Skip to main content

elliott-mills
6th October 2015

The Cultural Appropriation Game

With issues of cultural appropriation surrounding this year’s Pangaea, Elliott Mills takes a humorous look at the controversy
Categories:
TLDR

At this year’s Freshers’ edition of the Pangaea Festival, many people were disappointed to discover that cultural appropriation was kicked off the bill. After it was revealed that the theme of Pangaea would encourage people to dress up in Native American attire, such as the outfit of Tiger Lily from the well-known tale of Peter Pan, the festival then issued a statement prohibiting such practice.

They claimed that the culturally insensitive nature of such a costume simply made it off-limits. Worse still, this catastrophe was compounded when rumours suggested that, whilst cultural appropriation would not attend, Example would.

I was keen to get some feedback from those students who were going to the festival on the news that borrowing cultures was off limits this year. I took to the streets and the responses were mixed. Some said that this move from the festival’s organisers was not only sensible but necessary, because it halted the act of dominant cultures using strategic anti-essentialism to steal from minority cultures that have been historically subordinated.

Others claimed that the proposed fantasy and boundless exploration, as well as expression of the costume theme in question, undermined the notion that cultural appropriation could even be applied within this hermetic and unique situation. On the other hand, one student simply told me that he was gutted that cultural appropriation was banned because “they were sick at warehouse project” when he last saw them.

It is difficult to know where exactly to stand on this issue really, but with this semester’s ‘Dress Up As Your Favourite Childhood Minority character’ social just around the corner, it seems as though the fun police are sure to be back before long.


More Coverage

Crashing pres and judging the drinking culture at different student accommodations

On a mission to discover which student accommodation hosts the best pres, I crashed some flats to find out the answer

Community strength is the best thing about university. Long-live my house share!

As I stare out a library window, well and truly into dissertation season but thinking about my St Patrick’s Day plans, I’m reminded of how lucky I feel to live in a tight-knit student community.

Main library musings – rant column #1

Edition #1 of the Opinion section’s rant column: Dive in for some good old fruitless grumbling about issues the Opinion editors think plague student life

Is marrying a foreigner now exclusively a privilege of the rich?

As the government desperately tries to cling to power they’ve announced yet another crackdown on immigration. Infuriating changes to family and skilled worker visas are set to take effect in April and they’re going to make marrying a foreigner a privilege of the rich