Halloween 2009 at Walt Disney World.
Today is Halloween and the memory Facebook decided to share with me was of the time I dressed up as “Tiger Lily” from Peter Pan. I was working as an intern at Walt Disney World when the photo was taken. My friend was Ariel from the Kiss the Girl scene in The Little Mermaid. The blue seats we’re sitting on belong to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA), otherwise known as the PeopleMover.
I didn’t share this memory.
In 2009, when the photo was taken, I had never heard of cultural appropriation and I’m willing to bet most of you hadn’t either. Today, I wouldn’t wear this costume. And to be quite honest a little part of me feels bad about that. Because even though I might make different choices today I still remember when this photo was taken. It wasn’t that long ago. I loved this costume. I had a fantastic night! Good memories.
I consider myself very progressive when it comes to Women’s rights and LGBTQ rights. But when cultural appropriation is brought up I have mixed feelings. I would never want to unwittingly hurt someone’s feelings and if wearing a costume like this does that, then that’s reason enough for me not to wear it. But I have concerns. I think free speech and free expression is such an important part of our democracy. And yes, no one is going to be arrested for wearing an insensitive costume. So in that sense, there’s still freedom of expression. But they may be publicly shamed for it. I hate the idea of shaming anyone for something as benign as a costume.
When does admiring a culture and wanting to show your love of it through a “costume” turn into appropriation of another culture? We’ve known for decades that it is wrong to wear blackface (and yet some people still do it). We’ve understood for a relatively short time that wearing a Native American outfit on Halloween is not okay. I’ve seen it said that dressing up as a character who happens to be of a different culture is okay, as long as you’re not dressing up as the culture itself. But would anyone looking at the picture of me above know I was trying to be Tiger Lily, and not just random Native girl? Probably not.
Maybe I need time to adjust to the new normal. Maybe this hits me a little closer to home as someone who has worn this costume and dressed up as Princess Jasmine from the movie Aladdin as a kid.
There are culturally insensitive people out there who purposely wear a costume they know is bad idea. There are people who say, “Lighten up, it’s just a costume.” There are culturally dense people out there who make bad judgements. There are people like me. There are people who claim the mantle of social justice and call out wrongs as they see it. There are people who call out those wrongs more loudly. There’s a whole spectrum of opinions out there.
Right now I think the line between appreciation and appropriation is still getting moved around. It’s fuzzy at times, or at least I perceive it that way.
For some examples of how “all over” the place opinions on this topic are see You Can’t Steal a Culture: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation at The Daily Beast, Don’t Be a Racist for Halloween: Here’s Why Cultures Aren’t Costumes at Everyday Feminism and I Told My Daughter She Can’t Dress Up as a Native American for Halloween: Here’s Why at the Washington Post. I know we as a society are still figuring all of this out. In the meantime, I’ll keep learning and listening.
This year’s non-offensive costume was a sassy black cat.
It's A Long Way There 