It’s 2017 and hoop earrings are now apparently the latest victim of cultural appropriation.
That’s at least according to Rachel Hosie, a writer for The Independent who recently came out with the article, “Hoop Earrings Criticized As Cultural Appropriation.”
More than just a fashion trend, Hosie says hoop earrings “carry a lot more meaning, and one woman has now called out hoop earrings as a form of cultural appropriation.”
She uses a recent article found in Vice as evidence. The piece “Hoop Earrings Are My Culture, Not Your Trend” claims that only native Australians are allowed to wear gold hoop earrings.
She argues that since indigenous Australians lost their language and land to colonists, the only thing left to identify themselves with is hoop earrings. And if white people start to take that too, there’ll be no means of identification left and they’ll probably melt away.
The argument that hoop earrings can only belong to one indigenous group is laughable. I’m not an anthropologist so I can’t prove exactly when the first hoop was worn, but something tells me plenty of different groups were wearing them at the same time.
And does anyone care who wore the first hoop anyways? That’s like saying nobody can wear denim but cowboys. Or anybody who wears a fur coat is insulting Native Americans and Inuits. Maybe they’re just cold.
Making a list of “racist” clothes is a slippery slope. We’ve been down this road before with cotton. Where does it end? Since she’s not Australian, would Rihanna then be racist?
Final rehearsals for tour with @rihanna ..see you soon in Pasadena pic.twitter.com/OXaSygR1i2
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) August 6, 2014
Surely Kim K would be.
Do you guys remember this blue eyeshadow Emmy glam look from 2009? #SELFISH pic.twitter.com/KEnPtwQ5XA
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) May 2, 2015
And don’t forget about Zendaya.
playing with filters pic.twitter.com/eg9XrHJUv2
— Zendaya (@Zendaya) July 31, 2017
If we aim to eradicate the painful memories of every oppression and reallocate products and ideas to the very first people to come across them, we would live in a far darker and far less progressive world. Rather than segregating ideas and further promoting separation, why not break down cultural barriers and let a girl wear some hoops?