Should Moana be demanding candy?
Oct 30, 2017, 5:51 AM
There’s an Internet debate over whether little girls can dress as Moana for Halloween, even if they’re not Polynesian.
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Moana was the heroine of last year’s Disney release based on the Polynesian legend of a chief’s daughter who becomes a great navigator.
But the debate began when a mother posted on Facebook that she had decided not to let her 5-year-old daughter – who is white – dress as Moana for Halloween because it would be cultural appropriation.
That prompted actor Jordan Fisher, who sings on the Moana soundtrack and describes himself as part Polynesian, to say he would like to see white Moanas, black Moanas, even boy Moanas.
The problem here is figuring out who gets to make the rules on these matters.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as “The act of taking something from a culture not your own, especially without showing that you respect this culture.” In other words, pretending to be someone you’re not. But that’s pretty much the whole point of Halloween, at least as we practice it today.
It brings up the question of Halloween itself, which is based on Christian tradition but has been completely appropriated by people who have no clue what it’s about. Of course, the Christians appropriated it from the pagans, so I suppose it balances out.
Or we could just forget race and religion and point out that the phrase “Trick or Treat” is essentially a threat, and all we’re really doing is teaching extortion, which no Disney heroine should be a party to.
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