Caucasian kids in Japanese makeup

[PinkSquirrel]

It appears someone in my building sent the local museum a letter commenting on the little caucasian girls they had dressed up in Geisha makeup and clothing on the free passes they use for marketing purposes.   The chief marketing officer was kind enough to address his reply to me as well and it ended up in my mailbox.   He's probably going to regret that little error.

I can't fully follow their explanation, but this is what I've gathered
-It's not Geisha because they didn't say Geisha 
-They talk about kabuki theater makeup and say a kabuki theater run was happening at the time, but they also included a printout from a random ass website that refers to kabuki makeup as "white face"
-The theme and intent was to focus on Japanese feminine beauty especially among the higher classes, so not kabuki? 
- It's ok because it happened during a Japanese cultural festival developed by two museum employees of Japanese descent 

In summary, it's ok to put images of caucasian kids dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and makeup in their marketing materials because ... that's what Japanese people used to wear, it's not geisha and two Japanese women were part of the festival???   ^o)      








 

[PinkSquirrel]

This is what they sent me

[LoveTrains]

I was going to ask which museum but do I see that it's the Peabody essex??

Hrmm. Interesting. I used to work in museums. They are trying to be "world class" but I feel like they aren't there yet.

It is strange that they picked not one but two of those images for the free passes. They have some good stuff there and I don't know why those two images were selected.

[PinkSquirrel]

Jun 17, 2014 22:30:00 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I was going to ask which museum but do I see that it's the Peabody essex??

Hrmm. Interesting. I used to work in museums. They are trying to be "world class" but I feel like they aren't there yet.

It is strange that they picked not one but two of those images for the free passes. They have some good stuff there and I don't know why those two images were selected.

Yep, it's the PEM.

They do generally seem to try very hard to be small but still operate on a "world class" level and I've always really enjoyed them (hence them having my name and address), but not so much in this moment

[sugarglider]

Wait. The make-up is made of bird droppings?

[msmerymac]

So... the picture itself looks like 2 girls who were at a family-themed Japanese festival and went to a booth where they do kabuki makeup. Like, "and here is how women in Japan would do this makeup, here is the history behind it, etc." If I saw 2 caucasian children walking around in the makeup like that at an educational festival, I wouldn't think much of it, and I assume it's a photo from a previous festival or similar event showing children enjoying what was being offered.

But their response is SO OUT THERE. OMG, clueless much?

[Deleted]

It looks like Kabuki makeup to me. The child in the upper left looks like she's being instructed on performance.

[Blueper]

I was watching Portlandia yesterday and the Harajuko Girl skit reminded me so much of CEP

[ChillyMcFreeze]

All aboard the "what offense?" train! The pearl-clutching over every single instance of cultural appropriation has got to stop. These are children at a festival. A festival where, presumably, they were being educated on Japanese arts and culture. It's probably not quite age-appropriate to tell first-graders about the intricacies of geisha culture, but makeup! costumes! dance! are age-appropriate cultural topics.

[PinkSquirrel]

Jun 18, 2014 7:28:28 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

So... the picture itself looks like 2 girls who were at a family-themed Japanese festival and went to a booth where they do kabuki makeup. Like, "and here is how women in Japan would do this makeup, here is the history behind it, etc." If I saw 2 caucasian children walking around in the makeup like that at an educational festival, I wouldn't think much of it, and I assume it's a photo from a previous festival or similar event showing children enjoying what was being offered.

But their response is SO OUT THERE. OMG, clueless much?

This is where I was at.  I wouldn't have sent the initial letter to the museum, but his response is .... not good.   

[meshaliuknits]

Jun 18, 2014 5:51:55 GMT -5 sugarglider said:

Wait. The make-up is made of bird droppings?

Right?!

[Cicero]

Jun 18, 2014 15:14:36 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Jun 18, 2014 5:51:55 GMT -5 sugarglider said:

Wait. The make-up is made of bird droppings?

Right?!

This is what I can't get past here.