I remember going to San Francisco for the first time in the late 70’s–we were talking about something in a group and I remember someone saying “hey man, that’s just giving me a bad vibe…” or something to that effect. It struck me as funny, because in the midwest, from where I was visiting, we supposedly didn’t talk about true feelings because we were conservative and uptight. Here in the “open, hippy” district of San Francisco, where everyone was supposed to be touch with themselves, they weren’t communicating because “the vibe wasn’t right.” But the effect was the same–no one was really connecting or communicating.

What was my point? Oh, yeah, that sometimes people (please say it’s not me : ) ) can get so focused on superficial vestiges of political correctness or looking for offense that they miss the ability to connect cross-culturally.

Thanks, GoriGirl

Certainly there are types of cultural costumes that promote blatant, harmful stereotyping (sexy Asian lady with accent), or have a history of negative connotations (blackface) – and I agree that those shouldn’t be considered acceptable costumes.

But what about the person who just has another culture’s clothing in his wardrobe, and decides to wear that ’cause it’s bright & colorful & different from his normal attire? Or a costume that plays on words, expectations, and, yes, stereotypes, such as the time an Indian citizen friend of mine went as a Native American (”feather not dot tonight” was his slogan).

I feel like one would have a very difficult – torturous, even – effort to create an ethical argument that holds water that would disallow the wearing of cultural costumes and not disallow a whole raft of other costumes, such as stereotypical profession outfits.

And to answer your question, I’m going as Soylent Green.