pluckyredhead:frettedtoflame:waltdisneyconfessionsrage:waltdisneyconfessions: “Confessio
pluckyredhead: frettedtoflame: waltdisneyconfessionsrage: waltdisneyconfessions: “Confession: I really love what Disney is doing with movies like Moana, but I feel like I’m such an outsider. It’s a beautiful movie and really made me interested in the cultures it was inspired by, but then I see people telling me I shouldn’t name my kid after the characters or get a simple tattoo. I know it’s their culture and history, and I can respect that, I just feel so isolated and discouraged from celebrating a culture that is so beautiful and historically rich.” FFF-FURRY-FOR-FINNICK said: You can do what ever you want. Theres no such thing as appropriating. That’s a dumb word with a dumb meaning. If your intent is to be cruel then you’re racist. If its not your intent then you’re all good mate. Sure, OP can use Pacific Island names on their non-Pacifika child or get a culturally appropriative tattoo. There’s no law against being an a**. To appropriate is to take something for one’s own use, usually without the owner’s permission. I mean, if you just wanna ignore words and their meanings, hey, you do you. Cultural appropriation is a real thing and there are a quarter of a million scholarly articles on it. Many of them available through Google.com Cruelty is not the only mark of racism and it’s disingenuous and false to assert that. Plenty of “well-meaning” people are racist (you honestly include yourself in that statement). -pink The fact that so many have come to equate enjoyment of a culture with ownership of it is baffling. You don’t have to take shells and sand home to enjoy a walk on the beach. You don’t have to plagiarize a poem to enjoy hearing it. No one goes into a museum and steals a painting because “I felt isolated from the art without it”. Ownership is not an intrinsic part of enjoyment and it’s just really weird that this consideration has somehow leapt out the window here. I mean aside from that one would hope if you really and truly appreciated a culture, you would appreciate and acknowledge what holds importance to them that you, as an outsider, can not claim because it does not and could never hold that cultural importance to you. If you want to celebrate a culture, learn about it, embrace what is given to you, and find out what are the types of things that you could buy that would help sustain that culture and wouldn’t be offensive to own, but don’t take. It’s not yours. Think of it like going to a friends family dinner, you observe, you join in when welcomed, but you also sit back and acknowledge traditions that aren’t yours. If there’s a recipe you like, you ask if you can have it, you don’t go sneaking into their kitchen and rifling through drawers for it. If they say it’s a family secret, you don’t go “I’m gonna take it anyways!” Cultures are like houses, it is a place where someone lives, and you are a guest there. Hopefully, you’ll be a polite one. Imagine how isolated non-white kids have felt for decades, seeing maaaaybe one animated hero who looks like them, ever. “Ownership is not an intrinsic part of enjoyment.” -- source link