romanticization, fetishization, and bastardization of Indigenous cultures and peoples:
before i start, let me say that there’s a big difference between respecting us as people and fetishizing and/or romanticizing us. romanticization and fetishization is often confused with respecting us as people.
first, what is romanticization?
romanticization is thinking something is better and more appealing than it really is and it usually creates an unrealistic standard of whatever’s being romanticized.
romanticization of Indigenous peoples often holds a highly stereotypical standard. one example is That Strong Wise Indigenous Person™️ and although many Indigenous persons know that we’re not all like that and we’re all just people, many think we have to be like that.
another example of romanticization is “omg Natives are so strong, they have battled alcoholism and racism and colonization and what-not! i wanna be as strong as them!!”

besides the obvious stereotypes, one thing wrong with it is, the people who say such things do nothing+
to help us in our battles or don’t bother to stand with us. they just say we’re strong for experiencing racism and call it activism. yes, it’s true that we’re strong but we also have our qualities besides that as individuals and as communities.
and no, simply saying “omg Natives are so strong because of racism” is NOT going to end racism and frankly, it’s performative. you speak about how we experience racism but won’t stand with us through our hardships.
second; fetishization.
what’s fetishization? it has different meanings:
1) something believed to possess magical powers
2) sexual arousal at objects and body parts
3) an irrational or abnormal fixation; an obsession.
there’s different ways our peoples and cultures get fetishized. our Indigeneity gets sexualized and we’re treated like we’re a prize by fetishists, it’d be a win to date us, or we’re told we’re “exotic”. some white fetishists are also turned on by having power over us because+
we’re a minority. that can lead to different kinds of abuse.
the other way we get fetishized is through our cultures. someone’s obsession of our cultures often leads to cultural appropriation and we’ll get told it’s appreciation and not appropriation. that harms many of us because a lot of Indigenous cultures have been banned
and we’re doing our best to reclaim them and we won’t be able to reclaim what was banned by giving it all away. what was banned from us is ours to reclaim. and it’s common that some if us don’t have access to many things from our cultures because we haven’t earned it yet
but there’s fetishists using it as aesthetics and profit without ever giving anything back to the people of the culture they’re fetishizing. it’s often called “appreciation” by fetishists.
some fetishists are also so obsessed with Indigenous cultures that they disregard the feelings of the people of the cultures and think they have the right to speak on behalf of us because they’re such good “allies” which may also harm our communities and silences+
the voices of Indigenous people by taking up their place.
and some people might like us only because we’re Indigenous, not because we’re people like them. they put an emphasis on “Indigenous” but ignore our other qualities that aren’t considered traditional.
bastardization of Indigenous cultures and peoples.

bastardization means to lowering the worth of something; debasing.
bastardization of Indigenous cultures comes in different forms.
some companies reduce Indigenous cultures to only aesthetic and profit, which in itself is disrespectful. it’s usually painted as “cultural appreciation” and “we’re honoring you” when it isn’t.
in franchises, movies, series, books etc, Indigenous cultures and peoples are often made to look scarier and barbaric. these creates the stereotypes that we’re worse than we actually are and it affects us in a way that people see us as the stereotypes they see on media.
although it may not seem like that, romantization, fetishization and bastardization are forms of racism and are indirectly connected and it harms Indigenous communities. so pls speak up if you see someone doing any of the three :)
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