There are people who say that pictures like this lead to Native American women getting raped and that’s really ridiculous.
But what it does represent is a shit load of people who think headdresses are great costumes that make you look cute or something when these things belong to a culture of people who don’t appreciate it being turned into some indie accessory.
My only thing with cultural appropriation is this: know where the fuck the item you’re using comes from and don’t just pick it out of the mall or some photoshoot like this one and decide that it’s something cute to wear.
If you think that media’s portrayal of Native women has no correlation with the rapes of Native women then you are speaking in ignorance and are wrong*. Native women are being fetishized. The only representation we have in mainstream media is as primitive, sex objects. Images like these dehumanize us by turning us into a costume and by stereotyping us. These images are harmful and do contribute to us being fetishized and victims of rapes. 1 in 3 Native women are raped at least once in their life time. 85% of those rapes are committed by non-Native men.