Bindi and beyond: a Gwen Stefani timeline of cultural appropriation

I went into Urban Outfitters on Oxford Street the other week and they had a dedicated section to cultural appropriation -one wall of the store was dedicated to clothing with Ganesh, yin yangs, obligatory native American headdresses and Rastafari-esque prints. It was considerate of them to compartmentalise their problematic clothing into one area however their shame still showed. The entire store was offensive anyway; I couldn't decide what was worse, the appropriating clothing, extortionate pricing, or the lame in-store probably vegan Black Sheep Coffee shop where a beardy man makes watery drinks whilst you browse their collection of about five vinyl records. My real issue with the store though was, why is Vishnu now a fashion print? Have white people really run out of pastel colours and varieties of flower crowns so they need to appropriate existing cultures now?

the 90's were an amazingly shameless time in which we lived in

I'm making it sound like cultural appropriation is a new thing but it's not. Going back as far as my lil millennial memory takes me, Gwen Stefani comes to mind (fun fact: I got the image on the right from an Urban Outfitter's blog post on how to be bindi-era Gwen for HALLOWEEN. I'll stop complaining about cultural appropriation when cultural items stop being used as mere party costumes bYE). She paved the way for mainstream appropriation, starting with the bindi; since then the bindi has been worn as a 'symbol of female sensuality' by the likes of Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Azealia Banks, Selena Gomez, Iggy Azaela, Madonna, Shakira and many more. When Priyanka Chopra (real life Indian and Hindu) was asked about musicians wearing the bindi for fashion, she said, "I think it's great that musicians are discovering the beauty of the bindi. In today's day and age, the bindi is not restricted to religious or traditional purposes, but is actually a very popular fashion accessory." I would argue that it being a very popular fashion accessory for non-Hindus, yet still being a point of ridicule in many offensive Indian stereotypes shows an unfair cultural exchange. I suppose the actual wearing of the bindi isn't offensive however the fact that it's only deemed fashion on non-Hindus is the problematic aspect. All-round cool kid Grimes is probably the only person I've seen apologise for wearing bindis, and has stopped wearing them even though it was normalised for her growing up with her step-dad being Hindu.

Following Gwen Stefani's cultural appropriation timeline, she moved onto Japanese culture when bindis got a bit last season. Her backing dancers the Harajuku Girls were rechristened Love, Angel, Music and Baby, an acronym for her clothing line L.A.M.B. so quite literally turning them into a marketing tool. They were CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED to only speak Japanese in public, or remain silent stoic and 'doll-like'. Gwen Stefani said she was "surprised how racist everybody was about them." Good try at a save, ma. I, as a 9 year old chica, loved Gwen and the Harajuku Girls because they were sassy and - I will say it - ka-ka-ka-kawaii. But looking back at it, I feel super uncomfortable watching any of the videos they feature in because it's so confidently and unashamedly exploitative and perpetuates this gross stereotype of submissive and quiet Japanese girls. Does anything really need to be said about Avril Lavigne's latest attempt at representing Japanese culture? Not really because her Hello Kitty song/video is so beautifully lazy (it's a tragic appropriation of Gwen Stefani's 2004 success lmao rest in peace Avril Lavigne's career 2000-2008r boi). Katy Perry also had a go at Japanese culture with her Geisha AMA's performance which some people thought was actually informed and tasteful in her standards, however we must remember this is the same person who said about Japanese people, "I'm so obsessed I want to skin you and wear you like Versace".

So where did Gwen go next?? Obviously native Americans. Also done by Lana del Rey, Pharrell and Phantogram (the latter two actually apologised), No Doubt's video for Looking Hot was the most wildly misinformed and I think we all expected better from 2012. Singing about looking hot, dressed in native-American sexualised clothing and being tied up isn't the most appropriate thing to do with a culture infamous for the amount of rape and abuse they have been subjected to (similar sins were committed by Victoria's Secret a week later). I guess this new fashion of white American's wearing the clothing of people their ancestors killed became a cool thing, because headdresses are now a staple fashion at music festivals like Coachella and Urban Outfitters even came out with a line of 'Navajo' clothing. Amasing.

This whole blog post makes me kind of sad, because I kind of love Gwen Stefani's music. But it's possible to enjoy something yet acknowledge problematic aspects and feign from blindly revering that person (see this amazing piece of yellow-face that people always seem to ignore when they buttlick Jean Luc Godard. "Yeh but it woz satire" yeah but it was still SUPER DISCOMFORT-MAKING). As I have been seen to do on twitter, I will fight you if you tell me shitsense like "cultural appropriation is okay if it's done right" [actual quote via someone I will not name but am still laughing at 4ever and always]. Cultural appropriation will always be problematic because it presents an unequitable exchange between the white-Western world and the cultures it is taking from. Things like bindis and native American headdresses are taken and turned into a fashion, yet these cultures are receiving nothing in return. They can't take fashions from bland white-America, nor do they get any economic gain or respect. In fact, it only substantiates stereotypes, can disrespect the cultures and make way for this idea that 'it looks fashionable on a white person, but looks otherly and alien on people of the culture of origin'. I ain't about it, son.

Also, I get people asking me " is it okay if I...." look, go nuts and wear whatever if you're aware of the origin, are doing so tastefully, and are in an environment in which others from that culture are welcoming you to do it (e.g. wearing a sari at an Indian wedding) - that wouldn't be cultural appropriation, it's an exploration of culture I guess. Just don't call it your summer fashion 2k14 ok.

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[UPDATE!! As of July 14th, Urban Outfitters have pulled a Lord Ganesh duvet from their online store. This was less about the illustration itself and more about the product as Rajan Zed, a Hindu activist from Nevada and president of the Universal Society of Hinduism said “You can put him in a frame and on the wall. That is fine, but it is not to be put on the bed, on which you lie and your feet will go on. That is very inappropriate." (similar to the Ganesh socks they were made to pull in December, "Lord Ganesh was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be wrapped around one's foot."). Not super relevant to my blog post but is interesting to note how being uninformed of the origin can turn appreciation into appropriation.]