Cultural appropriation policing expanded beyond marginalized groups after 2016

Evidence

After 2016, policing for cultural appropriation intensified, often extending beyond traditionally marginalized groups. White celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber faced backlash for wearing dreadlocks (which also sparked new debate over whether the term dreadlocks itself was pejorative). Kim Kardashian was widely condemned for attempting to trademark the Japanese word kimono for her shapewear line, a move denounced as “horrible cultural disrespect.” Just as culture came to rely on genre blending and collapsing subcultural divisions, new rules suggested that only the cultural fusions spearheaded by marginalized groups should be permitted. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 477

Categorization

• XREF: This tension — the collapse of subcultural divisions concurrent with new rules restricting who can fuse cultures — is the heartbeat of Marx’s omnivore monoculture argument.