Anyone who knows me knows I love hoop earrings. In fact, I love them so much that I have a jewelry box filled with countless, nearly indistinguishable pairs. I always found my affinity for hoop earrings amusing, but certainly never offensive. So, naturally, I was taken aback when, a couple of years ago, I stumbled upon Ruby Pivet’s Vice article, Hoop Earrings Are My Culture, Not Your Trend.
Pivet points out that while white women are often praised for donning this “trend,” Latinx women are ridiculed for wearing the same earrings. She also notes that the disposable nature of the hoop earrings trend reveals a lack of respect for the culture from which this style originates. In other words, while hoop earrings may seem like a stylish accessory to white women, they signify something much deeper for Latinx women.
I’ll admit that I initially felt attacked by Pivet’s piece. My first instinct was to be defensive. I wondered if my identity as a mixed-race woman made me exempt from any potential accusation of cultural appropriation. I wondered if my identity made it “okay” for me to wear this style, too. I started to research the topic of cultural appropriation more, and came across countless articles and YouTube videos of Latinx women explaining what their hoop earrings meant to them.
As someone who is half Korean, I understand how harmful and frustrating it is when people take from your culture without appreciating it. A few months ago, I noticed that a new eyeliner trend had emerged called the “fox eye” trend. The makeup look made me uncomfortable, and I quickly realized why it bothered me so much. This particular eyeliner style is designed to make your eyes look smaller, and more almond-shaped. In other words, more Asian. I felt like I was being transported back in time to middle school, when white kids would tease me by pulling their eyes back, creating a slit-like eye shape – not unlike that which is created by applying “foxy” eyeliner.
Still, I didn’t necessarily consider this trend to be blatantly offensive or racially charged. Then I watched Jazzy Le refer to this makeup look as “asianfishing.” I had heard of “blackfishing” before, but that was normally in reference to much more extreme cosmetic changes, such as fake tanning – to the point of appearing racially ambiguous – lip injections, and wearing your hair in braids.
I started to realize that, just as dark fake tan and braided hairstyles could be viewed as cultural appropriation, so, too, could the fox eye trend. Knowing that the same people who had once mocked my eye shape were now using it for Instagram likes made me feel both amused and angered. I also realized that my reaction to asianfishing could be the same reaction I myself trigger when I wear hoop earrings – especially since this style is not a part of my own culture.
So, I started to doubt my initial conviction that my hoop earrings were a harmless part of my aesthetic. I contemplated giving up wearing hoop earrings altogether. I started wondering if people were staring at me whenever I wore them. I brought up the issue with a friend of mine, and her response both comforted and confused me. My friend sucggested that since I’d researched the topic so much, I must know enough about the cultural significance of hoop earrings to mean that I was appreciating them as a cultural artifact, as opposed to appropriating them. But I wondered if that appreciation made up for the fact that I’m not Latinx. This conversation left me with more questions than answers.
What’s the line between appreciation and appropriation? Is there a way to appreciate a culture without appropriating it?
A few months ago, during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, I noticed that cultural appropriation of Black culture became a huge topic of discussion on social media. Often, discussions around cultural appropriation center on fashion and beauty (such as the fox eye trend or hoop earrings). While appropriation of Black fashion and beauty (such as braids) was certainly talked about a lot, many of the conversations people were having about Black cultural appropriation had to do with language. That’s because the appropriation of Black culture is not only limited to changing one’s physical appearance (i.e. wearing braids or using dark fake tan), but it also includes things like speaking in AAVE (African-American Vernacular English).
Black women are often mocked for the way they style their hair or even the way they speak, and yet white women receive praise for taking from Black culture. This is obviously problematic, and yet the appropriation of Black culture still persists today in 2021. Black people still face extreme discrimination despite their culture being used to contribute to a certain “style” or “aesthetic.” So what’s the solution?
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s necessarily a clear answer here. However, there is one thing I think we can all agree on: taking from another culture and claiming that trend or style as your own is blatantly offensive. Not giving credit to the people who actually create and inspire the latest fashion trends is harmful. Viewing things like braids or hoop earrings as disposable trends, as opposed to a part of someone else’s culture, is simply ignorant.
Cultural appropriation is a lasting problem, and it won’t go away until we all educate ourselves. And educating ourselves doesn’t just mean reading news articles and learning about history – it means examining practices in your own lives that could be inadvertently harmful or insensitive, and changing them.