Coachellaappropriation Analysis

Response Paper 3 When I was in the 2nd grade my family went to Germany to visit my father’s side of the family. I remember getting off the plane at the airport and into our rental car when my mother turned on the radio and Natalie Imbruglia's, “Torn” was playing. However, it was not in English, it was in German and a man was singing the lyrics. After we drove listening to American music covered by German artists we entered my cousin’s house. To my surprise they had “Friends” playing on their Television. Of course I could not understand the words, or that this was one of the only American shows they watched. It was not until later I found out that they believed America was like an Episode of “Friends.” This is just a micro example of how global

Over the weekend The Coachella Music Festival took place in Indio, California. Many to talk about cultural appropriation have used the outfits and styles many wear to this festival. This is even an Instagram dedicated to “Coachellaappropriation.” Or as Kathryn Sorrells titles it, cultural corruption which, “refers to the perceived and experienced alteration of a cultural in a negative or detrimental ways through the influence of other cultures” (p.158). For example, at Coachella you may see many non Native Americans wearing Native American Headdresses. As a Native American and someone who likes fashion I love wearing cultural jewelry, however if you are not Native American there will be backlash in many ways. First, a headdress is not mean for women to wear; rather it is for the men that have earned to power to wear it. Not only is it offensive to the Native American culture if a women wear it, it also is usually worn with not much else. The headdress is the fashion statement and minimal clothes tend to sexualize this cultural piece. The result is that in pop culture the dominant groups influence us and in turn, we are seeing headdress as a fashion statement and not attaching the cultural importance to the item, but instead offending other non dominant

Personally I think we should just acknowledge the world is experiencing non dominante cultures become more and more dominante. The fac that we have not seen these cultures portrayed correctly is just an dimension of theresearch we are not doing. We need to research cultutres and understand them before we can start exploting the sterotypes we see on televison. If we can collectively understand a culture and repect it then we can learn how to create media representing the cultutus acuratly. It is important that we look at stylistic choices in the under a cultural umbrella so we are no offending any culture;s valued and belifs. When I choose to wear something of a different culture I learn about what that item represents and how wearing it effects the culture. If we are educatied about these choices we make we can become more cultural awakened. To me culture should be celebrated and shared, but appropoatly and respectfully so that the negativr aspects mentioned aboved are no longer a part of these cultural