Blog 1 – Reflection on Lecture 11: Representation by Teleica Kirkland
Out of all the lectures I attended Teleica Kirkland’s lecture on Representation stood out the most. Representation is an issue I have had interest in for a while, but never took the time to research it further. The main theme covered was the importance of representing people from a diverse range of backgrounds in the industry. This included everything: gender, sexuality, ethnicities, bodies and colour.
Colourism
The western culture has been prioritised in the media for so long it engraves this idea of “the ideal look” in peoples minds. Among this there is plenty of racist imagery perpetuating stereotypes with people of colour. This can cause non-coloured people to think this way, but members of communities of colour themselves. Leading to situations such as skin bleaching. Which brings me to the issue of anti-blackness which is discrimination within the coloured community. Darker skin (black) is seen as undesirable in contrast to light skin (brown). Even though this has been around for centuries, becoming a global phenomenon during the slave trade, today it is still widely apparent in the media. Most POC represented in the media have lighter skin. This to me promotes that POC are only famous because of their Eurocentric features.
Cultural Appropriation
One of the most vital subjects in within this lecture was cultural appropriation. The definition of cultural appropriation is the use of one culture’s symbols, artefacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture – regardless of intent, ethics, function, or outcome. Of course, people should be able to get inspiration from designs but not without doing the research. A good example for today is the Kardashian family and their box braids, just like Bo Derek in the 1970’s. These braids are actually called cornrows and are of African descent and they are getting no credit for it. What’s worse is that when a POC wears cornrows they are described as ghetto in comparison to the praise non-coloured people receive.
There is of course also cultural appreciation, a positive issue that is often overlooked due to all the negativity. An example given in the lecture was the Wafrica project by Cameroonian designer Serge Mouangue. He designed Japanese Kimonos with African fabrics but followed respectful representation and showed that he truly understood both cultures.
Thoughts
This lecture has urged me to think deeper about the things I create. Although I already knew the importance of representation, being mixed race myself, I realised too that it can often happen on accident or on a smaller scale. Due to that it is important to always research one’s ideas before one executes them. It is so easy for cultures to be lost especially as we live in a white supremacist society where most people belonging to that race can get away with more than should be acceptable. Representation matters as it gives the minorities a chance to be heard and respected for what they do. The more it is done, the sooner equality is reached.