The Hypocritical and Illogical Notion of "Cultural Appropriation"

Actress Blake Lively is coming under criticism from the cultural appropriation whiners on social media because she posted a picture on Instagram with lyrics from a rap song written by Sir Mix-A-Lot. Let me start off by pointing out how these particular lefties are in fact guilty of the sexism they accuse so many others of by criticizing a woman for simply quoting lyrics from some man that they are not holding to the same standard.

That said, the more important argument to be taken on is the one that accuses Lively of cultural appropriation. Her critics are accusing her of appropriating black culture by using the lyrics from the rap song to describe her looks in the picture she posted.

The problem with cultural appropriation is that the people who make this argument never apply the logic across the board. For example, in the minds of these people, nobody can be guilty of cultural appropriation against white people, and it is, in fact, racist to even point this out. Why? White people are the oppressors. Plain and simple. There is, however, another form of appropriation that these defenders of culture not only never criticize, but largely celebrate. I'll refer to it here as gender appropriation.

The people concerned about cultural appropriation would never accuse a person born as a biological male as appropriating the female gender despite the fact that the logic is exactly the same. How dare Blake Lively present herself as being in some way in tune with black culture? Well, how dare Bruce Jenner presume to present himself as a woman? What does he know of the struggle of women? What kind of patriarchal delusions is this man suffering from to dare stride into the world of women and demand their acceptance as one of them?

Now I make this argument, not as a critique against transgendered people, but merely to point out the hypocrisy of the people who believe in cultural appropriation. What is the difference between Blake Lively's alleged cultural appropriation and Bruce Jenner declaring that he's a woman? The logical answer is that there's no difference. Blake Lively can talk about her "Oakland booty" all she wants, but biology says she's white. Bruce Jenner can call himself Caitlyn and wear women's clothing, but biology says he's a man.

The argument might be that Caitlyn Jenner has chosen to live her life as a female because she truly believes she's a female, whereas Blake Lively is clearly just a privileged white person. This argument merely begs the question, however, as I'd go back to the point that maybe Caitlyn Jenner is really just a privileged man who thinks he can do whatever he wants, or maybe Blake Lively truly believes in her heart that she's a black person. If gender is a social construct rather than a biological fact why can't race be the same?

Again, I don't mean to pick on Caitlyn Jenner or any other transgendered people. Live your life in whatever way makes you happy while respecting the person and property of others and damn anybody who tells you otherwise. The people whining about cultural appropriation are those sort of people, however, and it's not enough that they have to whine, but they have to do it loudly and hypocritically. They'd scream endlessly about how American culture is an intertwined melting pot and anybody who thinks differently is a despicable racist, up until the moment some white lady quotes a rap song in regards to her looks or writes a fictional story that includes Native Americans; then culture is suddenly a homogeneous concept to be kept separate and safe from the oppressive appropriators.

Cultural appropriation is yet another idea designed to make one group of people feel superior to others by tearing them down for a perceived insensitivity towards some cultures by indicating a form of acceptance from or membership in a culture that one is, based on their biological race, obviously not a member of. It is, essentially, a form of racism that denies individuality and reduces everybody to the color of their skin, just as my fictitious idea of gender appropriation would reduce every individual to a pair of chromosomes. It's an idea whose time should never have come, and should be refuted as often as possible.