Avoiding Cultural Appropriation with your Mermaid Costume

[Sabrina the Selkie]

Agreed.

I am also semi conversational in Japanese, and the first time I wore a kimono, it was because my host mom put me in it. The one I own was a gift from my exchange student.

I mean, there's lots of people who take issue with me speaking Japanese, liking the culture, and being involved in my school's Japanese program. All of those people are white.

Incidentally: I didn't get really into anime until AFTER I had decided I would take Japanese in high school. I figured watching anime would give me a feel for fiction-culture and pronunciation.

[SeaGlass Siren]

Which brings me back to a previous post that I made. Another example of appreciation versus appropriation is the recent episode of Fresh Off the Boat.

if no one has seen it, it was a Chinese New Year episode.. They had a bunch of white people celebrate Chinese New Year but didn't have any Chinese people and they had a dragon mascot act as a "dragon dance", and white people getting Chinese character tattoos without knowing what they actually meant, and a white man who was born on a layaway in Thailand made up these random "traditions" like dropping the rat at midnight and wearing rat sunglasses. Great example of appropriation and ignorance.

by contrast in the same episode a bunch of the main casts friends (all white again) helped them celebrate the new year by doing their research and proactively asking what things meant because they wanted to learn more, and surprised them with a proper dragon dance, traditional decorations... That is appreciation.

[Sabrina the Selkie]

Truth!

[Mermaid Alea]

Which brings me back to a previous post that I made. Another example of appreciation versus appropriation is the recent episode of Fresh Off the Boat.

if no one has seen it, it was a Chinese New Year episode.. They had a bunch of white people celebrate Chinese New Year but didn't have any Chinese people and they had a dragon mascot act as a "dragon dance", and white people getting Chinese character tattoos without knowing what they actually meant, and a white man who was born on a layaway in Thailand made up these random "traditions" like dropping the rat at midnight and wearing rat sunglasses. Great example of appropriation and ignorance.

by contrast in the same episode a bunch of the main casts friends (all white again) helped them celebrate the new year by doing their research and proactively asking what things meant because they wanted to learn more, and surprised them with a proper dragon dance, traditional decorations... That is appreciation.

Great examples!

[Prince Calypso]

i'm really glad this thread exist and that Raina made a blog post about it.
now that being said, I think I'm one of the few mers of color who doesn't have as a big a problem towards Cultural Appropriation as I maybe should.
This isn't say that I don't think its an important issue, I do. I do believe that a person should try to find a way to showcase their individual culture through their mersona.

I'm basically a little bit of everything
creole, Haitian, french, native american, white and Romani
and I was raised in a good portion of the cultures that make up my family tree.
and it can be a bit confusing at times to try to not only incorporate that into my life but my Mersona as well and could easily be accused of cultural appropriation.

my only issue is when the idea of cultural appropriation is thrown around for every little thing, (not that i'm saying anyone here is doing that)
I mean people are so quick to tare someone down and treat them like shit for something I'm sure most times they didn't know they were even doing wrong and no, ignorance of something doesn't permit it, but I do think that instead of just yelling "That's Cultural Appropriation! you are a horrible person!",
the time should be taken to educate. If after that the person acts like they just don't give a shit then let them have it. Read they ass to filth honey.

which is why I feel post and threads like these are really epic and interesting because it allows people to discuss these thing openly without the crazies jumping and throwing the blame fish in people's face.
Raina wrote her article very well without condemning or pointing fingers, admitting that even she had made a few mistakes along the way and set out to educate as much as she could about the topic.

[Mermaid Momo]

In line with your thread, I have had people take issue with me for wearing kimono, even though I know far more than they do about the process, the meaning, the parts, and the history of the art of kimono. They didn't care that I find the Japanese culture incredibly beautiful, and that I do my best to be respectful of every piece I wear or use. The most important moment for me came when an elderly Japanese woman who LIVED for the art of kimono told me how much it meant to her that I, who have no traced history in Japan, had such a love for the Japanese culture. In my personal opinion, I think the difference between appreciation and appropriation comes from intent and understanding.

This! One year I went to a Japanese festival here in AZ, and I was standing in line to buy one of those giant shaved ices they have from one of the Japanese vendors and I was talking to this older woman in Japanese about my kimono (I had made it and she was interested in it and said she's been trying to convince her daughter to wear kimono and yukata) and after the woman got her shaved ice and left a white woman tapped me on the shoulder and told me I had no right to be speaking Japanese or wearing a kimono.... all while she was wearing a horrible cheap satin "kimono" it was actually a chinese dress though and then saying "baka" to her friend under her breath -__-

[Mermaid Mystery]

Momo, something tells me you encountered a weeb.

[Little_Orca]

I bet you rocked that kimono, Momo <3

Edit: I hope that I make it to Japan someday. I know there are places that will educate you, dress you, and let you wear the kimono for a day to see what it is like in their area and I want to do that. I need to speak better Japanese first. *Giggle*

[Mermaid Jaffa]

This! One year I went to a Japanese festival here in AZ, and I was standing in line to buy one of those giant shaved ices they have from one of the Japanese vendors and I was talking to this older woman in Japanese about my kimono (I had made it and she was interested in it and said she's been trying to convince her daughter to wear kimono and yukata) and after the woman got her shaved ice and left a white woman tapped me on the shoulder and told me I had no right to be speaking Japanese or wearing a kimono.... all while she was wearing a horrible cheap satin "kimono" it was actually a chinese dress though and then saying "baka" to her friend under her breath -__-

If it were me, I would've told her off in Japanese, including how her outfit was a Chinese dress, and that she wore it at the wrong celebration.

[HamptonsMermaid]

This is all awesome conversation! I'd love to hear more examples of how you mers have (or have plans to) represent your culture(s) in your mersonas? The great thing about this community is that we get to create our own personal mythologies, we can really be whoever we want to be! And of course we're learning that there's something very satisfying about being YOU and not someone else. What are some of your ideas to make your mersona unique?

I've looked into a fair bit of my Chinese side as mentioned in my previous post, but the caucasian part of me needs some attention as I know there must be more to it than just "white" haha. One thing I do know about my grandmother's side is that her grandmother lived in England and was one of the top artists at a china painting company (the teacup type of china that is...how ironic!). My grandmother says she knows this because she has an heirloom piece that her grandmother painted and it has details painted in real gold leaf, and apparently only the most advanced painters got to paint in gold. Yay artist roots! I'd love to see the heirloom piece and use some of my great great grandmother's gold leaf designs in my tail or top! I also just remembered that I have a little heirloom ring from that side of the family, gold and platinum with 4 teensy tiny diamonds in a somewhat celtic design that I'll have to look at and incorporate. It's not objectively valuable but apparently it was passed from eldest daughter to eldest daughter at her 16th birthday for I think something like 300 years! (The archeologist in me really wants to investigate!) It's so thin the band broke and I need to get it fixed but I used to never take it off. Cool so there's some things to look into on my grandmother's side. Really have no clue about my Grandfather's German history so time to start asking the elders! One thing about Grandpa tho is he's a true captain, has had sailboats all his life, so there's some mermaid possibilities for sure.

This is fun, it's like a personal treasure hunt! I like to take all the bits and pieces from my real life history and translate them into a sort of merfolklore about my mersona being a sea nymphy-goddessy-princess with an epic background tale. I guess Disney and The Little Mermaid really get under your skin (scales!) in the end!

[Merenneito Nerissa]

I have pretty strong Scandinavian roots which I really like One thing that comes to mind which could be something I'd love to try but which I absolutely never would is to wear accessories or costume parts which have references to Sami people's costumes, I love those so much (google and check out if you haven't ). The costumes just are so strongly bond to their culture and it's really experienced insulting if other than original Sami people wear their traditional costumes. But keeping that thing in mind and avoiding too strong references to exact costumes I'm all the time going towards wearing jewelry and accessories which have references to Lapland and the arctic environment, for example jewelry made from pieces of reindeer antlers etc.

[SeaGlass Siren]

This! One year I went to a Japanese festival here in AZ, and I was standing in line to buy one of those giant shaved ices they have from one of the Japanese vendors and I was talking to this older woman in Japanese about my kimono (I had made it and she was interested in it and said she's been trying to convince her daughter to wear kimono and yukata) and after the woman got her shaved ice and left a white woman tapped me on the shoulder and told me I had no right to be speaking Japanese or wearing a kimono.... all while she was wearing a horrible cheap satin "kimono" it was actually a chinese dress though and then saying "baka" to her friend under her breath -__-

Oh man I would've told the bitch off... HNGHHH ignorant people.

[Saren]

I bet you rocked that kimono, Momo <3

Edit: I hope that I make it to Japan someday. I know there are places that will educate you, dress you, and let you wear the kimono for a day to see what it is like in their area and I want to do that. I need to speak better Japanese first. *Giggle*

They're many places that'll do that in Japan, I went to one by my house last year. It's a lot of fun and the women are really great.

The BEST places to do this though is in Kyoto. They have all kinds of kimono packages: one where you get a Photoshoot in a studio with kimono change and makeup, one where they dress you and you can walk around Kyoto and even visit temples in Kimono. There's so much more that they offer and it's really great.

In many countries I've been in they're so eager to share their culture with you. For instance in Egypt, I bought a scarf and the sales woman wanted to show me all the ways to wear it. She asked if I'd like to wear it out as a headscarf (I'm assuming she heard me say to another woman how lovely I found her hijab). I did and I only got complements. I feel if you show respect for a culture and eagerness to learn more about it, you can do no wrong.

[SeaGlass Siren]

It's the same in Vietnam too. The minute a foreigner (white, black, or even other Asians) takes interest in anything about the culture they're all over it and they're immediately welcomed into the community.

[AniaR]

I find Japanese culture really encourages people to participate. it's not that other cultures don't, it's that people were beaten, abused, mistreated, judged etc for things that we now appropriate in fashion etc.

However I find it kinda tacky personally when white models paint themselves up like a Geisha. I think that's a bit different. There's a lot that goes into being a geisha good or bad. I don't like the idea of "geisha" being a costume. I think the modelling world sometimes does exploit people's cultural hardships for click bait on a photo.

[Sabrina the Selkie]

Yeah. Geisha is definitely a line that shouldn't be crossed in Western fashion.

But Japanese people really like to teach others about their culture.

Mostly.

[SeaGlass Siren]

There was a recent picture on Facebook of a mer who had makeup for Chinese New Year. I think people mistook that for geisha makeup when it was actually Cantonese opera makeup and she was actually part chinese :P agreeing though that geisha makeup :edit: geisha anything on anyone is tacky.

[AniaR]

There was a recent picture on Facebook of a mer who had makeup for Chinese New Year. I think people mistook that for geisha makeup when it was actually Cantonese opera makeup and she was actually part chinese :P agreeing though that geisha makeup on anyone is tacky.

yeah i know what you're talking about and I hadnt actually even seen it til AFTER my blog. lol. I hadnt even had the person as a friend on FB so it wasnt me passive aggressively trying to shame them or anything. I was blissfully unaware lol

[SeaGlass Siren]

So it was just coincidence LOL! Ah I love the internet

[SeaGlass Siren]

Update: I have confirmed with a distant family member that I do have French blood in me.