Just Pajamas?

My first initial reaction to Disney pulling a pair of pajamas from their online stores was "so what it's just a pair of pajamas Why did they care?"

Every summer I spent time at my grandparents houses. My Grandma had shelves full of breakable glass ornaments and a lot of memorabilia from their families, and from their own adventures in which they participated in rodeo events and Gymkhana. My Grandparents were farmers and my Grandpa was a full-blown blue jeans and 10 Gallon hat wearing cowboy. My six year old self absolutely loved going to visit because I was immersed in that culture for the week or two and boy did I embrace it. I would wake up hours earlier than I normally would, race downstairs, put on my rubber boots and ran out to go do my "chores". These weren't chores that my Grandparents actually assigned to me they were self-assigned because I wanted to help on the farm. It actually consisted of me getting it bucket and going out and collecting grass and then feeding the cows through the gate of their corral. I'm sure it wasn't actually even being helpful but it's the thought that counts when you're 6 right? 

When I wasn't running with the barn cats and playing fetch with the dogs or exploring the trees I knew that I was not allowed to touch the glass ornaments and collectables that my grandma had because they were precious to her. Some things have been passed down through generations and I realize now looking back that some probably had come across the Pacific Ocean with her grandparents when they came to Canada. They were the last pieces of anything that she had of them, some of the last pieces of tangible history that had ties to our heritage.

It did not matter that they looked fun to play with when I was six, as they were in my eyes the same size as my toys and they looked similar to my toys but to my Grandma they were not toys. To play with them will be disrespectful to the journey that they came through and would not honor the memories that they were symbolic for. When I was six I was bored of the stories about the olden days as I didn't really understand them. I didn't understand how they didn't have running water and how when my Grandmother was my age she was working hard to help support her family not because she just wanted to help out the way that I did when I picked grass and fed it to the cows but it was actually for her family's survival. 

Fast forward a few decades and to when I saw this pair of pajamas. I didn't initially understand the outrage expressed of the people whose skin tone was reflected in these pajamas. Rather than allowing my privilege to take over and disregard their feelings I decided to educate myself on the terms being used in their comments.  Cultural appropriation and misappropriation. 

"Cultural appropriation is the adoption of the elements of one culture by members of another culture. Cultural appropriation, often framed as cultural misappropriation, is sometimes portrayed as harmful and is claimed to be a violation of the collective intellectual property rights of the originating culture."

When we all live so closely knit together it's undeniable that cultures will rub off on each other and we will adopt customs and ideas and share different lifestyles.  Not everything is so clear-cut and it is not a straight line down the middle, a list to memorize of what is acceptable and what is not, however there are some cut and dry examples that you can find with the simple Google search, such as wearing a Native American War Bonnet also known as a traditional headdress or a Bindi being worn as a fashion statement - these are hard no. To not understand the cultural relevance and to use something merely for its looks is disrespectful to the people who these items, traditions and customs are so treasured

 To take something culturally and use it out of context even though it has been expressly ask to be respected and to be left alone it's cultural misappropriation. Dishonoring the culture is not freedom of speech, and it's not appreciating the significance of these items - the backstory and the history of these people.  Now I'm not saying that playing with my Grandma's treasured collectibles and pieces of her history are on the same level as taking someone's entire culture and using it for fashion but the concept is similar and it is easier to wrap my brain around, to have empathy for something you need to have a basic understanding on some level.  Cultural appropriation is not learning a list of things that you can and cannot do,  it's simply thinking critically about how your actions may affect someone else in a grander scheme and being respectful. 

Before researched this topic myself I couldn't understand how a pair of pajamas implied that they were wearing someone else's skin; it seems like a such a stretch to me.  I also learned that in order for something to be appropriated there also has to be a power struggle. 

If you simply just take something you are asserting power over the person who does not want something taken its simple whether it's a home invasion or plagiarism or borrowing someone's culture for a weekend. And even if you don't care if somebody borrows your culture you can't assume that they will feel the same about you borrowing theirs or which parts that they borrow. 

I personally don't mind sharing clothes with my girlfriends if they would like to borrow a dress they can for a weekend but if a friend of mine asked to borrow my wedding dress for a Halloween costume I would tell her no, if she's proceeded to take it anyways we can all see how that would be wrong. If we take that same concept and apply it to these pajamas it becomes much more simple. The Polynesian people have asked for their color of skin to not be made into a pair of pajamas for their cultural significance to not be cheapened and for it to be respected.

We all have the power to educate ourselves and to open our minds and become empathetic towards each other. Because we do all live together and it's really not all that that hard to have empathy to your neighbors whether they be the ones who live across the street or the ones who live across the world. We also have the responsibility to both educate ourselves and our children to the cultures of the world, rather than being ignorant to the things that we do not understand. I personally was able to change my viewpoint in one evening with a bit of reading and after about 2 hours I was able to open my mind and see that it is much more than just a pair of pajamas.