Elizabeth Solorzano

Writing 39B; 5:00 pm

Professor Hickerson

7 Dec. 2016

RIP Essay

Oftentimes people want to make a bold fashion statement, or wear a clothing article that is unique and cute. However, in this extravaganza of fashion statements, bold articles, and trending clothing, people can often times forget about what exactly it is their outfits are portraying. In recent years, in the media, there have been a plethora of instances in which runway articles of clothing and accessories and artists have wrongly appropriated elements of cultures.

Moreover, through recent rhetoric expressed by key political figures a sense of fear runs throughout people with different cultures that fall outside of the mainstream culture. Through the election of President elect, Donald Trump, one can note the fear felt amongst many college students who are a part of the LGBTQ community, students of color, and international students. This fear and indecision to oftentimes not want to embrace individuality led me to write an article with the framework similar to that of Cosmopolitan articles. By utilizing a reflective tone and demonstrating introspective knowledge of cultural appropriation in an article that is reflective of the Cosmopolitan-style written articles and pinning posts that deem both correct and incorrect forms of cultural in order to demonstrate a fashionable approach to respect to cultures, I attempt to reach teens and women in their twenties who range from the lower economic class to the middle class, who are in an urban setting and are receptive to deeming respect to other cultures and enable them to better articulate that respect through pieces of clothing that are “borrowed” in the fashion sense from another culture beside their own. This respect and understanding about cultural appropriation will affect the overall climate of hostility and distance that is felt by the LGBTQ community, students of color, and international students, as it will deem a sense of awareness of what is going on about them and give them ground to be understood, and feel a sense of respect and belonging.

The central argument of the Cosmopolitan article is to portray in what forms cultural appropriation can be deemed an uplifting and positive portrayal of other cultures and in what form cultural appropriation is a wrong form of borrowing and an incorrect portrayal of cultures through a written medium. The purpose of my article is to direct the audience to then become more aware of the articles of clothing they purchase as well as the message they send out when wearing such articles of clothing. Within my article, “Why What I Wear Matters to Others”, I centralize my argument into understanding forms of cultural appropriation done when borrowing from other cultures and deeming it as appropriate as well as demonstrating instances in which cultural appropriation is wrong and offensive to the group it is originally meant to represent and how to better articulate a message of positivity and develop reinforcement of the idea that every culture is worth respecting. Through the initial use of colloquial language, I am able to appeal to my audience, as I pose questions and begin to set up my beginning argument through the use of inner dialogue. One clear example of this includes, “Well the question then becomes, “how is your outfit relevant to anyone else” and “why”? This inclusion of inner dialogue allows the reader to look introspectively and not only relate to the person being described, but also channel all their thoughts into a form of stream of consciousness that allows them to open up to viewing a perspective outside of their own in an attempt to answer the question prompted. When the audience begins creating a bond of receptivity through the tone of the article, it is then when I am then able to appeal to the reader and inform them about attire that can be deemed offensive. Items that can often be found as key points of interest include fashion, seasonal trends, thus my lead in statement starts off as, “Women often find themselves looking in the mirror and reflecting upon how they look. Whether if all pieces of the outfit work well together and glance upon their phone and see what the outlook of the weather is for the day.” This creates a hook that ties my targeted audience to want to continue to read the article. Moreover, the inclusion of pictures that are examples of what is stated in the text create an attention grabber and a flow in the article, as it breaks the text from being long and monotonous. Conclusively the inclusion of a bold and enlarged textual quotes throughout the article also create an emphasize in the message that is portrayed through the text and it enhances the reader’s experience as it stays within the reader’s mind for a longer period in comparison to an article that has a continuous text size. I am then able to appeal to the reader’s logical side, by bringing in a source that I found to best define cultural appropriation, which states, that cultural appropriation is “using someone else’s cultural symbols to satisfy a personal need…[which] is an exercise in privilege” (Uwujaren). Through the inclusion of this quote, I am then able to begin on the journey of defining cultural appropriation. Then one example I include, is that of Karlie Kloss, who wears a head-dress paired with a sexy bikini, I begin to introspectively analyze why her wearing a head-dress is wrong and what a limited scope it is portraying of the richly diverse indigenous culture and I begin to build my credibility with my audience as they note this is beyond my personal opinion and rather an article that cites various sources all while continuing an easy to read and digestible tone. Afterwards, I am able to cite an example of a vlogger who wore a hijab at the end of her makeup tutorial to demonstrate to her audience how the makeup look would look paired with the hijab. I specifically chose this example as it would best align with my audience, of women, who are in their adolescent years and their early twenties and can oftentimes be found looking for makeup tutorials. This would fit in the scope of bringing awareness to my audience as they themselves may also be makeup artists or fall in the fashion industry careers and they will note what can and cannot be done to properly culturally appropriate and create a sense of solidarity amongst their wide range of viewers or followers.

As I go on to explain cultural appropriation I am able to clarify to the reader why one form is deemed correct and the other is not. Moreover, I am also able to logically deduct how these examples then reflect an opinion in the mainstream culture. I also incorporate two examples of cultural appropriation that promote a positive reinforcement of inclusion and diversity through the portrayal shown by these artists. One example includes Rihanna, who wanted to shine light on Chinese dynasties. Rather than wearing a dress that is created by an American designer, she took the step further to appreciate the work of a Chinese designer and demonstrate full-fledged respect and dignity to the culture. She wore a bright yellow long gown. Through her acknowledgement of the origin of the design of the dress, she pledges a respect and appreciation of the culture. This allows the reader to then see a form of how cultural appropriation can be properly done. I go on to explain that one should, “make an effort to purchase items that are native to the culture rather than purchase from a source takes the article out of context and subvert it as an incorrect form of cultural appropriation.”

Another positive form of cultural appropriation includes the cultural appropriation committed by the Olsken sportswear line, in which the author goes a step further to learn about the issues of the Ashaninka tribe and help collaborate through the use of their art in clothing in resolving their environmental issues. This deems that the author did not exercise a form a dominance over the tribe and instead went forth to collaborate in helping them resolve the issues within their community, meanwhile acknowledging their art throughout a clothing line. This deems the tribe a sense of respect and dignity that oftentimes fails to be noted in other forms of cultural appropriation.

In conclusion, one can learn that through the implementation of a Cosmopolitan inspired article, the audience can then learn about the forms of respect that can be deemed through the article. This allows an audience that is receptive of the message of respect and solidarity with minority groups. This message of correct and incorrect forms of appropriation, one can learn to take forward how to respect others through articles of clothing and other articles.