The Importance Of Artistic Appropriation

Cultural appropriation is something that is starting to become a very big epidemic in America’s society today. Appropriation occurs when a style or high fashion is developed from racist generalizations or stereotypes of other cultures. Many see no problem with this appropriation and some might take it as paying homage to a race, but others may see it as a sign of disrespect.

Racial and cultural appropriation has become increasingly significant in society within the past 30 years. “The idea of “cultural appropriation” has recently entered mainstream

Cultural appropriation is not seen exclusively in dance but rather a multitude of pop culture. For example in fashion. Fashion is a huge part of today's culture, and many designers created their clothing through the inspiration of other objects and or culture. Appropriation begins to

Appropriation is very disrespectful and harmful to the culture being appropriated. In everyday society, African-American culture is being used to be “cool” and “different”. The fact that society values a white person for doing the same things black people having being doing for decades, “everyone wants to be black until it’s time to be black”, and allowing people to remain prejudice and/or ignore the racism the black community deals with, has led me to believe that the appropriation of African-American culture is significant and its effects cannot be ignored or washed away.

Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of the elements of one culture by members of another culture. Cultural appropriation is portrayed as rude, called cultural misappropriation, and claims to be a violation of the history of a culture. Often unavoidable when cultures come together, cultural appropriation can include using another culture's traditions, such as fashion, symbols, language, and cultural songs without permission. Even though society consistently uses Native American and African American styles at festivals, in magazines and on celebrities, this form of cultural appropriation is not right because we are not using it for the right reasons.

In Randa Jarrar’s essay Why I can’t stand white belly dancers she bluntly addresses the predicament of cultural appropriation. Jarrar’s main purpose is to inform her audience on appropriation, whether it’s done oblivious or uncaring of the situation. There are many ways she presents the situation, the tone she takes on to convey the problem is unsympathetic and transparent.

Cultural Appropriation is the adoption and adaptation of certain elements of a minority culture by a socially dominant group of people. This is becoming a large social issue because, people are refusing to acknowledge the true meanings of these elements. Malversation has occurred steadily throughout American and global history and it has been very prominent for the duration of the 20th and 21st centuries. For example, wearing a traditional Native American headdress for the sake of an international fashion show and not acknowledging that it is a piece of ancient, and even present day sacred and a religious sacrament. The headdresses are worn by highly respected tribal chiefs and symbolizes great strength and “god's messenger” and is reserved for the highest power in the tribe. To use it in a lingerie campaign is disrespectful

Appropriation is where you use reference to an artist’s work, within your own. This is the use of borrowed elements as a reproduction of someone’s ideas, thoughts and subject matter. It is a direct and intentional decision to re-contextualise and ‘appropriate’ the artwork creating a new and unique work. It must be clear that this artworks ideas have been sought from a previous artwork, they must make reference to the original artworks artist.

The authors goal of the text was to discuss cultural appropriation. She uses African American culture as the primary example for inappropriate and misuses of their culture. The paper

Take for example the use of Hindu gods and mythology in children’s cartoons. Some people view this as disrespect, and therefore cultural appropriation, because the purpose of these cartoons is to entertain. This idea could not be more wrong in my opinion. The cartoons began as comics intended to teach Indians about Hindu mythology (McLain). Along with entertaining both children and adults of either Hindu or non-Hindu backgrounds, these cartoons and comics are also educational. Educating people about your religion is one of the best things you can do to spread the religion’s impact. To me, the cartoons are not at all cultural appropriation, but instead cultural appreciation. The Hindu characters depicted in them are both respected and historically accurate. For many, myself included, viewing these cartoons provides a greater appreciation and understanding of the Hindu

Cultural appropriation is a huge topic, within today’s society, many question what is cultural appropriation and what is not. The definition of cultural appropriation is, “....the use of ideas, symbols, artifacts, images, objects, etc., derived from contact between different cultures. It often implies a negative view towards the minority culture by the dominant one and is often culturally insensitive”(Biron). Examples of cultural appropriation would be portraying a culture through stereotypical depictions of them or wearing a culture as a ‘trend’. Another example would be wearing a headdress to portray a Native American or wearing a sombrero and a poncho to depict a Mexican. Just those words sound degrading and racist each of these ethnicities. Many think it is socially acceptable to be insensitive to a culture, because they classify the appropriation as them appreciating the culture. Cultural appropriation shows only the stereotypical view of culture and has no regards to the actual culture. Many look at the cultures as inspiration for ideas, but that does not mean to steal the ideas completely. Cultural appropriation is not only insensitive, but also racist. Blackface, for example, was used to portray an African American by painting the face of an non-black actor black. The NFL team Redskins uses an offensive and racist word to label their team; their mascot is a “Native American” wearing headdress. First and foremost, not all Native American cultures wear headdresses, these depictions of Native culture show natives as all the same. Minorities have faced appropriation for decades, but why did this problem only recently come about?

Other's use it as a reference or jumping off point paying little homage to the original image. However, the execution and reception of appropriation art is incredibly integral. An artist must

In the end, there is clear evidence that cultural appropriation is still a prominent part of modern society. From celebrities, social media accounts, to the target audience, to mixing up cultures one thing clearly stands: if you take a specific traditional or religious item out of it’s intended context and use, it is appropriation. In the words of Amandla Stenberg, “appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes from where they are originated but is deemed as high fashion, cool, or funny when the privilege take it for themselves. Appropriation occurs when the appropriators are not aware of the deep significance of the culture they are partaking

Throughout history, the issue of appropriation in art has become a heated debate on whether it is good or whether it is bad. Appropriation is fundamentally the act of taking something from somewhere else and placing it into a new context. In art, appropriation is seen as using (or taking) someone else's artwork, manipulating it and ultimately changing the whole meaning behind the work. It is seen as a significant issue as many people (including art critics, art historians and art enthusiasts) see appropriation as whilst, others see it as being inappropriate and immoral, and see the growth in appropriation as being a destroyer of art. It is of the opinion that art indeed "feeds off itself" and every artwork, art movement, and art period is

An example of appropriation is Charles Meere’s oil on wax on cardboard artwork titled ‘Australian Beach Pattern’ which was appropriated by modern day artist Anne Zahalka titled ‘The Bathers, from the series Bondi: playground of the Pacific’ in 1990. The use of appropriation is clearly adopted by Zahalka from Meere’s artwork evident through the setting in which is a beach side on the sand for both, featuring individuals and families from a range of age groups all participating in a certain activity. They are both busy landscapes with a lot of clutter and disorder, they are detailed and have many aspects to the artworks. It is obvious that Meere’s artwork was