Ogress, Troll-Babe, Gynophage

Shepard was born on April 11, 2154

(Source: i-am-swimming-in-antibiotics)

It’s a nice look … but it’s stolen cultural property and it’s Injuns v. Whites.

I don’t know what I’d do with steampunk costuming. There’s no there there for a metisse like me, who isn’t NDN or black but is equally not white. Gotta ask Nem about this one maybe?

moniquill:

jhameia:

tampasteampunk:

#steampunk + Anishinaabeg Native American = multicultural steampunk.

I’ve been fascinated lately with multiculturalism in steampunk, especially because of this blog, and because I’m tired of seeing the same old pictures floating around tumblr and Google. Yes, Victorian England had some neat styles. Yes, Kato from Steampunk Couture is brilliant, talented and sexy. But why does everyone look the same in all the pictures?

I myself am working on a fortuneteller/gypsyish outfit, an Egyptian outfit and a Bollywood style one. I’d love to make a Blackfoot Native American one to celebrate my roots but I have much more research to do before I’m no longer terrified of inadvertently wearing something offense or treading on a sacred ritual outfit or something.

This photo is Miss Kagashi’s interpretation of Anishinaabeg Native American steampunk. She gives a breakdown of where she got every piece and a simple explanation of how it came together.

What examples of multiculturalism have you seen?

I’m sorry, but no. Just no.

I think Jeni is trying very hard to introduce the idea of multiculturalism into steampunk, but when I tried reading her blog, it was all about stuff and things and items. It’s a textbook example of how appropriation works: decontextualizing something and trying to make something new, and done by people who have the economic and cultural means of doing so without consequence. In the meantime, there’s nothing done to address the actual deprivations that Native Americans undergo nor even explore other means of equalization; the alternate history in this picture’s story is all about Native Americans fighting against the colonists… which is not very alternate. 

Multicultural steampunk is MORE than just steampunk that’s not Victorian. It’s about the negotiation between different cultures and how their relationships can be different. I see people use the term “multicultural” as a way of referring to “not white” WAY too often and if that’s how people are going to use it, then the term needs to die.

Multiculturalism is about understanding how different cultures BE TOGETHER, whether in conflict or harmony, not “hey, let’s take this not-white thing and see what we can do with it!” I get very leery when I see the formula of (not white + steampunk = multicultural steampunk). That’s a too-simple equation that doesn’t cover the vast complexities of what it means to be multicultural, much less multicultural steampunk. 

Not only that, but I’m pretty sure Jeni is Potawatomie? Not Ashininaabe? I don’t know what the etiquette is for inter-tribal symbol use but nonetheless, continuing the portrayal of Native Americans as warriors fighting against colonists just drives in the idea that their only story, when it’s not. 

(For Ashininaabe steampunk art, check out Beth-Aileen Lameman’s The West Was Lost)

(And BeyondVictoriana.com has been going on for much longer than Steamer’s Trunk, with a very clear statement on anti-racism and history from the perspectives of racial minorities, not just “oh, it’s not Victorian, cool!”)

I am aware that the following is divisive in the POC community and may invoke drama. The following is pretty much pasteed wholecloth from a more private venue, but I feel enough time has passed that I can say it out loud and in public, because it obviously needs saying.

I’ve been generally avoiding Multiculturalism for Steampunk on grounds that it has squicky as fuck appropriation issues.

But when I was on DeviantArt looking for ‘Native Steampunk’ for more art and artifacts for the presentation on Native Steampunk that I made at Steampunk Industrial Revolution, and I found Jeni Hellum’s DeviantArt page.

When sketching this outfit ( http://forfaxia.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2r4ejz ) She said this:

“This is my design for a female warrior from an Eastern Woodlands Tribe (probably Odawa, as they were the fiercest of the Three Fires). She’s in a hit-and-run campaign against the army, who wants to build an airshipyard over her tribal grounds- so instead of adopting the technology, she’s rebuking it. The roach on her head will have the traditional feathers and procupine quills, but also lengths of found wire.

The rifle’s been refitted to be a round-headed warclub, her bustle/breechclout’s made of canvas from an army rations wagon she decimated, and those things around her neck—- goggles. The right lenses were taken as a trophy of war (I’m not a fan of goggle, can you tell?). She is wearing wool tradecloth and silver accents though, which shows that she at least trades.”

Parts bolded by myself.

She also wrote about the completed outfit here

This outfit bothers me on several levels. Mostly because I think she hasn’t given much thought to self-appropriation and exotification, to the exacerbation of stereotypes and the message she’s sending to viewers about who NDN’s are and what they do.

She’s wearing war paint.
SHE’S WEARING WAR PAINT.

Like it’s no big thing. Like it’s just makeup. Like she has a right to wear it. Not ironically or subversively or in a way that explores the interplay of modernity and tradition. Just as makeup.

She’s also wielding a club (in the Age of Fantastical Steam. Newsflash: By the 1830’s IRL, NDN’s who were fighting Europeans were generally utilizing guns, because you don’t bring a club to a gunfight.)

You bring a club to a ceremonial function because of its traditional function and its heritage meaning. Bringing it to a con like you would a repainted nerf gun feels squicky and wrong to me. Ditto on wearing a roach.

She’s planned her character around a romanticization of conflict: Her character raids Union army wagons and takes goggles as war trophies. She’s a ~ WARRIOR~. Sure, that totally doesn’t conform with everything about Noble Savages and Stoic Warriors that kids in the US are taught about NDN’s. Raid on with your bad renegade self. ::stare::

And yeah, I get that that’s a major Steampunk theme. Everyone’s armed to the teeth. Conflict is a huge part of the age we’re looking at in Steampunk. MY old persona had a gun - and unless someone asked about her backstory, they might have made the same kind of assumptions that Jeni’s outfit invokes for me. I ultimately ditched the gun for exactly that reason.

I feel like a hypocritical nitpicker when I say ‘this outfit you’ve put together makes me uncomfortable’

But when Jeni says “I’m so making this. And if anyone gives me any hassle, I’ll either point to the research I did on the garments or sic my Potawatomie grandma on them.” I have to wonder if she’d actually wear this outfit in front of said grandmother, and what said grandmother would -say-.

Jeni also has a history of appropriating pretty much anything she feels like. See here: http://forfaxia.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d1b729z

One of the most touching and beloved comments made about my piece at Beyond Victoriana happened at Blue Corn Comics:

Anonymous said…

Yeah, steampunk is basically an alternate timeline.

It’s just good to see Indians as nerds. If only the mainstream media would realize we’re not all stoic warriors or sexy squaws.

Emphasis mine.


Bugger all this. I’m gonna be an NDN Mad Scientist.

superqueerartsyblog:

A+ FOR EVERYONE WHO’S GOT NOTHING AGAINST QUEERS!!!1

oh god

raininjuarez:

The great big city’s a wondrous toy, just made for a girl and boy.

I’ll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy

Lorenz Hart, of course