Thursday 14 February 2013

Why should people be careful when selecting Halloween costumes or party themes?

For my first blog I chose to answer the question of why people should be careful when selecting Halloween costumes and party themes. In my opinion, the majority of people base their opinions on one's costumes and party themes in a negative outlook and will end in finding it to be at least somewhat racist or offensive to someone or something in some way or another. I realized this when we read the articles "We're a culture, not a costume" and "Social media protesters crash 'Cowboys and Indians' party." In both of these articles it was noticed how there are so many different stereotypes of different cultures that when there is a party theme or costume that is based around/set as a culture that it is seen to be racist and/or offensive. After reading and looking into this and all of the different perspectives I was able to understand how the people who are involving themselves as the party-goers and who are dressing themselves up as the set themed culture are supporting the many stereotypes that some find offensive and racist. In my opinion those people should be putting more thought and consideration into how although they themselves may find it to be harmless, a fair majority of others may not be thinking and seeing it the same way as do I. I also believe that cultures should not be generalized into one costume or party theme. For example, in the article "We are a culture, not a costume" the Asian's were referenced as to how all of the females are stereotyped as Geisha's in society. In my opinion there is a lot more to a culture than how people have strictly labelled it as.

3 comments:

  1. I agree. People need to really think about WHY these costumes are wrong, and putting themselves in the shoes of the people who belong to the culture that they are dressing up as. Also, I think it's interesting what you said about the Geisha costume. I can see now that, even though that it's not seen as REALLY offensive, it creates a sort of, "oh, that's what they're all like" mentality, and then people's only idea of what Japanese culture is like is this Geisha costume. I guess people need to just be more educated in the culture, but what can you do about that? This is why the campaign is a good idea, and I have learned a lot from it.

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  2. Sara, your main idea is vaguely stated at first, but by reading further, it becomes clearer. I agree that there is much more to a culture than how it is labelled. I also agree with your point that while it may appear harmless, the implications of perpetuating stereotypes can be harmful.

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  3. Your point and explantion is very clear and I see where your're coming from, but I feel as though people are taking this far out of measures and over reacting. People aren't putting on costumes in the mind set "oh, I wanna dress like this to offend their culture and mimmick their ways. No, they are wearing these costumes innocently and for a fun time. I just feel as though cultures are being uptight and over exaggerating. Halloween is just a fun holiday and cultures shouldnt feel attacked because it happens to every culture out there.

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