts of black hip-hop culture. Clift's
documentary examines "racial and cultural ownership and authenticity – a
path that begins with the stolen blackness seen in the success of Stephen Foster, Al Jolson, Benny Goodman, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones – up to Vanilla Ice ... and Eminem". A review of the documentary refers to the wiggers as "white poseurs", and states that the term wigger "is used both proudly and derisively to describe white enthusiasts of black hip-hop culture".
The term "blackfishing" was popularised in 2018 by writer Wanna Thompson, describing female white social media influencers
who adopt a look perceived to be associated with black people,
including braided hair, dark skin from tanning or make-up, full lips,
and large thighs. Critics argue they take attention and opportunities
from black influencers by appropriating their aesthetics and have
likened the trend to blackface. Florida State University's Alisha Gaines, author of Black for a Day: Fantasies of Race and Empathy,
said blackfishing allowed non-Black people to appropriate what is
commonly considered "cool" about Blackness while still avoiding the
negative consequences, such as "racism and state violence". According to Health.com, it is an "inverse form" of passing.
White protestors in 2018 carrying placards using the term woke
Additionally,
African Americans have been accused of cultural appropriation by people
from Africa. This has been disputed, as members of the diaspora have
claimed a link to Africa, but those from Africa have disputed it.
Martial arts
In
China, there is longstanding resentment of the Japanese schools of
karate for stealing, imitating, and claiming credit for the forms of kung fu. Before the 1970s, most sifu disapproved of teaching kung fu to non-Chinese students. In the mid-20th century, Japanese karate was itself appropriated by American soldiers. As mixed martial arts gained popularity in the 21st century, practitioners have appropriated and combined Chinese, Japanese and Thai techniques with Western-style boxing, wrestling, and kickboxing.
Some authors have expressed the opinion, that in many cases, the
study of martial arts by members of other countries and nationalities is
not a form of negative 'appropriation', but rather that of
appreciation.
In Okinawa for example, unlike in China, the locals considered the
Chinese origins of Karate to be an honorable thing to mention, and not a
form of cultural theft.
During the 2023 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Cambodia, a
controversy emerged when Cambodian martial arts competitions adopted
Muay Thai rules, leading to allegations of cultural appropriation.
Critics argued that this disrespected Thai cultural heritage and
overshadowed Cambodian martial arts like Bokator. The International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA)
intervened, threatening fines and bans for countries participating in
the Kun Khmer events under these rules. This prompted Thailand to
boycott the SEA Games, further straining relations between the two
countries.
The popularity of Bokator has been partly influenced by international
media, such as Tony Jaa's portrayal of martial arts in the "Tom Yum Goong" movie series. Tony Jaa,
a renowned Thai martial artist, showcased traditional techniques that
have inspired martial arts enthusiasts globally, including in Cambodia.
This highlights the complex interplay of cultural pride and
appropriation in the region.
Languages
In Scotland, the use of incorrect Scottish Gaelic
in a tokenistic fashion aimed at non-Gaelic speakers on signage and
announcements has been criticised as disrespectful to fluent speakers of
the language.
In 2017, Ghost in the Shell, which is based on the seinen mangaGhost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow, provoked disputes over whitewashing. Scarlett Johansson, a white actress, took the role of Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character.
This was seen as cultural appropriation by some Western fans of the
original manga who expected the role to be taken by an Asian or
Asian-American actor.
However, Japanese fans' reactions ranged from neutral to warm feelings
about Scarlett Johansson starring in the film, with some fans expressing
the sentiment that it would be better to have an actress with no ties
to Asia play the character than to have a non-Japanese Asian pretend to
be Japanese.
People in the transgender community have protested against the casting of straight, cisgender actors in trans acting roles, such as when Eddie Redmayne played the role of artist Lili Elbe in the film The Danish Girl and when Jared Leto played the role of a trans woman named Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club.
Some in the gay community have expressed concerns about the use of
straight actors to play gay characters; this occurs in films such as Call Me by Your Name (straight actors Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet), Brokeback Mountain (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal), Philadelphia (Tom Hanks), Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Milk (with Sean Penn playing the role of the real-life gay rights activist, Harvey Milk).
In the other direction, gay actors playing straight roles, Andrew
Haigh, the writer-director, said, "You rarely see a gay actor applauded
for playing straight".
Jay Caruso calls these controversies "wholly manufactured" on the
grounds that the actors "are playing a role" using the "art of acting".
Holidays
During Halloween, some people buy, wear, and sell Halloween costumes based on cultural or racial stereotypes.
There have been public protests calling for the end to the manufacture
and sales of these costumes and connecting their "degrading" portrayals
of indigenous women to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis.
In some cases, theme parties have been held where attendees are
encouraged to dress up as stereotypes of a certain racial group. A number of these parties have been held at colleges and at times other than Halloween, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month. For example, non-Romani people wear Romani costumes despite Romani people experiencing everyday racism and stereotypes.
The government of Ghana has been accused of cultural appropriation in adopting the Caribbean Emancipation Day and marketing it to African American tourists as an "African festival".
Dance and performance
The Boy Scouts of America-associated Koshare Indian Museum and Dancers were noted in Playing Indian by Native American historian Philip J. Deloria,
referring to them as an example of "object hobbyists" who adopt the
material culture of indigenous peoples of the past ("the vanishing
Indian") while failing to engage with contemporary native peoples or
acknowledge the history of conquest and dispossession.
In the 1950s, the head councilman of the Zuni Pueblo saw a performance
and said: "We know your hearts are good, but even with good hearts you
have done a bad thing". In Zuni culture,
religious objects and practices are only for those who have earned the
right to participate, following techniques and prayers that have been
handed down for generations.
The objections from some Native Americans towards such dance
teams centre on the idea that the dance performances are a form of
cultural appropriation that places dance and costumes in inappropriate
contexts devoid of their true meaning, sometimes mixing elements from
different tribes.
In contrast, the dance teams state that "[their] goal is to preserve
Native American dance and heritage through the creation of dance
regalia, dancing, and teaching others about the Native American
culture".
In 2013, pop star Katy Perry drew criticism for her
"geisha-style" performance at the American Music Awards, in which she
and her backup dancers donned kimonos, heavy powdered face makeup, and
colourful parasols, among other East Asian cultural items. Netizens
declared Perry's actions appropriative and harmful to East Asian
cultures.
Gender and sexuality
Some heterosexual individuals controversially self-identify by the term "queer heterosexual".As queer is generally defined either as a synonym for LGBT, or defined as "non-heterosexual", this appropriation of queer by cisgender, heterosexual individuals has been highly contested by LGBT people. One reason is that the term has a long history of use as a slur for LGBT people. LGBT people who consider this use of the term queer
by heterosexual people to be inappropriate say that it is patently
offensive because it involves members of the dominant culture, who do
not experience oppression for their sexual orientation or gender
identity, appropriating what they see as the fashionable parts of the
terminology and identities of those who are oppressed for their
sexuality.
For someone who is homosexual and
queer, a straight person identifying as queer can feel like choosing to
appropriate the good bits, the cultural and political cache [sic],
the clothes and the sound of gay culture, without the laugh riot of
gay-bashing, teen shame, adult shame, shame-shame, and the internalized
homophobia of lived gay experience.
Responses
Indigenous cultures
White Americans dressed up in Native American outfits (1909)
Among critics, the misuse and misrepresentation of indigenous cultures are seen as an exploitative form of colonialism and one step in the destruction of indigenous cultures.
The results of this appropriation of indigenous knowledge have led some tribes and the United Nations General Assembly to issue several declarations on the subject. The Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality includes the passage:
We assert a posture of
zero-tolerance for any "white man's shaman" who rises from within our
own communities to "authorize" the expropriation of our ceremonial ways
by non-Indians; all such "plastic medicine men" are enemies of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people.
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions,
as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies, and
cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines,
knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions,
literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and
performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect
and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage,
traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.
In 2015, a group of Native American academics and writers stated the Rainbow Family
members whose acts of "cultural exploitation... dehumanize us as an
indigenous Nation because they imply our culture and humanity, like our
land, is anyone's for the taking".
The long-term goal is to actually
have a legal system, and certainly a treaty could do that, that
acknowledges two things. Number one, it acknowledges that indigenous
peoples are people with a right to self-determination that includes
governance rights over all property belonging to the indigenous people.
And, number two, it acknowledges that indigenous cultural expressions
are a form of intellectual property and that traditional knowledge is a
form of intellectual property, but they are collective resources – so
not any one individual can give away the rights to those resources. The
tribal nations actually own them collectively.
In Australia, Aboriginal artists have discussed an "authenticity brand" to ensure consumers are aware of artworks claiming false Aboriginal significance.
The movement for such a measure gained momentum after the 1999
conviction of John O'Loughlin for selling paintings that he falsely
described as the work of Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri.
Criticism of the concept
John McWhorter, an African-American professor at Columbia University,
criticised the concept in 2014, arguing that cultural borrowing and
cross-fertilisation are generally positive things and are something
which is usually done out of admiration and with no intent to harm the
cultures being imitated; he also argued that the specific term
"appropriation", which can mean theft, is misleading when applied to
something like culture that is inherently not a limited resource, and therefore is not taken away from anyone by imitating it.
Idrees M. Kahloon of The Harvard Crimson largely criticized the
concept in 2015, arguing that while cultural appropriation had some
merits, much of the discourse surrounding it was misrepresentative and
self-indulgent. Citing the culture surrounding contemporary music as an
example of the poor discourse he said: "Music for example is the area of
entertainment media where you'll find the majority of these meaningless
criticisms. Iggy Azalea is criticized for stealing black accents and
body imagery. Isn't promoting diversity something most fans of this
medium generally support?"
Another critic of the concept, Chris Berg, argues that culture is
"just the current manifestation of a long evolutionary process" in
which cultural elements constantly evolve when is contact with other
cultures. His assertion then is that opponents of cultural appropriation
are actually involved in "a deeply conservative project", one that
"first seeks to preserve... the content of an established culture and
second tries [to] prevent others from interacting with that culture"
ultimately inhibiting the positive relationships created by cultural
exchange.
In 2016, author Lionel Shriver
said that authors from a cultural majority have a right to write in the
voice of someone from a cultural minority, attacking the idea that this
constitutes cultural appropriation. Referring to a case in which U.S.
college students were facing disciplinary action for wearing sombreros to a "tequila party", she said: "The moral of the sombrero scandals is clear: you're not supposed to try on other people's hats. Yet that's what we're paid to do, isn't it? Step into other people's shoes, and try on their hats."
In 2018, conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg
described cultural appropriation as a positive thing and dismissed
opposition to it as a product of some people's desire to be offended.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, ethics columnist for the New York Times, said that the term cultural appropriation incorrectly labels contemptuous behaviour as a property crime.
According to Appiah, "The key question in the use of symbols or regalia
associated with another identity group is not: What are my rights of
ownership? Rather it's: Are my actions disrespectful?"
Upon winning the 2019 Booker Prize, Bernardine Evaristo
dismissed the concept of cultural appropriation, stating that it is
ridiculous to demand of writers that they not "write beyond [their] own
culture".[198]
Another critique comes from Yascha Mounk, stating in his book The People vs Democracy
(2018), the problem with cultural appropriation necessarily
acknowledges a purist conception of culture, it being linked to the
building of a mono-ethnical common identity, which appropriates itself
of some rites and traits. He argues that no symbols or traditions
minoritarian culture should be denigrated or mocked. But it does open
the door to what he calls "historical nonsense".
However, cultures have never been completely defined, as they have
inspired from one and another, and have thus enriched their own. The
segmentation in well-defined cultures works the same way as far right
leaders in their views of identity and the defence of their nation, that
should not include "foreign influences on their national cultures".
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