Dark Horse - Katy Perry (2013) - Unravelling Neo-Colonial Narratives-Cultural Appropriation

Extract

[...] Evolving Conclusion In the core of a full-fledged discussion on how cultural appropriation and neo-colonialism indeed work within the mainstream media, Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" music video is the deep-seated symbol of the entrenched Western attitudes that have long propagated harmful stereotypes and reduced non-Western cultures to a whole dimension. However, with Perry being initially characterized as a very controversial figure in pop culture, the video acts as a microcosm for more significant social issues, down to historical power dynamics and systemic biases. [...]

[...] Dark Horse - Katy Perry (2013) - Unravelling Neo-Colonial Narratives-Cultural Appropriation At first glance, Katy Perry's massive hit music video for "Dark Horse" appeared to be a relatively innocuous pop confection: colorful, provocative, and guaranteed to get people talking. Little did I know that with every dip into the layers of cultural symbolism it utilized, insidious underbellies would surface. What started as a critique of the cultural appropriation of pop culture burst into an exposition of how deeply ensconced neo-colonial attitudes systematically Otherize identities at the margins. [...]

[...] Bhabha puts it, is "the strategic deployment of Orientalist cliche," which are, for the most part, informed stereotypes or stereotypical tropes and narratives of the East, deployed strategically to create and reinforce existing power differentials. In that sense, it homogenizes and flattens the rich and diverse tapestry of Egyptian and Arab cultures into one monolithic, fossilized Other that exists in the imagination of those in power. This aims to uphold and justify the preeminence of Western "progress" and civilization in contradistinction to the East's presumed lethargy or inferiority. [...]

[...] This way, only through such reductionism, it certainly plays into stereotypes and narratives through which Western hegemony can be asserted. Properly, within the context of this "Dark Horse" video, this Orientalist gaze comes clearly to the fore as the ancient Egyptian culture gets appropriated and recontextualized within a Western cultural frame without its broader, historically rich, and cultural context. By reducing these symbols to mere spectacles, entertainingly consumable, the video not only erases the complexity of Egyptian civilization but further enables and facilitates the reification of harmful stereotypes and misconceptions about the Middle East and its peoples. [...]

[...] However, these intersectional narratives are systematically erased and denied within the homogenization of Egyptian and Arab cultures. It can only further marginalize and disempower communities that are already quite vulnerable. Such complexity in identity as Egyptian and Arab is erased from these peoples in the dominant Western discourse, which does not allow a sense of agency or autonomy and relegates them to the periphery of global society. What's worse is that the erasure maintains the existing imbalance of powers by not allowing the real possibility of dialogue and the exchange of knowledge between cultures. [...]