How a Halloween costume can harm an individual's cultural identity

During our Cross Country Checkup discussion on whether we're overthinking Halloween costumes, many were divided on the issue.

Some thought criticism over costumes has gone too far. Others like Tessa Brown said it is important to think about whether an outfit would be harming someone's cultural identity.

Brown, who called from Montreal, said society has a violent past when it comes to treating different cultures. She felt that thinking about whether a costume is culturally inappropriate reflects how society is changing for the better.

Cross Country Checkup3:27October 30, 2016 - Tessa Brown

When it comes to culturally inappropriate costumes, Tessa Brown says lots of white people say it's not a problem but they don't know what it's like.

Duncan McCue: Are we overthinking costumes, Tessa?

Tessa Brown: I don't think we are, because I think historically we haven't thought about these things at all. I think that's kind of been a bad thing because historically we've also been very violent to people, [such as] people of colour, people from other cultures in a variety of ways. I think just the fact that we're being asked to think about this now, reflects the positive change in our culture.

DM: Why do you think it's positive?

TB: I think we're looking at a shift where we're actually thinking about the harm that we're doing to people in these contexts. I mean, where we're actually starting to be aware of things like the crisis of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in this country. When you're dressing up as Pocahontas, what you're doing is feeding into a culture of dehumanization and sexualization of people from that culture that serves in a way to give people license to be violent to people from those cultures.

DM: We've heard a couple of callers say that they're just honouring the culture.

TB: They're saying that they're honouring these cultures, but the people from these cultures are saying, 'Please don't do that.'

At a certain point, I've got to say [that] you may mean well, but the fact is that what you're doing is something that people are telling you is actually harming them. I also think if you're talking about honouring cultures, Halloween is probably not the place to do it. You're not doing research and learning about this culture and actually engaging with people from this culture. You're throwing on a headdress and slapping on some war paint and you probably have no idea what these things actually mean in the context of the actual culture. So, I don't think that that's particularly honouring people from that culture.

DM: Are you going to get dressed up for Halloween this year?

TB: Oh, you bet. I love Halloween. Halloween is great. I am dressing as Imperator Furiosa from the movie Mad Max.

DM: Halloween is also a time for expressing sexuality in kind of braver ways as well.

TB: For sure. I think that's really fun. I entirely support people who just want to be sexy and fun. One of my best friends is going as a sexy, scary clown, which is slightly horrifying but extremely entertaining. And also, [it's] just generally not harming any culture at all.

Tessa Brown and Duncan McCue's comments have been edited and condensed. This online segment was prepared by Samantha Lui.