Victoria’s Secret Flap: Nothing Says Native American Heritage Month Like White Girls in Headdresses

By Sasha Houston Brown: November 11, 2012

  "I don’t know about you, but I usually spend this time of year parading around in my Navajo Hipster panties, feather headdress (on loan from Karlie Kloss and Gwen Stefani), Manifest Destiny T-Shirt and knee high fringed moccasins made in Taiwan while watching a Redskins game, smoking a pack of American Spirits and eating genetically modified Butter Ball turkey, because I’m just that traditional."

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 I can understand the author's outrage when it comes to the terrible stereotypes that have come into large light recently with all of the Native American cultural faux pas. First there was the Native American themed parties, then Halloween, then Gwen Stefani, and finally Karlie Kloss. But was it really all of these individual's fault or has society not shown the negative side of portraying this stereotyped ideal of Native Americans? I know that the individuals that have offended the Native public has issued apologies, but is that really enough? To say sorry and move on? Who is going to teach American society about the implications of what they have done? Not only have all of theses people pushed the inaccurate stereotype of Native Americans onto the uneducated public, but they have also told everyone that it is okay to offend if you give an apology, but some how still manage to repeat the same mistake over again. The picture of Karlie Kloss above should be considered extremely offensive not only to the Native public, but also to the American public. Not for just the reason of 'acting/portraying' a Native individual, but for enforcing uneducated, heterosexual, stereotypical garbage at the public. No women in all honesty looks like that individual. She is blessed to have her beauty and body, but what costs did she sacrifice to her health in order to get it? Why does no one seem to care about women anymore? Why is society (America) so desensitized to other cultures or issues happening around it? It is embarrassing to come from a place that has so little understanding of the world around it. A lot of the time I feel it is by choice inflicted by society to not support the educational system, which makes individuals uneducated or unable to seek out higher learning. No one should have the right to destroy someone's culture or their character. When will individuals learn that no one are you making yourself looked down on, but others as well.

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  "Native women, stripped of their humanity, are still objectified as a sexual fetish or exotic other. In fact, these kind of derogatory stereotypes have become a fixture of both American mythology and pop culture."