Thoughts of the moment (on cultural appropration)

[shweta_narayan]

Because of a discussion elsewhere (most directly, my thoughts on this come from qian, though of course it's part of an ongoing conversation & not original to either of us) I'm reconsidering how I think of cultural appropriation

Comments

[pantryslut]

Yes, I have always thought of cultural appropriation this way. Intent is irrelevant -- it's a symptom of a power imbalance, period. And it's not a power imbalance (e.g. a privilege) one can shed by "doing it right." It's *always* going to be problematic. But at the same time, there is no neutral course of action, you know? Not acting is an action, too.

[shweta_narayan]

I'm slow to come to many realizations I guess :)

And this way makes it much easier to look at the damage that's done, and the good that's done too and whether they balance at all, rather than whether "I screwed up", which isn't the important question in the first place.

Thinking about it this way, a lot of what I write is appropriative. And on balance that *is* better than only writing about high-caste Hindus when I deal with India-topics. And being a culture-hybrid, it'll always be the case, because I can't write single-narratives. But there are *also* things I've written that I'm not that happy with now, and find on-balance problematic, because (not intentionally, but intent, whatever) I played into exotic-squee and "feel" without successfully undermining issues that caused.

[squirrel_monkey]

Also, I think that approach effectively gets rid of the frequent blogosphere dustups when we point fingers at someone's fail, which is so not the point. It's never about individuals but a larger context.

[shweta_narayan]

Right and this way of thinking about it lets us talk about appropriation separately from fail, I guess?

[squirrel_monkey]

"Is there a better alternative? (e.g. promoting fiction set in a culture actually written by people from that culture?)"

It's a really good question, but considering that majority culture is often times uninterested in works that are not explicitly written for their gaze/consumption/narrative frames, it might not always be a viable alternative.

[shweta_narayan]

Yes. I don't think the answer to that question is always and only "of course".

And. So much comes back to the extent to which we'll make our narratives accessible/palatable to the majority gaze. Which is apparently not a thing I do very well; perhaps I'd resent it less if I were better at it. IDK *flails*

[squirrel_monkey]

Oh, I hear you so much. One of the reasons I'm on a novel hiatus is that I'm just so tired banging my head against that particular wall.

[shweta_narayan]

I wish so much that things were better in this respect :/

I think for me, one of the reasons I just can't write atm is that... I could have the cognitive focus to just get words down. But I don't have the cognitive focus to do that, *and* poke at the default white gaze & my own writing-to-it, *and* not screw up other things I think are really important. And the end result is that I'm frozen for now.

[kateelliott]

[shweta_narayan]

I think that would be true even with my previous definition.

By this one, perhaps I'd say "In an imperial framework, there is always going to be appropriation when the dominant group writes about others" (and probably other contexts too); then I'd specify that this is *not* always, in balance a bad thing. Cause by this definition appropriation isn't necessarily fail; it's just a situation that means we need to step carefully & know what we're doing and why.

And sometimes it's a really awesome thing, like when whitewashing is countered with kickass protagonists of multiple cultures & races.

(I'm trying this definition on for size, here.)

[kateelliott]

[shweta_narayan]

:D

*paddles*

[aamcnamara]

Have no real response just now, but. Thank you for this post.

(I once had a theater teacher who defined cultural appropriation as "whose voices are being heard?"--this post made me think of that, and him.)

[shweta_narayan]

Yes! And by whom, I think.

[polenth]

I assume every human story I write is appropriative, so my main aim is to reduce any damage it does and be as accurate as possible. I try to do positive things, like promoting work from writers of that culture, if I can. But to not be appropriative is to stop writing about humans (much as I like writing about non-humans, I do like to write about humans sometimes too

[shweta_narayan]

Mine too, similar reasons. Which... makes this definition much easier for me! Cause I can think of it all as appropriation, fine, and then move *on* to what I'm doing that makes it worth it & why & how not to fail at it :)