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Appropriation
11 years ago
Looking for some crap to read on the internet I've stumbled onto reading about crazy stuff that gets posted on Tumblr and ran into the concept of cultural appropriation just how far some people take it on there.
I admit I often feel guilty about it, I mean this account's character after all is a Tibetan antelope which is a real animal but relatively rare in the fandom, naturally the character has taken on cultural aspects of his own region of origin. I acknowledge the privilege of living in the United States and the reality of living in an occupied land is simply hard to fathom, unless of course you're from a Native American culture and know what it's like to be practically forgotten by the rest of the world... I wonder how many furries are really guilty of this as a whole, I mean, I know I've seen plenty of fursonas that have a Native American vibe to them or furries of African animals shown having vaguely African cultures, or Eastern dragons, or anime furs taking on Japanese culture and I wonder how many of them are from the nations or cultures they represent. The biggest reason I think furries get away with it is because the fandom has fantasy at it's core. Also important is the fact that many fursonas are to some degree a representation of what a furry identifies with, Halapmir for example is kind of a representation of a more pacifist and mindful side of me.
Just how far does one take this though? Cultural appropriation as I understand it adopting elements of an oppressed culture, removing meaning from it and not facing the real oppression the original culture had. Like just about anything else though this concept seems to have been mutated on the internet into raging over minor things, and cases of culture actually being shared by a wide scope of the world. To me the logical end to that is claiming the very nature of being a homo sapien, which incidentally seems to have originated from Africa.
Being worked on next: "Purple"
"Cantina": 100% 100% 100% 0% 3rd Chapter Compete
"Sketch" 100% All Sketches Completed
"?????" ?% Mystery Drawing
"Face" 75% Flat Color Complete
"NES" 25%: Sketch compelte waiting on collab's stage.
"Malamute" 10%: Storyboard Compelte
"Purple" 25%: Sketch compelte
I admit I often feel guilty about it, I mean this account's character after all is a Tibetan antelope which is a real animal but relatively rare in the fandom, naturally the character has taken on cultural aspects of his own region of origin. I acknowledge the privilege of living in the United States and the reality of living in an occupied land is simply hard to fathom, unless of course you're from a Native American culture and know what it's like to be practically forgotten by the rest of the world... I wonder how many furries are really guilty of this as a whole, I mean, I know I've seen plenty of fursonas that have a Native American vibe to them or furries of African animals shown having vaguely African cultures, or Eastern dragons, or anime furs taking on Japanese culture and I wonder how many of them are from the nations or cultures they represent. The biggest reason I think furries get away with it is because the fandom has fantasy at it's core. Also important is the fact that many fursonas are to some degree a representation of what a furry identifies with, Halapmir for example is kind of a representation of a more pacifist and mindful side of me.
Just how far does one take this though? Cultural appropriation as I understand it adopting elements of an oppressed culture, removing meaning from it and not facing the real oppression the original culture had. Like just about anything else though this concept seems to have been mutated on the internet into raging over minor things, and cases of culture actually being shared by a wide scope of the world. To me the logical end to that is claiming the very nature of being a homo sapien, which incidentally seems to have originated from Africa.
Being worked on next: "Purple"
"Cantina": 100% 100% 100% 0% 3rd Chapter Compete
"Sketch" 100% All Sketches Completed
"?????" ?% Mystery Drawing
"Face" 75% Flat Color Complete
"NES" 25%: Sketch compelte waiting on collab's stage.
"Malamute" 10%: Storyboard Compelte
"Purple" 25%: Sketch compelte
TL;DR : As long as the meaning is maintained somewhere, there is no reason to cause a huge stink over nothing. Time spent worrying is time thoroughly wasted, and time spent trying to protect a culture that isn't asking to be protected is even more so.
I do try to at least be accurate and do research when I depict culture. I kind of toy with Halapmir's image to this regard, he's a Buddhist deva and thus not meant to be an ordinary representation of anyone, and is also both ancient and modern.
Japan appropriated from China, China appropriated from India. The Greeks appropriated from Indo-European cultures. The Romans did from the Greeks. The later European nations from each other and so on and so forth. I wouldn't pay any attention to the whining of a bunch of perpetually offended ass clowns on one of the greatest cesspools of mental retardation on the web like Tumblr, if I were you. Do whatever you want to do and use whatever trope or cultural influence you want. Since there is always someone who will be offended no matter what, it's best to pay no attention to the whinning crybabies anyhow.
Might be an American thing too, I dunno. I've always heard Canada has embraced multiculturalism pretty well.