Halloween
Dressing up as a cultural stereotype is never, ever OK.
Cady Heron once remarked, “In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up and beg for candy.” The Mean Girls protagonist had slightly more disparaging things to say about what Halloween means in the girl world, but she neglected to mention that the holiday has also unfortunately become a minefield for culturally appropriative Halloween costumes.
Every year, costume retailers sell get-ups based on cultural stereotypes, and people erroneously think it’s appropriate to wear them to their neighbor’s house party. Think Native American princesses, ninjas, and more. If the costume doesn’t come from your own culture, it’s best to skip it.
“Cultural appropriation is taking an aspect of a culture, typically from a marginalized culture or group with less power, without giving proper credit or respect to that culture,” Raechele Pope, Ed.D., an expert on inclusivity and associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Buffalo, tells Bustle.
She explains that while some might argue that playing dress-up is just a way of showing appreciation or love, that is not necessarily how it is experienced by members of the culture. Pope adds that the practice reinforces stereotypes, distorts cultures, and can even affect the health and well-being of people who are already devalued by society.
How To Recognize Cultural Appropriation On Halloween
So what does cultural appropriation look like, especially in a Halloween costume? Pope says it’s anything that incorporates cultural dresses, dances, or music from marginalized groups into a costume since that often diminishes them and their importance. It might also involve makeup, hairstyles, or accents from a culture that is not your own.
“Being interested in other cultures is never the problem,” Pope says. “Our interest should be informed by members of the culture and how they want it to be shared.” And that’s why it’s not necessarily culturally appropriative to dress up as a TV or movie character who belongs to a race or ethnic group other than your own.
For example, Auli’i Cravalho, the native Hawaiian actor who voiced Moana in the Pixar film, told People in 2018 that it was totally OK for children of any background to dress up as the character. “I would encourage anyone who wants to dress up as a wayfinder who journeys beyond her reef to figure out who she truly is,” Cravalho said.
But culturally appropriative Halloween costumes are offensive because they reduce culture to a literal costume — one that certain groups of people can take off, but others live with every day.
It’d be hurtful to dress up, for example, as a hula girl, especially if doing so meant exaggerating or trivializing important cultural characteristics. Similarly, it’d be offensive to dress up as Moana if the wearer, say, changed the color of their skin as part of the “costume.”
The Bottom Line
The line between appropriate and appropriative Halloween costumes doesn’t have to be so blurry. If you’re ever confused about whether your costume choice might be offensive, that’s a sign that you should go with another option.
As a reminder of what culturally insensitive Halloween costumes look like, here are 11 common costumes you should never wear.
1A Ninja
Movies and TV shows make ninjas look super sneaky, but most of what we know about ninjas is wrong, according to historian Steven Turnbull in his book Ninja: Unmasking The Myth.
Ninjas, or shinobi, aren't characters that fight in dark shadows — they were specialized, highly-trained agents in feudal Japan who did similar work to our modern-day CIA, so it’s best not to parody that profession.
2A "Voodoo" Witch Doctor
“Voodoo" is often used as a catch-all term for several related religions practiced in Louisiana, Brazil, and the Caribbean, according to research by Danielle M. Boaz, a professor in the Africana Studies department at the University of Charlotte. Costumes that represent “witch doctors” or what’s properly known today as Vodou are marketed as scary — and it can exacerbate harmful stereotypes.
3A Native American Princess
Dressing up like another racial group for Halloween is never acceptable. This costume is especially bad considering the mass genocide of Indigenous people during the time of the United States' founding, and considering that members of these groups continue to experience discrimination on an exceptionally high level, as evidenced by a 2019 study published in Health Services Research.
“When you hyper-sexualize a people who are at highest risk of sexual violence by wearing these ‘PocaHottie’ or ‘Indian Chief’ costumes,” as Jordan Marie Daniels wrote for Bustle in 2018, “you are contributing to the depersonalization at the core of this issue.”
4Day Of The Dead Skulls
Halloween and the Day of the Dead are not the same, and even if they were, it wouldn't be cool to use symbols from the latter to celebrate the former. Día De Los Muertos is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1 — All Souls Day — to honor friends and family who have passed away. Sugar skulls or calaveras are a symbol of Día De Los Muertos and of Mexican culture — not a cute way to paint your face for a “haunted” bar crawl.
5A Geisha
Many people don a geisha costume under the assumption that it's “exotic” and "sexy," and there are many reasons why that's not cool. For one, geishas were entertainers, but they were not sex workers, as many people falsely believe.
For another, the costume hinges upon dressing up as a stereotyped version of Japanese people. Not to mention, the “kimonos” that come with geisha costumes are often short and tiny, which doesn’t represent what the traditional garments look like.
6A "Señorita"
If you break it down, dressing up as a “señorita” if you aren’t Spanish-speaking essentially means you’re cosplaying as another person — and it would be pretty uncool if someone dressed up as you for Halloween, right?
Many Hispanic and Latinx cultures have been the subject of poor-taste Halloween costumes in varying ways and forms, so it’s best to avoid this option when you see it as an option in Halloween stores.
7A Bollywood Star
Bollywood is a popular genre around the world, but wearing traditional Indian dress and calling it "Bollywood" isn't a costume when you aren’t from that country. It flattens all of Indian culture into one trope.
8An Inuk Person
The word “eskimo” may have been common years ago, but it’s now recognized as a derogatory term for the Inuit indigenous people who live in the arctic regions of Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland.
While it might seem cute to dress up as an Inuit person with faux furs, it’s yet another example of turning a culture into a costume. Many of the costumes available resemble nothing close to what the Inuit actually wear.
9A Fortune Teller
There’s an offensive racial slur sometimes used to describe the Romani or Roma people, an existing traditionally nomadic ethnic group living primarily in Central and Eastern Europe that has faced significant persecution throughout history.
Halloween costumes often portray the Romani as fortune tellers, sexy swindlers, and pirates, all of which mock the Roma culture and play into many racial stereotypes. Keep these roots in mind and avoid it this Halloween.
10A Hula Girl
A “Polynesian princess” or hula girl is another costume idea that actually has culturally appropriative undertones. You might see grass skirts, fake flower leis, and coconut bras on display in a store or online, but resist buying them.
This look is a take on Polynesian culture — in this case, Hawaiian (the islands of Hawaii are geographically considered part of Polynesia) — and Hula, which is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (mele) dating back centuries as a cultural art form.
The inaccurate and often sexualized Halloween costumes accidentally mock traditional hula outfits and appropriate a significant aspect of Hawaiian culture.
11An Arabian Princess
Costumes depicting an “Arab princess” are essentially caricatures of Middle Eastern people. You might see similar costumes under the labels “desert princess,” “sexy harem girl,” or even belly dancer, so don’t buy them if you aren’t from those areas.
The reality is that Arab princess outfits trivialize a very real cultural tradition. It also plays into hyper-sexualized Western portrayals of a dance form that originated in Egypt, as well as in several other North African and Middle Eastern cultures.
All of these costumes both appropriate cultural traditions and perpetuate racial stereotypes. There are so many other Halloween costume ideas out there, so get creative, lean into a meme, or come up with a funny group costume, and leave all of the costumes above on the rack.
Source:
Raechele Pope, Ed.D., an expert on inclusivity and associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Buffalo
Studies cited:
Findling, M. G., Casey, L. S., Fryberg, S. A., Hafner, S., Blendon, R. J., Benson, J. M., Sayde, J. M., & Miller, C. (2019). Discrimination in the United States: Experiences of Native Americans. Health services research, 54 Suppl 2(Suppl 2), 1431–1441. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13224
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