Cultural Appropriation

The clothing brand Free People is once again accused of cultural appropriation with their newest collection. This collection comes out every year, just in time for the Coachella Music Festival. The company has always known for its bohemian, hippie, and Native American inspired clothing, but come time for Coachella the company seems to go a bit overboard. This year, in particular, many people are upset about the over-the-top feather headpieces the company has made. Like I said, the clothing company has always been bohemian and Native American inspired, but these head pieces seem to be ripping off a culture. The company is taking this aspect of Native American culture without knowing the meaning and heritage behind such headpieces. Along with these headpieces, Free People is selling tribal tattoos, feather hair extensions, and ‘tribal’ ear cuffs.

Many people have taken to social media outlets to rant about this cultural appropriation and symbolic annihilation. These headpieces are a great example of cultural appropriation where someone takes something from one culture and make it’s a part of their own without knowing the real meaning behind it. Free People is doing this with the headpieces. They are also committing symbolic annihilation with the use of white, blonde models to model these pieces. Rather than use diverse women, or even Native American women, they use white women. This suggests that the Native American culture does not exist and is not important. Actions like these are very harmful to the Native American culture that has had a long history of abuse.