real-justice-waluigi:

Waluigi just wants to say, he believes that cultural appropriation is when you take a part of someone’s heritage/culture and make a mockery of it.

Not when you dread your hair, not when you wear a bindi, not when you get a dream catcher tattoo.

Dressing up in traditional African garb to make fun of African culture? That’s cultural appropriation. Saying “hella” in a sentence? Not cultural appropriation.

Do-a you see the difference?

You clearly don’t understand appropriation at all. Make sure to read the last paragraph.

Cultural appropriation is a anthropological concept. It’s studied, researched and discussed in academic journals. Tumblr’s probably the first place you’ve come across it though, so I can understand your confusion.

No one who is against cultural appropriation is against participating or involving in other cultures. The problem with appropriation is that it is the misrepresentation, misuse, and/or decontextualization of traditions from already marginalized/oppressed groups. It’s a concept from the social sciences, particularly anthropology and specifically describes a harmful/exploitative colonialist power dynamic. It reinforces stereotypes, Eurocentric beauty standards, racist colonial/imperial power dynamics, and in many cases can be a form of visual/symbolic dehumanization.

If you want to participate and involve yourself in other cultures, you have to do it on their terms, and not feel entitled to their cultural practices. It’s not that hard to respect another culture by acknowledging and respecting their boundaries. Interested in Native American cultures? Awesome. Go to a powwow, don’t desecrate a warbonnet. Interested in South Indian culture? Go to a bharatanatyam performance, don’t slap a bindi on your forehead.

Additionally you need to understand that intention is irrelevant. Even if people do things because they like them or think they’re pretty, they can still be racists. “… people will frequently argue that a particular statement or action doesn’t constitute racism because racism wasn’t intended. As noted elsewhere, in Human Rights law and anti-racism education, intentionality is irrelevant. It is the effect/impact of the action on the target person/group that is to be considered and takes precedence.” ” “The other way I think white people avoid an honest account in discussion of racism is when we reduce racism only to overtly prejudiced or racist kinds of intentions. Most white people I know, and I’m not just talking about, you know, radicals or liberals or whatever, but most white people in the United States today do not go into situations with the intention of being overtly racist. And therefore, people say, white people often say, “Well, if there was a problem it wasn’t my fault because I didn’t intend to be a racist in the way that Bull Connor or George Wallace — pick your favorite overtly white supremacist, Southern bigot from the 1950s acted. But racism, again, just is not about simply people being treated badly. It’s not simply about intentions. One can act in a way that reinforces a white-supremacist system, even though one doesn’t have the intention of being a racist.“

Michael Jammer has but one question: Why are women’s clothing sizes so small? In a Facebook post uploaded on May 20 that has since been shared more than 75,000 times, the father of four explained how he didn’t understand how his wife’s extra large tank fit his slender frame. And then he rightfully goes in on swimsuits.

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Reasons why I need the A in LGBTIAQ to stand for Asexual, not Ally

skitterbot:

defira85:

Because my mother told me that all I needed to do was get drunk and lie back and let my husband have his fun. Because if I was drunk, I’d be more relaxed and it’d be over sooner

Because my sister told me that I was trapping my husband in an abusive marriage, and that one day he was going to leave me

Because both of them looked at me in disgust

Because my asexuality is considered to be as great a crime against my husband as a woman who has affairs and cheats on her husband

Because my cousin didn’t even try to understand, and just kept asking ‘but what about in five years? how will you feel then?’

Because I was so afraid of my body and so afraid of sex that I didn’t seek medical help for a legitimate question for over a year for fear of being labelled a deviant or something broken

Because I still ask myself at least once every day if my husband wouldn’t be better off without me

Because I still ask myself at least once every day if I’m broken

Because I still tell myself at least once every day that I’m pathetic and useless and an abnormality

Because I love my husband with every fiber of my being, but everywhere I turn I’m told I really don’t, because love = sex

I need A to stand for Asexual because nobody ever talked to me about asexuality even when I was an outpatient at the women’s hospital for 18 months, and everyone told me desire would come in time

I need A to stand for Asexual because we are literally invisible, and so unimportant that people assume we don’t even need representation, because everyone assumes our lives must be bland and unimportant and lacking in challenges or bigotry

For every asexual that wants a relationship, for every asexual that does not want a relationship, for every asexual who has not yet come to terms with their identity, for every asexual who was told we were abnormalities, for every asexual who was told we just weren’t doing sex right, that we needed a good fucking, that we needed to be drunk, that we needed to relax, that we needed to be raped

We need representation, and we need visibility

That is why the A needs to stand for Asexual, and never for Ally

Fucking Important Post.