# Who thought this dress ("African" black women) modeled by a blonde made sense? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603 "2020-04-12T03:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/21 "2020-04-13T06:11:43Z")
That was an ad? It just looked like a selfie. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/22 "2020-04-13T06:18:21Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It’s inauthentic. The print pattern shows “African” women in short mini-skirts’ **No self-respecting woman in Africa would show her knees, and in conservative areas, skirts cover all the way to the ankles.** Nor would she use such reprentations on a dress, even if the dres itself is of proper length. This dress is strictly to be worn in London or New York, by whoever happens to live there. > > My wife has a dress with an Indian elephant print. Nobody says “But you;re not Indian”. What! National Geographic _lied to us?_ Also, who but a zoologist knows the difference between an Asian and an African elephant? I mean, I’m a big elephant fan and I have a lot of elephant print stuff, and statues (little ones), and I have no idea unless I sit down and think about it. (I do know that my elephant -print scarf is Indian, but I only assume the elephants depicted on it are also Indian, I don’t really know. In fact I have never considered it until now.) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/23 "2020-04-13T07:39:37Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > That was an ad? It just looked like a selfie. The “45% OFF” in the upper right corner is what tells us it’s an ad. But yes, it’s a selfie. That’s why I suggested it’s an ad by a private person selling a dress that she’s modeling herself, not by some big company with a marketing staff. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/24 "2020-04-13T08:40:21Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > The “45% OFF” in the upper right corner is what tells us it’s an ad. But yes, it’s a selfie. That’s why I suggested it’s an ad by a private person selling a dress that she’s modeling herself, not by some big company with a marketing staff. No, it was definitely Rotita, Holapik, Stylewe or one of those other big companies that sell clothes very cheaply on line. The ad hasn’t come up again or I’d tell you for sure which one it was. But you know the genre I’m talking about - or that is, you will if, like me, you find the cheap Google ads interesting and don’t use an ad blocker. . ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/25 "2020-04-13T16:27:15Z")
“Cultural appropriation” is such a stupidly overused buzzword these days. Yeah, it’s a thing, but when people use it to scream about a simple fashion choice that “doesn’t belong to you - it’s belongs to THEM,” maybe it’s time to care a little less about what people are putting on their bodies or what they’re eating. Good grief. Most of the time, people actually of the culture that is supposedly so offended couldn’t even give less of a fuck. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/26 "2020-04-13T16:46:11Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > The dress reminds me of a lot of Afrocentric art I’ve seen, [like this](https://www.amazon.com/Vipsung-American-Afrocentric-Carrying-BrownShower/dp/B073XL1WCH?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_13). > > Most American Afrocentric art isn’t to my taste. I find a lot of it to be kitschy. But there is a market for it, and if you can put it on a shower curtain, then why not a dress? I get a midcentury mod dress blast from the past, to be honest. We have somewhere in the house a set of some sort of natives carousing carven in wood that were obviously tourist trade items, I can not see wherever they were from natives deliberately putting them on their walls [mexico? caribbean? not sure] Would we be culturally apropriating if we decorated with them? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/27 "2020-04-13T17:09:21Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > The fabric on the dress has a much smaller print. Similar, but different. I was joking that she was wearing a shower curtain. But the print is not just similar, it’s _exactly_ the same, except for colors (and the size it’s printed at). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/28 "2020-04-13T17:29:39Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > The fabric on the dress has a much smaller print. Similar, but different. I was joking that she was wearing a shower curtain. But the print is not just similar, it’s _exactly_ the same, except for colors (and the size it’s printed at). ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/29 "2020-04-13T18:34:06Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > We have somewhere in the house a set of some sort of natives carousing carven in wood that were obviously tourist trade items, I can not see wherever they were from natives deliberately putting them on their walls [mexico? caribbean? not sure] Would we be culturally apropriating if we decorated with them? Wearing [this design](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/51/e1/23/51e1239d1590d25596fc191fee8d9f1d--latino-art-body-art-tattoos.jpg) in the states might seem culturally appropriating-ish but would produce another reaction outside southern Mexico. MrsRico and I [del]collected[/del] accumulated local arts and craft pieces in our travels, some of which caricature or flaunt cultural stereotypes, and not all were made for the foreign _turista_ trade. (We should have bought those Italian nuns and priests flashing their privates.) I don’t see much difference from similarly-absurd US tees and decor, much made elsewhere to stir our souls. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/30 "2020-04-13T18:56:42Z")
Generally you want your clothing models to look like your customers. So if this company is trying to sell dresses to white women, it’s not crazy to put them in the ads. As for the juxtaposition of the images, there’s something there, but it also might not be unreasonable. My (white) wife has some deep connections to several places in Africa, and we have African art on our walls and she wears clothing made there. I don’t know if she has a dress with an image quite like that, but the designs and fabric on several of them are unambiguously _African_. If someone commented on it, she’d probably say “Oh, this was made by so-and-so in Uganda…” and could easily start a conversation about the dressmaker and her community and so on. Obviously, that’s not the same as a larger company doing so, but I have a strong suspicion that the dressmakers in Africa care more about selling dresses than they do about the color of the people buying and wearing them. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/31 "2020-04-13T19:32:52Z")
I believe that cultural appropriation is BS. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/32 "2020-04-13T19:53:38Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > What! National Geographic _lied to us?_ > > Also, who but a zoologist knows the difference between an Asian and an African elephant? I mean, I’m a big elephant fan and I have a lot of elephant print stuff, and statues (little ones), and I have no idea unless I sit down and think about it. (I do know that my elephant -print scarf is Indian, but I only assume the elephants depicted on it are also Indian, I don’t really know. In fact I have never considered it until now.) Hey, I’m an elephant fan, too, with a collection of elephant figurines. You can easily differentiate Asian and African elephants without a zoology degree by l[ooking at their ears](https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-asian-and-african-elephants). Asian elephants have much smaller, rounder ears than African elephants. There are differences in head shape and tusks, too, but those aren’t always apparent in artwork. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/33 "2020-04-13T19:54:40Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It’s inauthentic. The print pattern shows “African” women in short mini-skirts’ No self-respecting woman in Africa would show her knees, and in conservative areas, skirts cover all the way to the ankles. Nor would she use such reprentations on a dress, even if the dres itself is of proper length. This dress is strictly to be worn in London or New York, by whoever happens to live there. > > My wife has a dress with an Indian elephant print. Nobody says “But you;re not Indian”. Nor an elephant. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/34 "2020-04-13T19:56:52Z")
This pattern looks like something that was popular in the 1950s, depicting a white person’s idea of what African people are like. BTW I found this photo cached from the [Floryday.com](http://Floryday.com) site oddly advertised as a “plus size” dress. I have also found other photos on other sites of the same “model” that are absolutely identical to this photo except for the pattern on the dress, as though she wore a green-screen dress and they’ve superimposed other colors and patterns. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/35 "2020-04-14T08:51:58Z")
The dress print is kitschy\* as a dress print\*, but you’ll find similar designs on everything from tea towels to t-shirts peddled here by actual Africans to tourists. Nothing wrong with it other than the aesthetics, IMO. > [@jtur88](#): > > It’s inauthentic. The print pattern shows “African” women in short mini-skirts’ No self-respecting woman in Africa would show her knees, and in conservative areas, skirts cover all the way to the ankles. Bullshit. Short - very short - skirts are the traditional wear in lots of Southern African groups. These will be NSFW because bare breasts are also the traditional norm, but feel free to google image search for “zulu reed dance”, “swazi reed dance”, “himba traditional women’s clothes”. Those \*are \*from the more conservative areas, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/36 "2020-04-14T09:27:40Z")
> [@Kovitlac](#): > > “Cultural appropriation” is such a stupidly overused buzzword these days. Yeah, it’s a thing, but when people use it to scream about a simple fashion choice that “doesn’t belong to you - it’s belongs to THEM,” maybe it’s time to care a little less about what people are putting on their bodies or what they’re eating. Good grief. > > Most of the time, people actually of the culture that is supposedly so offended couldn’t even give less of a fuck. I agree. Real cultural appropriation would be if you wore, say, a particular style of headgear that First Nations Canadians or Native Americans considered to be of special religious or honorary significance, and did it just because you thought it was colorful and fun. That’s offensive. But wearing something that is just reminiscent of a different culture is just cultural cross-pollination that goes on all the time, mostly beneficently. I remember the first time I was at a really top-rate sushi restaurant, I took the first piece of sushi that was served and soaked it in soy sauce, as was my usual habit at the time. The chef chided me gently and showed me different ways it could be done, the simplest for the guest – which he continued to do for us on all subsequent visits – was for the chef to lightly brush the fish topping with soy (if there wasn’t already some type of other sauce on it) before serving it. I also learned a great many other things about sushi that help me love and appreciate it to this day. Was I “appropriating” someone else’s culture, or was I just learning to appreciate it and adapt it into my own eating preferences? ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/37 "2020-04-14T12:58:28Z")
> [@Kovitlac](#): > > “Cultural appropriation” is such a stupidly overused buzzword these days. Yeah, it’s a thing, but when people use it to scream about a simple fashion choice that “doesn’t belong to you - it’s belongs to THEM,” maybe it’s time to care a little less about what people are putting on their bodies or what they’re eating. Good grief. > > Most of the time, people actually of the culture that is supposedly so offended couldn’t even give less of a fuck. Exactly: “it’s not yours; it’s _ **theirs** _!” It’s wokists defending a poor. oppressed people group from mean ol’ non-wokists. I asked many Navajo students and a few adults how they felt about the Washington Redskins mascot, and I never heard any complaints. The kids loved the Redskins and rooted for them, unless their dads were Cowboy fans. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/38 "2020-04-14T15:01:14Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > I don’t use ad blockers because I’m often amused by the ads that go by on various sites I frequent. For example, [take this dress.](https://imgur.com/a/az7eBoT) > > Did it not occur to the people putting the advertisement together that a white lady wearing a dress showing somebody’s idea of ethnic That lady kinda looks like a former co-worker who’s absolutely not 100% white. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/39 "2020-04-15T01:45:20Z")
I just think it’s butt-ugly. It looks more like the offspring of a mu-mu and a Cosby Sweater. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603/40 "2020-04-15T01:53:52Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > I eagerly await the dress, modeled by a black woman, covered in Junior League types sipping tea. Or doing whatever it is that we white women do when we’re at our most iconic. Here we go…[a Bayeux Tapestry dress, modeled by a black woman](https://www.redbubble.com/i/dress/Bayeux-Tapestry-Full-Scenes-On-Beige-Background-by-KATIUSKA/30783172.V4WQ8). Also [available in a T-shirt dress](https://www.redbubble.com/i/dress/Bayeux-Tapestry-King-Harold-is-killed-Arrow-in-eye-by-TOMSREDBUBBLE/35550842.TGIUM).\* Speaking for myself, and on behalf of my Anglo-Saxon and Norman ancestors, I declare this to be non-offensive. I hold your oath of righteous indignation fulfilled. Go, be at peace. 🙂 \*(Admittedly, a slight cheat—this is a print-on-demand site, with the clothes CGI’d onto an existing model. :D) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-this-dress-african-black-women-modeled-by-a-blonde-made-sense/851603.md?page=3)