Every year, there are movies that come out and inspire the most popular costumes when Halloween season rolls around.
For many young kids, Disney movies are always the most popular characters.
From Frozen to Moana , Disney has come out with some pretty popular female leads over the past few years.
While the characters are many children’s favorites, not all parents are on board.
In fact, one mom recently opened up about why she won’t let her daughter dress up as Moana for Halloween.
Mom Sachi Feris posted her opinion on the blog, Raising Race Conscious Children.
Sachi said she told her daughter:
“Moana is based on real history and a real group of people. If we are going to dress up a real person, we have to make sure we are doing it in a way that is respectful. Otherwise, it is like we are making fun of someone else’s culture.”
It comes down to one thing: cultural appropriation.
While Sachi’s daughter may be too young to understand this concept, it’s never too early to start teaching our kids to respect other people’s cultures.
Sachi’s daughter, however, was not happy.
She tried to convince her daughter to dress up in the “spirit” of the character instead, showcasing her “bravery.”
After a lot of back and forth, Sachi finally explained to her daughter why Moana wasn’t a good costume choice.
“I don’t like the idea of dressing up using the same traditional clothing that someone from Moana’s culture may have worn because that feels like we are laughing at her culture by making it a costume.
A child whose family is Polynesian could dress up using that type of traditional clothing but Moana’s culture is not our culture. If you want you could dress up as someone from one of your cultures, you could be a tango dancer from Argentina … (or as Che Guevara!).”
Again, her daughter refused.
So, she offered an alternative.
“Otherwise, maybe you could be a modern-day Moana and dress up in the clothing you think Moana might wear today.”
While the thought is important, it’s definitely an intense conversation for kids.
Not all kids understand the concept of cultural appropriation, especially because not all parents feel so strongly about it.
Online, people also weighed into the debate.
People thought choosing Moana as a Halloween costume was fairly harmless. It just meant that the child likes that character.
Others thought it wasn’t cultural appropriation.
Some people believed that these characters served as important role models for kids.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
Turns out, Sachi’s daughter ended up wanting to go as Mickey Mouse for the holiday instead.
However, she did learn a valuable lesson.
People’s cultures are not always there to be used as costumes.
What would you do?
Do you think censoring kids and their likes or dislikes is fair?
