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Feb. 8th, 2010 09:59 pmThis article from the NYTimes Op-Ed "Sucking the Quileute Dry" about how the Quileute people have been affected by the popularity of the Twilight series of books and movies.
I find it so saddening that Meyers has made such a profit from appropriating the Quileute, and that this is neither an isolated nor especially egregious case (given other cases) of non-native authors, creators, and entrepreneurs making profits hand over fist by taking the cultural property of others as though the beliefs, names, history, and heritage of other peoples are up for grabs because they are not copyrighted or patented under law.
Appropriation has real consequences, especially for the appropriated who often lack the numbers or resources to fight back, to balance the uneven, unresearched, unethical portrayals of themselves in larger media outlets.
Or: as if I needed another reason to dislike the Twilight phenomena entirely.
To millions of “Twilight” fans, the Quileute are Indians whose (fictional) ancient treaty transforms young males of the tribe into vampire-fighting wolves. To the nearly 700 remaining Quileute Indians, “Twilight” is the reason they are suddenly drawing extraordinary attention from the outside — while they themselves remain largely excluded from the vampire series’ vast commercial empire.
I find it so saddening that Meyers has made such a profit from appropriating the Quileute, and that this is neither an isolated nor especially egregious case (given other cases) of non-native authors, creators, and entrepreneurs making profits hand over fist by taking the cultural property of others as though the beliefs, names, history, and heritage of other peoples are up for grabs because they are not copyrighted or patented under law.
Appropriation has real consequences, especially for the appropriated who often lack the numbers or resources to fight back, to balance the uneven, unresearched, unethical portrayals of themselves in larger media outlets.
Or: as if I needed another reason to dislike the Twilight phenomena entirely.