Teen who wore Chinese prom dress to critics: I would definitely wear it again

If you missed this story over the weekend, read John’s post from Sunday for background. I cannot believe we’re now on day six of these woke vampires ganking a teenaged girl for wanting to wear a doubleplusungood dress that she liked to prom.

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Someday SMOD will come for all of us. And in the moments before I’m vaporized, it’ll occur to me that all of the “cultural appropriation” cretins are about to be vaporized too. And I’ll die smiling. I’ll look like the Joker when that blast wave hits.

Among the many people who *don’t* object to Keziah Daum’s appropriation of Chinese culture, by the way: The Chinese.

An American teenager has received support from internet users in China after being criticised for wearing a traditional Chinese dress to her school prom…

“Very elegant and beautiful! Really don’t understand the people who are against her, they are wrong!” one person commented on an article by Wenxue City News. “I suggest the Chinese government, state television or fashion company invite her to China to display her cheongsam!”

“It is not cultural theft,” another wrote. “It is cultural appreciation and cultural respect.”…

“Culture has no borders,” one wrote. “There is no problem, as long as there is no malice or deliberate maligning. Chinese cultural treasures are worth spreading all over the world.”

Yeah, oddly, some consider it a compliment to their culture that Daum would look at a cheongsam and think, “How beautiful!”

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This is an extension of ye olde “Redskins” debate insofar as you have some taking offense at what’s intended at base as a compliment. That case is much harder than this one because “Redskin” is racial even if the intent isn’t derogatory; you may not take it as a slur but it’s perfectly understandable why others might. And although the football team is associating itself with positive stereotypes about Native Americans — brave, noble, warrior spirit — those are racial and cultural stereotypes nonetheless. Daum’s not associating herself with anything except that she loves the style of her dress, just as a Chinese woman wouldn’t be making a statement on western culture by choosing to wear blue jeans. Even the knock on Daum’s clasped-hands pose in one of her prom photos, which the more excitable critics have seized on as further proof of racist intent, is bogus and based on a misunderstanding. They’re the ones who lacked the cultural context needed to understand that, not Daum.

David French summarizes the state of play:

Just so we’re clear, the radical progressive position is (1) America’s borders should be flung wide open to people from every culture in the world; (2) when American white people encounter people from those hundreds of different cultures, they need to stay in their lane; and (3) white people staying as white as possible will help our nation totally unify and diversity will be our strength.

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The only thing newsworthy about Daum’s prom attire is that she refuses to apologize for it. After wading hip-deep through Twitter-puke for days, she’s resolved correctly that she has nothing to atone for, therefore she won’t. Her mother said she told her, “Do what you want, but did you do anything wrong? If you take [your photos] down, then those who attack you win.” Indeed. In an era of social-media vampirism, begging forgiveness is the quickest way to get the fangs out of your neck. All you have to lose is your self-respect. Daum declines.

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