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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7831258" data-attributes="member: 4937">I could sort of be OK with that if that was held as a standard reciprocally and without hypocrisy. Ok, let's not mock or trivialize what is sacred to someone else. And as long as that didn't reach the level of implementing blasphemy laws, I'd be OK with that as a standard.But that's not a uniform standard. For example, by the same standard aren't 'Darwin Fish' and 'Flying Spaghetti Monster' fish cultural appropriation of the Ichthys symbol? And aren't those even more obviously attempts at mockery than someone putting on a fake eagle feather war bonnet? Will sexy Nun costumes be considered in similarly poor taste? Will appropriation of a crucifix or a church as a tawdry means creating gravitas in someone's bloody horror movie be something that we start shunning authors for, and if it is, then where does that stop? In terms of wearing costumes, I think the issue comes down to the fact that historically that has been done as a sort of ritualized foolery, which was once a big part of the European cultural tradition, and now in the US mostly is confined to Halloween. And that ritualized foolery was combined with essentially racial belittlement for a long time - equating the ritual foolish state of the actor with the identity of a minority group. That is a separate issue though from this idea that we ought to respect sacred spaces and practices.Because I think that even if we adopted non-sacred ordinary aspects of the costumes of Native American people - beads and rawhide dresses for example - and dressed up in those, I think that there would still be offense taken whether or not any was meant, simply because of that association with past racial belittlement. And none of that would address whether we having eagle feather warbonnets in a fantasy setting was turning something of "significant culture importance" in to something "cheap".</blockquote>

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