Strictly speaking, that’s one of the functions of a kilt. The tartan of the fabric identifies the clan.
Just a guess, as it was at a costume party and they looked to be of East Indian ancestry, and were trying to be stereotypically “scottish” putting on an accent and such. It’s certainly possible that they had connections to an actual clan, but I doubted it. It was mainly that I felt they were mocking the kilt.
That’s what annoys me sometimes about people who get annoyed about “cultural appropriation”. My kids look to be of Asian ancestry and they are - but I’d be pissed at anyone who got offended if my son wore lederhosen as they are also of Austrian descent. I could see getting offended at someone traditional dress as a costume or under certain circumstances * but that has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the person wearing it.
* I had a co-worker with Scottish ancestry who wore a kilt for a few days every summer. It was his protest over a dress code that did not allow shorts but did allow skirts. I could understand being offended by that.
Really good point. As long as something is worn respectfully, it’s all good.
We saw a guy (didn’t take pictures) wearing a kilt on Bourbon Street one year. He had overconsumed and was initially sitting on the curb, then he passed out backwards. Some people were taking pictures. “Up-kilt” pictures.
Believe it or not, the one gift I had fail on two occasions was … … MONEY.
How is that possible, you ask. Money buys or helps buy the gift you want the most. Well, one recipient who received a card from me with a gift VISA card said she was “disappointed” because it would have been nice to have “a more personal touch” via a gift I would have had to go out and shop for. She wasn’t too disappointed to keep it, though. LOL
“The first instances of kilt-wearing in Ireland can be traced back to the mid-1800s, although an ancient Irish kilt unearthed in a farmer’s field was dated back to 1590. In Ireland, a person’s kilt is often linked to their county or region, a proud testament to their lineage and heritage.“
You could understand being offended by his wearing a kilt? Or you could understand his being offended by the dress code?
I could understand someone else being offended by him wearing it as a protest. Wouldn’t agree, but I would understand
Except he’s actually has Scottish heritage. So he’s saying “you can’t tell me I can’t wear my own cultural clothes”. A Samoan person wearing a lavalava (I had to look up the name and I am glad that I did) would be similar. I wouldn’t wear either.
When I was in middle school in the late 70s a teacher made one of the boys take off his baseball cap in class but one of the girls didn’t have to remove hers. When asked why he said that women can wear hats in church but men can’t. The next day all of the Jewish boys wore kippot and he let it go.
Although there was no dress code when I went to high school, teachers were divided into those that allowed baseball caps and those that didn’t. One of those that didn’t, a French-language teacher, Monsieur P.-J., wouldn’t hear about the traditional rule of etiquette that men take off their hats inside but women don’t have to. He said: “On est unisexe ici” - we are unisex around here!
Okay. This is funny!
I think that if they are selling kimonos to non-Japanese, they don’t have a problem with westerners. And I used to shop a japanese website that sold vintage kimonos. As long as you don’t use them to insult or misrepresent the Japanese, I can’t see that very many Japanese people would consider it a problem.
What I would consider cultural appropriation “in it’s purest form” would be companies and people who take another something from another culture and use it to make money. Especially if the original culture is poor.
For instance, dream catchers originated in the Ojibwe nation, but are now often made and sold by people who don’t know anything about it’s significance.
One other issue that someone pointed out. There’s a lot of accusations of cultural appropriation made against white people by white people. It starts to sound less like "treat other cultures with respect " and more like “keep our white culture pure”
First, ick, and second, what would ‘white culture’ be? Green bean casserole with potato chips?
Which is, itself, a late invention (rather than a historic cultural practice), as I understand it.
Plenty of Scottish people get drunk wearing a kilt. At pretty much every Scottish wedding I’ve ever been to, in fact.
Some people will get offended by anything, but a kilt isn’t part of some religious rite. You said he has Scottish ancestry, so he has as much right to wear one as anyone else, for whatever reasons he likes. Kilts don’t require special reverence.
I also don’t side with the idea that you need to be Scottish to wear one. My Swiss BIL wore one to my niece’s wedding (which was in Scotland, to be fair). The Scottish side of the family were pleased he did and organised its hiring for him.
WHAAAT? I think, rather, it’s white person’s guilt.
Especially if they aren’t wearing anything underneath.
“Is anything worn under the kilt?”
“No, ma’am, it’s all in pairfect wurrking orrderr”
Maybe I should have said “white supremacist culture”. Which is a lot more pervasive in the US than most people realize.