dance and cooptation

[keryx]

There's a discussion going on over at fatshionista today about cultural appropriation in fashion. Those of y'all who know what I wear would probably not be surprised to hear that my basic attitude is this: never, ever use a symbol or ritual or religion out of context - that is, use them seriously or in a clear context of questioning or art [Does a "Mary is my homegirl" t-shirt count as art? I suppose you could argue that; certainly it's open for interpretation]. Beyond that, pretty much everything you put on your body every day can be traced to a form of oppression, marginalization or cultural appropriation. Cotton? Slavery & land mis-use. Silk? Oppression and bug-torture. Manufactured fabric? Pollutants and a history of child-labor. Tropical prints? All of the above. Hell, even jeans have a dubious history.

Which is not to say the discussion isn't valuable. If nothing else, it called out yet another "I don't have white privilege, I'm broke" conversation - making me wonder again how useful privilege is as a word and concept outside of activist circles. If absolutely no one gets what our word means, I realize that it sucks & the rest of the world should still listen... but um, they still don't understand the language. If we're right and no one else can conceptualize our rightness, are we still right? Or just lonely?

I sound snarky, but these are honest questions. Some things are less obviously harmful and so unbelievably complicated to untangle that I don't know if untangling them is of immediate worth, ya know?

The coopting of culture via fashion is also a topic close to my heart - all Middle Eastern dance done by non-ME peeps is automatically appropriative, right? It bugs me to be using not just a piece of a culture that I am not a part of, but a piece of an already exoticized culture that is considered even more exotic than the average. And yet, it is also a gesture of respect for several cultures all at once, and the ways culture, race and ethnicity can collide for good, creative purposes. That's glaringly obvious in the intentionally mixed-culture origins of tribal style, but it's there in any kind of ME dance or music practiced in the US.

So I'm pretty opinionated about the language we use and the we dress & even decorate the studio. Pretty much everyone who dances with me knows what I think of the term "harem pants" - they're "pantaloons"; harem pants are supposed to evoke a specific, non-existent, image of ME culture that I don't want to be associated with. I think it's disrespectful, ya know?

Anyhow, last night one of our students says something like So, this thing about "harem pants"... you're anti-that, right? How come you've decorated the studio with pillows and curtains and stuff? Isn't that haremish? - and okay, so she's kinda right. Not that it was my intent, at least, but the studio definitely could be interpreted as embracing this exoticizing stereotype. It's actually very American Tribally - a little arty, a little thrift-store-y, but also kindof evocative of yurtishness. And the yurtishness gets interpreted by the viewer.

Which is pretty much how everything works - intent and interpretation = different. You can decide what to do based on interpretation (which then requires you to assume how others will interpret whatever) or you can do it based on intent (and just ignore anyone who might interpret it otherwise).

Comments

[firecat]

I think the word "privilege" makes it harder to get the point across that if you have a trait that counts as part of the approved set, that trait means there are certain things you don't have to worry about so much in life, and other people without that trait do, and that affects stuff. I wish I knew what to do about that.

As for whether a studio with pillows is harem-ish - only if you use the word, IMO.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

You can never fully control how other people interpret whatever art/environment/conversation you create. It wouldn't be any fun if you could. So the "harem" thing is a point to recognize for me.

I honestly think I'm just gonna stop using the word, period. I know it's approved language and all, but that doesn't mean it's useful outside approved language having settings.

[libskrat]

I yard-saled this utterly gorgeous green-and-gold salwar kameez, and then never found the courage to wear it. I wasn't sure whether my pasty-white skin would mean I was committing an offense.

Shame (she said selfishly). I love the way a salwar kameez looks.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I think your salwar kameez would look pretty, and apparently so do the South Asians on fatshionista, if that's any consolation.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any other word that would be clearer than "privilege." Do you have suggestions?

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I usually define the word before I use it - that is, I bring up all the things privilege is in conversation before I say "and that's X privilege".

[lala-annie.livejournal.com]

Someone posted this link on a community I follow recently:
http://www.makezine.org/mohawksdreads.htm

I found it interesting, but I don't necesarily beleive it. I think that appropriation does happen, but this is not example of it. I doubt that most Native people or Blacks feel that they own these hairstyles or feel insulted when others wear them. But maybe I'm wrong? I'm not sure about this...

Hi, I'm Annie, by the way. =)

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Hi, Annie!

I agree - those two things aren't as good an example of appropriation - hey, they aren't being exclusively appropriated from those two specific cultures. The Mohawk name is, perhaps, but those two hairstyles also originated in several different cultures in several geographies and times. It seems like shifty anthropology to me.

Now, if you pick up dreads, listen to reggae & talk about black power and are, in fact, a white middle class kid... I definitely see the problem there. But to attach it to a signifier as small as hairstyle?

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I'm not sure that giving up a pretty straightforward word is necessary. It's not particularly jargon-y, it's not particularly long, and it's not particularly complicated, really. I mean, I look at it like this: I'm a working class white woman with a high school diploma that I barely earned. I come from two families that are chock-full of ignorance and racism. I'm not a genius. And yet, merely by being willing to sit still and keep my face closed for a few minutes, I was able to get a working understanding of privilege and how it operates. Interest did the rest.

No one's born progressive or verbose or both, you know? Maybe I'm a cynic, but I really think that people who purport not to understand privilege as a concept or as a word are being disingenuous.

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

*That is, people who say they can't understand it. Everyone who has some kind of privilege, yet understands privilege, probably at some point did not understand that privilege (to one degree or another). But I have seriously never met anyone who made any attempt to understand it and came away not understanding it. I only ever hear "it's too hard for me to grasp" from people who are way too busy defending their privilege to possibly be engaged in listening.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

My issue isn't that the word is somehow incomprehensible, but that it fosters defensiveness. Too many of the conversations go like this:
A: You have privilege!
B: I so don't! My life sucks!
A: Yes, but you still have privilege like this... (explains)
B: But I am unprivileged like this... (explains)

And they are both right, and because the word "privilege" implies that your life is better and sounds like an accusation (and is often used as one), they both end up angry and not hearing each other. I've taken to using "presumed default" and all the other language that explains "privilege" with some success - people get the concept, they're simply upset by the word. Sure, it's a concept that you shouldn't be happy about, but if it triggers an emotional response that results in you not listening, then it wasn't a good word to use to convert you to my point of view.

We also tend as people who have tried to get it to assume that everyone everywhere has heard of it. And well, people haven't. I use the word in a room of white yuppies and they're like "HUH?" but if I explain the concept, they're like "oh, yeah", not defensive & getting it. Maybe it's just that I hang with too many white yuppies, but I figure - here are people with the privilege of not knowing about privilege, people who had the opportunity to experience the academic explanation (I assume, most of them are college-educate), and they don't know. So I wonder about the word - not its usefulness, period, but its usefulness in a mixed audience who may never have experienced gender/race/class education.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

A recent discussion of privilege on my journal and a friends journal pissed me off no end because people jumped to the conclusion that anyone (mostly men) in the discussion who became defensive or didn't quite "get it" was being obtuse because he wanted to hold onto his privilege. I think it's a loaded word and I don't think things like the "Male Privilege Checklist" are useful for starting civil dialogue.

(my more than 2 cents, not that you asked)

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify, on the chance that you're referencing my comment, I didn't mean that people who don't "get it" are being deliberately obtuse. I meant that people who insist that it is un-get-able are very often being disingenuous. My first comment was unclear and my clarification not very clarifying.

Lots of words are loaded, though: racism, sexism, classism, homophobia... these are all words that make people feel defensive. But the fact of their defensiveness doesn't negate the fact of whatever -ism they're demonstrating. I worry about watering down the language we use so much that no one is ever confronted with the truth of how their actions feed and are fed by these larger, institutionalized oppressions.

Which is not to say that in any given conversation with someone, we shouldn't each choose our words carefully to fit the discussion we're having. I have seen people lazily toss off these words as shorthand, expecting that whomever they're talking to is already up to speed and then not backing it up with a longer explanation. In the case of racism, I think white anti-racists do have an obligation to give the longer explanation when engaging other white people. It's a cop-out to shout "privilege" and then bail out before the other person understands - it sells short the person you're talking to and the people of color who are going to continue to have to deal with that person who still doesn't get it.

That said, though, I've seen the dismissal of words/phrases like "white privilege" as overly-academic used as a tactic to derail conversations and actively obstruct any educating or learning that could have happened otherwise.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

I think so often the problem is either laziness or burn out.
Privilege, like any other term is a nuanced thing to explain. I can throw out the word 'recidivism' and use it once in context and still be a total asshat for not explaining how recidivism effects different people leaving prison.

I don't think we should run from these words, but use them thorougly, not toss them out like a grenade and run, but sit and talk and work with folks.

I'm a college drop out (going back on the employers dime) the daughter of a bigot - I haven't read that much on race, I grew up in a neighborhood that was totally segregated, and daily I learn to be less of a force working in concert with the racist culture.

But, I've been surrounded by really great people who were patient with me, who listened and explained, and made an effort to be present in the conversation - not make me into a villian. The internet can get so damned heated, and when 'race' gets brought up those in power get defensive, those who have explained the issue 1,0000 times get tired (totally understandable) and then the rest of folks sort of watch by the sidelines thinking 'oh shit not again.'

and it sucks.