2) There’s a failure on the behalf of the Russians here to grasp the essence of English-speaking culture; theft. Our cultural motto is “I like that. That’s mine now.” Or should we still be wearing night shirts instead of pyjamas and speaking pre-goidelic Celtic?

And in answer to that comic, we have this shirt: http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=WON-ELEPHANT&Category_Code=WON

(Hope the links work.)

:D

Over and out!
Natasha

(It’s vegan! Does that make me less of a douchenozzle?)

Those hats are something else. I want one. I know I shouldn’t, but I do. And I want the bear and his little hat. *sotto voce* I want him so bad.

Anyone care to offer links or thoughts on better culture mashups? What good fusion do you like? Or are these things always doomed to failuяe?

And what about subcultures that takes from history, not geography, the way trad goth & new romo takes from victorian and edwardian fashion? The past is a foreign country, after all.

The Cold War era seems so far in the past now that it can be downright campy to think about and explore for quite a few coming out of their teens. Cultural Appropriation as a result becomes more of an exploration of the unfamiliar than an ignorant exploitation of the misunderstood.

We’d like to think people would do something as simple as go to Google and search up on Russia, its history, its languages, etc. before doing anything with them…but that’s just not the case. I think for many it’s like finding a parents record collection…it’s strange, unfamiliar, confusing, and without a clear start or end point. So the best way to explore is to jump in a bit ignorant about what’s what with hopes it’ll all make sense at some point. To be fair over time it does for most and with surprisingly positive results. One needs only see the love affair the US now has with Japan. That took quite a bit of time and started off nearly as bad as the stuff pointed at above.

“…isn’t it strange the way nobody bats an eyelid if you cop Soviet propaganda styles, but Nazi swastikas and the like are a huge no-no?…”

The Soviet Union lasted longer and essentially burned out. So its iconography went from intimidating, to symbolic, to campy, to now historical and a genre unto itself. The Nazi’s had to be taken to the gallows and hunted down. As a result none of that lost its bite even when it was played campy in stuff like Hogan’s Heroes. Plus so much of that was embraced by hate groups since then that the brutality continued even after the Cold War ended. Some guy in a CCCP shirt (just saw that last night at my local 7-11 actually) isn’t saying anywhere near what a person wearing a swastika is…

Or are they? That’s kinda the other strange part of Cultural Appropriation in that over time everything changes it’s meanings or picks up even more. After all the Nazi’s appropriated the swastika, Soviet era creations like the AK-47 have become THE symbols for revolution anywhere, and well we’ve all seen the appropriation of tribal symbols for just about anything.

With Cultural Appropriation now in high gear thanks to the ye olde internet… it’s allowed for anything from any culture to become trendy, influential, or utterly hilarious within a heartbeat. It may muddy the waters even more than the examples above but it could end up breaking down cultural divides faster as a result. It’s pretty clear most of us here already thrive on that so the responsibility does rest in those who know the history and meaning of things to educate those that don’t…unless they’re a sorority girl who thinks her tattoo means “inner peace” but actually stands for “flatulent cow”. We’ll just leave that one as is.