Entry tags:
2009-03-24
Entry tags:
an interlude
Wax and I walked to the historic neighbourhood across the railroad tracks with Perry on Sunday to look at the outside of some houses that contained flats for rent. Both were in varying degrees of rundown; one was pretty sweet, but had already been rented. ("That solves our problem!" chirped Wax.) It was a pretty nice walk though. There are tons of picturesque little houses and also lots of houses that appear to be inhabited by bums, if their state of disrepair/garbage-and-plastic-chair-adorned porches are anything to go by. It's also the sort of neighbourhood where Audi-driving assholes skid around blind corners going 70km/h where the limit is 40 even though there's not a sidewalk.
It was in the middle of a brief thaw, and the walkways between our well-located flat and downtown being thoroughly melted and largely swept clear of gravel, we both went over there in regular sneakers and jeans instead of winter boots. We discovered to our chagrin that the sheets of bubbly ice aren't so well melted in the field behind the railroad tracks or on the fiddly little unkempt sidewalks along the busy highway-feeding streets. There was some skidding involved. It was nice to feel that spring was on its way for a while, though: yesterday it blizzarded all day, depositing something like 4-6 inches of snow. I'm getting really tired of the snow about now.
Entry tags:
Stop the presses! White people don't find cultural appropriation offensive
While Avatar: The Last Airbender is busy filming on Greenland with white actors in actual native villages, Danish designer Peter Jensen's last collection using the traditional dress of Greenland for decoration sparks protest in the streets in Greenland.
The reporter for UK paper The Independent, like the designer, doesn't get what the problem is. The article's opening line is "Peter Jensen is probably the last designer on earth one would expect to trigger protests. It would be like campaigning against fluffy kittens or baby rabbits... Stop the bunnies, they are too cute!", and she moves on to quote the designer being "shocked" that his "loving tribute" could piss people off right after the extremely simple explanation:
O RLY?
British women fashion bloggers are consumed with sympathy for the poor designer's victimisation by the 30-person POC hordes. Catwalk Queen thinks "Jensen's show was nothing like [genuinely offensive fashion appropriation of native dress]" because it "came across as a warm-hearted celebration of Greenlandic culture". And Style Bubble's headline is "Protect Peter!"; she goes on to invoke the whole Bingo card against those brown Greenlander women who, according to her unsubstantiated claim, are sending him death threats. Besides, Jensen totally went on vacation to Greenland to "research" the collection, and he looked cute doing it (which she bafflingly says straight-up is the most important concern for her)! She "for one [is] glad Jensen has returned to what he does best; unabashedly cute and immersed into a theme that is personal to him" because his aunt was an exchange student in Greenland in the 70s.
Wait. Seriously?
He thinks that Greenland's national dress is cute, and his aunt went there as an exchange student in the 70s when the country was still a colony owned by her homeland, so it's supposed to be okay for him to make an eroticised high fashion version of it to sell to white people outside Greenland, and that's supposed to earn him a Boy Scout badge? And allwhite right-thinking people are supposed to shake our heads at the POCs who failed to show the appropriate gratitude for being "lovingly" appropriated by him?
I particularly like the intimation that it's only cultural appropriation if a tribute wasn't intended: it's not stealing unless you don't like it, apparently. In what circumstance would these concerned slim blonde ladies consider a high fashion version UN-loving? Considering fashion is supposed to sell, it can't come with a "THIS IS UGLY" label. Maybe if the item being appropriated was being made fun of - like if it was made into a parody of itself? Like for example, if a traditional snowboot was resculpted into a stiletto-heeled hooker boot?
OH WAIT, HE DID THAT.
The reporter for UK paper The Independent, like the designer, doesn't get what the problem is. The article's opening line is "Peter Jensen is probably the last designer on earth one would expect to trigger protests. It would be like campaigning against fluffy kittens or baby rabbits... Stop the bunnies, they are too cute!", and she moves on to quote the designer being "shocked" that his "loving tribute" could piss people off right after the extremely simple explanation:
Jensen thinks the protesters may be particularly sensitive because he is Danish, and Greenland was a colony of Denmark until 1979[...].
O RLY?
British women fashion bloggers are consumed with sympathy for the poor designer's victimisation by the 30-person POC hordes. Catwalk Queen thinks "Jensen's show was nothing like [genuinely offensive fashion appropriation of native dress]" because it "came across as a warm-hearted celebration of Greenlandic culture". And Style Bubble's headline is "Protect Peter!"; she goes on to invoke the whole Bingo card against those brown Greenlander women who, according to her unsubstantiated claim, are sending him death threats. Besides, Jensen totally went on vacation to Greenland to "research" the collection, and he looked cute doing it (which she bafflingly says straight-up is the most important concern for her)! She "for one [is] glad Jensen has returned to what he does best; unabashedly cute and immersed into a theme that is personal to him" because his aunt was an exchange student in Greenland in the 70s.
Wait. Seriously?
He thinks that Greenland's national dress is cute, and his aunt went there as an exchange student in the 70s when the country was still a colony owned by her homeland, so it's supposed to be okay for him to make an eroticised high fashion version of it to sell to white people outside Greenland, and that's supposed to earn him a Boy Scout badge? And all
I particularly like the intimation that it's only cultural appropriation if a tribute wasn't intended: it's not stealing unless you don't like it, apparently. In what circumstance would these concerned slim blonde ladies consider a high fashion version UN-loving? Considering fashion is supposed to sell, it can't come with a "THIS IS UGLY" label. Maybe if the item being appropriated was being made fun of - like if it was made into a parody of itself? Like for example, if a traditional snowboot was resculpted into a stiletto-heeled hooker boot?
OH WAIT, HE DID THAT.
awww
Designer Marc Jacobs engaged to boyfriend Lorenzo Martone; they might be adopting. After Ellen/Portia (♥_♥) and Lindsay/Sam (♥_♥) they are my new favourite celebrity couple.
