Anyway, this is not only a sexism issue but also a race issue. Aren't most fashion designers and models white? Yet they're using others cultural identity as a marketing opportunity.
Victoria's Secret is in the business of bedroom fantasy. Even if you managed to articulate an argument that this fashion show was sexist and racist (which you have not done, btw), who gives a shit? Who gives a shit if someone's fantasy is the most sexist, racist, fucked up depravity imaginable? GTFO.
And isn't the rubbish they churn out just based on poor stereotypes and mockery.
Ah yes, that well known stereotype of the 6ft blonde wearing Native American getup.
The Native American feathered war bonnet is not just a prop than anyone can use, it has cultural significance and meaning. Unless we belong to that culture, we have no right to adopt their culturally significant items and make them our own.
Sorry, but that's just bullshit.
The phenomenon that cultural conservatives and social justice hipsters refer to when they say cultural appropriation is essential to self-expression and self-determination. Borrowing, appropriating, exchanging, innovation, inspiration, are part of an essential dimension of art. Humans adopting individual elements of a culture or drawing inspiration from ethnic aesthetics and ritual has been going on since time immemorial. It's the lifeblood of design, fiction, fashion, architecture. What about Pastiche? Comedy? Parody and satire? Martial Arts? Spirituality? Tattoos? Fusion cuisine? Film? Music? Where would music be if it was restricted by ethnic or regional boundaries? Somewhere really shit.
Creativity cannot function within a set of rules and regulations. It dies. It must have freedom to breath. And nothing is sacred. Nothing is so important that it cannot be borrowed from. Period fashion
certainly isn't. What the hell do rights have to do with it?
There's a quote that's always stuck with me. Seems appropriate:
"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to.""
- Jim Jarmusch,
Golden Rule of Film Making #5You'd have a fit if you saw my scrapbooks and sketchbooks from when I studied fashion. There's all kinds of shameless cultural appropriation going on in there.
Moreover, the only possible way I can think of that this cultural acquisition is somehow a moral transgression is if those belonging to said culture forbid outsiders to practice or adopt it and if exclusion is a constitutive part of the culture. If that's the case: fuck the hypocrisy of racism accusations. And fuck the arbitrary and discriminatory tribal taboos that are being legitimised here.
"If anyone tells you there is only one way, their way, get as far away from them as possible, both physically and philosophically."
- Jim Jarmusch
Topic: Racism in Victoria's Secret?