I object to people getting offended and labeling things 'appropriation' for the sake of trying to defend people that don't even want their 'help'. Too many people feel the need to be activists without even knowing what they're talking about or understanding that maybe some of us actually like wearing clothes from another culture, maybe it's our way of paying tribute to something beautiful or that has meaning to us. Maybe some of us want to make a Bahn Mi without being accused of eating a sandwich from a culture that we are not part of. I would consider it appropriation when someone tries to benefit from a culture by claiming that they are part of it when they were not born into it at all, like Elizabeth Warren, for example. But if I want to open up a Chinese restaurant (I'm not Chinese) because I love the food, the people and the culture, I shouldn't be accused of anything other than being an entrepreneur who likes Chinese food. All this can be applied to the trans issue as well....I know plenty of trans individuals and none of them need spokespeople. All these tantrums are being made by people who call themselves "progressive"--even our words are being manipulated and redefined. That's not progressive.
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I agree with a lot of what you are saying here. In the article I talked about how society (individuals or groups within it) often jump to criticizing/confronting individuals without trying to understand their motives and intents or the context of how they arrived at their behavior. I explained why I thought that was an issue so I wont bother re-stating it. I personally do think that some behaviors are damaging though. Using distinct cultural rituals or symbols out of context for the sake of profit or making light of a culture is damaging in my opinion. They can create stereotypes and can effectively claim or extinguish a culture in a society. For me the behavior seems to exist on a spectrum, with appreciation on one side and appropriation on the other. Balance is important.
Overall, I think its a very confusing topic. Thanks for commenting and explaining your point further. I find nowadays people do not even want to take the time to hear or listen to ideas/opinions that differ from their own and because of that people do not understand the "others" perspective. I think that it takes dialogue to understand an issue so that people do not become divided further in society. People are already extremely divided.
Anyway, thanks again
You're absolutely right. People don't want to hear other perspectives and that is mostly because they don't want their paradigm to shatter...if they even go so far as to understanding why they do what they do. Understanding where individuals come from and where they get their perspective is super important. We can't all be lumped into one label of right or wrong. I think people make this issue more complicated than it is, honestly. Good post.
I wholeheartedly agree. Thanks for the discussion