By Lucy Gill
We are living in an age of change. In the past
decade, along with the help of increased media outlets, and online intercontinental connections through social media, society as a whole has come to a realization that we need to be more aware, and supportive of other cultures, or “Woke.” But, in this age of exploration, where people are striving to be less insular, we have to remember that there is a fine line to walk between cultural exploration and appropriation. When I interviewed students and faculty at school this past week, 85.9 percent of people asked had never heard the words cultural appropriation before. It is my firm opinion that if we are to make a more accepting world full of cultural appreciation, we need to first target the issue that is the general populations lack of knowledge on how and how not to respect other cultures, and at Howe Sound Secondary School we should be even more motivated to tackle these problems seeing as they are focused on building our future. But, how can we build a more accepting world, when influential brands such as Disney are normalizing racism, exoticism and even Islamaphobia? Since Disney started pumping out remakes of some of their most classic (but most politically incorrect) movies, making a full-body brown-skinned Maui costume has been the least concerning thing they’ve done, and that’s saying something!
What is cultural appropriation? Simply put, cultural appropriation is the inappropriate adoption of practices, or apparel belonging to another culture. Cultural appropriation can also be defined as incorrectly representing a culture. The real difference between cultural appropriation, and cultural appreciation, is the amount of knowledge and respect you posses while representing a culture that you don’t belong to. Some examples of cultural appropriation you may recognize would be a hotel named “The Chieftain” with a headdress as a sign. Or, perhaps taking a many century-old Chinese legend, and rewriting it as a movie set in a fictional “Arabian” country where Muslims are sword-wielding savages, to increase interest and displaying blatant exoticism of middle eastern culture. Sound familiar? If you were thought of Disney's Aladdin, you are correct. Disney has been under rapid-fire for years in relation to the massive displays of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation in even their newest movies, especially Aladdin. The Council on American Islamic Relations even went so far to say “The overall setting, tone and character development in the ‘Aladdin’ story continues to promote stereotypes, resulting in a perpetuation of Islamophobic ideas and images, we urge the public and film critics to scrutinize the new production of ‘Aladdin’ in light of its historical context and today's toxic environment for all minority communities.” But, while Aladdin is concerning on many levels Disney has been judged in recent years for more drastic forms of cultural appropriation in their new movie Moana.
What’s so wrong about Maui? Those who have watched Moana know Maui as a rough around the edges, kind-hearted demi-god who helps princesses and has dancing tattoos. What you may not know is that Maui is a real part of Polynesian culture, and so are his misrepresented tattoos on his body. To many Polynesian people, the Pe’a (tattoo) is a holy thing. A pe’a should only be worn when you have a spiritual connection to what is illustrated on your body and are used to tell the stories of what you have overcome in your spiritual journey to get to where you are. Each pe’a is unique as the person who bears it, and so to make a costume with identical pe’as and to sell them to people all over the world is to make a mockery of Polynesian culture, not to mention the fact the costume includes a brown full bodysuit. You may think that at first glance, the Maui costume pictured and described above is relatively harmless, but you have to ask yourself what messages a parent is conveying to their child when they buy this costume for them. It’s a message of ignorance and lack of respect for other cultures, and it’s not only being conveyed in this costume. It’s being spoon-fed to our society’s most impressionable members every time they turn on Disney plus.
From copywriting the Swahili proverb Hakuna Matata© to reshooting an Islamaphobic movie without even attempting to make it more acceptable to a 21st-century audience, it’s time we as consumers considered what we support, and show our children. It’s time to say enough is enough to Disney, because we are trying to move forward into an accepting and loving future, and we can’t do that if we are forcing our youth into an insular mindset via the media they are constantly being exposed to. Disney, it’s time you learned to be more woke!