Cultural Appropriation?

[Peter Lowe]

All clothing...whether we like it or not says something about who we are...and more importantly about how much and what we want to reveal about who we are.

I think a person can respect and revere their Scottish ancestry without being a citizen of Scotland. And I think if a person is truly mindful of what "respect" means and implies...and wears the kilt with respect for its Traditions...then it is not cultural appropriation. Maybe it's costume but all clothing is. Maybe it's posing/pretense but again all clothing is, to some extent. Only naked are we completely without artifice.

And in my opinion to wear the kilt with respect, you have to do it right. You have to, again, respect the kilt's Traditions, and its antecedents--respect it for what it is and has been, and not for what you want it to be. In that regard, tartan is almost the defining aspect of the Scottish kilt.

Anything else just piles pretense on pretense...in my opinion.

The main reason...again in my opinion...that people wear the kilt whether it be in Scotland or New Zealand or Nova Scotia is so that they and their children will not forget. Not forget who they are. And where they come from. Personally, I can find nothing wrong with that.

How many actual Scottish citizens wear the kilt...with or without respect? Not many, AFAIK. The real question in all this is..why not?

Maybe they want to forget??

Good post!
Your question is a minefield as there is not one answer - there are many!
I was born in Scotland to an English Father and Scots Mother.
I am proud to be Scots but I am also proud to be British thereby recognising my ancestry.
In the past year I have worn the kilt in Scotland and New Zealand but, sadly, not in Nova Scotia! I have worn it around 50 times. Not a lot you may say but more often than almost all the trousers (pants) that I own.
For many Scots the kilt is a big ticket purchase and therefore a "special occasion" garment. While I do not have figures to back this I think that a surprisingly high number will wear the kilt a few times a year with pride and respect.
I do not think that they want to forget. I think that their "remembering" mechanism may be different and diverse! Just my 2p's worth!

[DWFII]

I think the heart of the issue and the reason this question is so "fraught" and why it makes so many uneasy is simply the recognition that it "feels" a little arrogant to dismiss, or even talk about, cultural appropriation when in fact most of us aren't truly part of that culture.

If the kilt is going to "evolve" it has to evolve within the context of Scottish culture. Anything else is simply a distortion, if only because it is imposed from the outside. And as such, it runs a pretty good risk of being dismissive, at best and/or mocking at worst (even if not intentional).

I suspect most of us would be hesitant to interpret or modify Native American ceremonies or Traditional clothing even if we were partly native American ourselves.

As has been said here so many times that it is almost a veiled threat--"there are no kilt police." People can (and do) wear what they want to wear. But it seems to me that there's an element of self-delusion in thinking it doesn't make a difference. I've seen enough of these conversations to suspect that it does make a difference--to Scots, if no one else, and to whether the kilt (and by extension, Scottish culture), is respected.

There was a fellow (actor? comedian?) back in the '30's or '40's (?) who wore the kilt and affected Scottish mannerisms so broadly that he (and his "look" and "character") became a laughing stock world-wide. Robin Williams did a schtick in which he did verbal expositions in bogus Doric or Scots. My first thought when I heard it was "Is he Scottish?" "Is he even of Scottish "ancestry? Or does he just feel entitled?"

In any case, many people thought it was funny...and on some rather superficial level, I suppose it was.

But it was also sad because no matter how you cut it, it was fundamentally mockery. Mocking a unique and invaluable cultural heritage. One that he perhaps didn't understand enough to appropriate.

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[KyleAisteach]

I just want to thank everyone again for all the thoughtful replies. It's proving very helpful.

It's sounding to me like this:

Registering a tartan = almost certainly not appropriative.
Using your own tartan for various non-kilt products = not appropriative.
Wearing / encouraging members to wear a non-tartan kilt = probably not appropriative.
Wearing /encouraging members to wear a tartan kilt = potentially appropriative (with the standard followup conversation of where we draw the line between inappropriate cultural appropriation and normal and healthy cross-cultural influences).

What do y'all think? Could I take a (more detailed, of course) consensus like that back to the board?

(More discussion is, of course, encouraged. I'm not going to start writing anything up for several days at least.)