Jan 19: Cultural appropriation in movies
The very popular Disney film Moana features characters derived from Polynesian mythology. When this is done, the nuances and connections are not always accurate, and sometimes several different elements of a culture are conflated.
This Guardian article suggests it's not the first film to engage in this sort of 'cultural appropriation' and isn't always appreciated by people from the culture that is being appropriated.
This Guardian article suggests it's not the first film to engage in this sort of 'cultural appropriation' and isn't always appreciated by people from the culture that is being appropriated.
Cultural appropriation is defined as follows:
There are lots of exmples in cinema, where a setting for a film may be chosen without fully appreciaing the importance of nuance.
This BBC article talks through the issues with setting the fim in such a varied location, and picking elements from different cultures to blend together.
Can you suggest other examples of a film 'borrowing' from a particular culture and getting it slightly wrong?
There is also the more serious issue of misrepresentations of culture, particularly in genres such as the Western, and the depiction of the 'Red Indians'.
In sport, Exeter Chiefs rugby team were recently in the press for their use of a headdress logo, with calls for them to stop selling them in the shop.
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