Last week I was following a thread on a friend's Facebook page questioning whether or not allowing a young child to dress as Moana for Halloween is cultural appropriation. This issue, it would seem, is that the young heroine of the Disney movie by the same name is Polynesian. I admit, I haven't seen the film but if it's like so many similar films the lead, regardless of nationality, shows exceptional bravery and character in overcoming some kind of adversity. Here's where I begin to hear my parent's voices in my head. As they got older and the world changed they seemed stuck in their past, unable to accept newer ways of thinking. And while I absolutely think we have gone too far when we worry this much about an early elementary child's innocently desired Halloween costume, I also wonder if I'm getting to an age that makes it difficult to embrace this kind of change. I've always been open minded. Having spent my career in the creative realm, my people often represent the near fringes of society at least in their worldviews and taste for fashion. I've traveled, lived across the US in large cities and small towns. But lately I feel a bit overwhelmed by these kinds of discussions. Not to mention all the "they" and "their" pronouns young people are using to describe sexual and gender orientations. Don't get me wrong - I think being open to the idea that some of us have enjoyed societal acceptance and privilege if not at the expense of others, then completely blind to their suffering, is something we need to embrace and improve. But when a child who really just wants to "appropriate" a character's bravery leads us to think we have some other problem, I think we need to take a step back and try to see that for what it simply is. When adolescents feel they have to choose a complicated gender identity just because the more widely known identities are, perhaps, not as exciting could it be that we are over complicating things? I'm torn between wanting this to be just me getting older and our culture getting just a little crazy. Honestly, I don't know which is worse. I guess I'll find out.
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d.a.meek
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December 2017
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