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What On Earth Was Ke$ha Wearing On SNL?


Ke$ha has made no secret of her fondness for Native American headdresses; she inexplicably threw one on half way through her American Idol performance a few weeks ago.

In a post on Jezebel, Lisa Wade highlights all the recent examples of fashion appropriating Native American. She sums it up thusly:

All of these cases romanticize Indianness, blur separate traditions (as well as the real and the fake), and some disregard Indian spirituality. They all happily forget that, before white America decided that American Indians were cool, some whites did their absolute best to kill and sequester them. And the U.S. government is still involved in oppressing these groups today.

So, no, it’s not cute to wear a feather in your hair or carry an Indian rug clutch, it’s thoughtless and insensitive.

When I first read the post, I thought that Wade was taking some relatively harmless stylings to an extreme level — though there were certainly examples in her post that were jaw-droppingly offensive (See: OutKast). But after watching Ke$ha’s performance of “Your Love Is My Drug” on last night’s Saturday Night Live, I was won over by her argument.

I have no idea what Ke$ha or her costume designer was thinking when they put together this glow-in-the-dark, neon paintsuit made up of nothing but stereotypical tribal markings — paired, of course, with a halo of feathers — but the result was painful to watch.

What do you think?



  • jeaneeinabottle

    Well when anything goes what do you expect.

  • Snoop_charles

    How is that traditional?

  • Snoop_charles

    Seriously, WTF, black lights and fluorescence is native american?
    Seriously, get the fuck off of your high horse. It is because of bitchy people like you that we still carry a stereotype. 

    Adapt or continue bitching that you find everything offensive.

  • Snoop_charles

    Thanks for showing the video, BTW.

  • Mia_Nicole

    Stereotypes exist and we need to be aware of them instead of being disrespectful like Ke$ha’s outfit is. She is mocking traditional native american head dress and face painting. She might as well put on black face and do a minstrel show. I’m sure you have no idea what i’m talking about because you obviously aren’t up on US history. Its because of people like you that we have so much ignorance in this country. Verena von Pfetten was just pointing out this ignorance. And way to use a sexist slur…TWICE!! Point made.

  • http://www.facebook.com/thisismyprofile8709 Courtney Johnson

    Kesha isn’t trying to offend anybody! If you look at her style, she incorporates feathers in a lot of her outfits. She also has a weird style so the ‘tribal’ paint is just her. If people other than Indians that wear head dresses are offensive than Lady Gaga, kids at Halloween and Thanksgiving, Lauren Conrad, Khloe Kardashian, Cher, and Kiowa Gordon are a few that go in that category. Do we get upset every time a black person wears a cowboy hat? A Hispanic wears Baby Phat? An Asian wears beret? No. Because its NOT A BIG DEAL! 

  • Aquatarisprime

    As a Cherokee indian, I believe that the worst thing you can do for race relations is to pretend that everybody wearing a feather or rawhide or tribal markings is being offensive. This world is as homogenized as it can get without everybody becoming one global race and simply being called an Earthling. And even that can’t happen because I just found out from this post that there are people so anodyne as to apparently think even recalling the past through fashion is racist. What else is racist? Marrying outside your race as it dilutes a race ever so slightly? Are modern birds racist for wearing feathers and hurting my people’s feelings as they don’t understand what it “means” to wear a feather, let alone a couple hundred? I once saw a bear wearing a bear skin, I thought it was beautiful. I didn’t feel the need to tell it that it doesn’t understand my culture. No, I am not simply a person with Cherokee roots. I am a Cherokee and proud of it. I live among other proud Cherokee and even capitalize tribal names and even the term Native American. I have long hair, am fascinated with the myths of all native cultures and live in Oklahoma. You know, that place the Cherokee were forced to death march to because we weren’t welcome in our own native land anymore? Do I cry about it? No. And if I don’t cry about that bit of history why would I care that one of the few pop stars that even have a shred of originality sometimes wears something associated with my past. How many of you are native to the area pants originate from? Anybody? If your hand is raised, continue to wear pants proudly. Those not from wherever the hell pants originated from, shame on you…

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