Last week I covered why wearing protective hairstyles is considered cultural appropriation, which is a conversation that has recently been in the media a lot. This week, I’m going to dive into a topic that isn’t as well-known: Japanese geisha garb. Though often used as a Halloween costume or just as a dress for style points, like with Katy Perry, these clothes are more than outfits. They represent a deep history and a lot of hard work. Once again, I cannot speak on this personally, but I have done my best to go to the source and will be citing them so please check them out because they are great articles.
Contrary to my previous posts, the first thing I am going to address is why wearing these outfits is disrespectful and cultural appropriation, as it kind of plays into understanding what a geisha is. Often in the western world, we tend to think of Asian women as infantile and submissive. As an Indian, I have faced this myself, but it is even more true for East Asian women. The geisha face this to an even more extreme extent.
They are seen as an ethnic commodity, an object just to be looked at like the Eiffel Tower or cherry blossoms. I looked at a geisha’s story about how she got involved in the art and the journey she went on (which I highly recommend looking at as it gives a great insight into all the work she had to put in). She describes how tourists would gawk at the girls, taking pictures, and treating them like dolls. Despite the fact that they are people, and that they have gone through an extraordinary amount of work to earn the title, they still aren’t seen as people.
That is why it is so harmful to wear their clothing and dawn their makeup—when it is worn as a costume, it is still an act of treating them as an object, something to dress up as. They do not get respect from tourists, but as soon as one of the tourists dresses up like them, that tourist would get respect from their peers.
The second reason it is so harmful is because when the western world thinks of a geisha, they think of a prostitute. While it is true that geisha are entertainers and though some may have engaged in prostitution, or had their virginities “sold” (you can read more about why that isn’t totally true here), according to the geisha code (which you can read about here), they are not allowed to engage in prostitution, and it was illegal for them to do so.
So where did the myth come from? During and after WWII, many prostitutes wore outfits similar to the geisha, some even claiming to be geisha to entice the US soldiers, and then the soldiers returned home and spoke about “geesha-girls.” In truth, geisha are actually people of the arts, and “entertainer” refers to their ability to host, carry conversation, dance, and play instruments.
Again this explains why it is so harmful to wear geisha garb. On us, it is “cool” and “ethnic” but if any westerner saw a geisha, they would look down on her for being a prostitute. Additionally, the misinformation that we continue to spread further perpetuates in the sexualization of East Asian women, especially when the clothing is worn to appear “innocent” and enticing.
So, it is clear that geisha garb is being culturally appropriated, but I haven’t even gotten into the rich history of geisha. In truth, it is too much to include in a single blog post, and it deserves much more attention than I could give it here. One of the websites I visited equated the geisha’s role to the role of the samurai in how they fascinate the world and the history they hold. They are truly symbols of ancient Japan, preserving the art and culture into the modern world. The first geisha were not even women, they were men, but it soon came to be a field that women dominated and excelled at. It became a reputable avenue for a woman to pursue, and like I mentioned above, was no easy task. If you would like to learn more about the history, check here.
To me, it is very clear that the geisha clothing isn’t just a costume to be put on, and its usage is surrounded by stigmatization and stereotypes. Having read into everything the geisha does, it is clear that they are worthy of our respect and lead very hard, but poised lives. The effort they put into the skills they learn, and the immense proficiency of the arts they possess is amazing. Join me next week to visit something I have personally called someone out for: bindis.
For some quick fun facts check here, and for a testimonial from some geisha about how they are trying to keep their profession alive, click here.
And if you would like more information on what it takes to be a geisha, here is a great article that breaks it down.
This post was highly informational! I have heard about geishas before but I didn’t really understand who they are and what they did. This post clarified all of my questions. The only suggestion I have is to proofread some of the paragraphs for grammatical errors and silly mistakes like not adding closing brackets.
This post really opened my eyes to something I knew little to nothing about. I had only seen pictures and google searches of geishas, but I had no idea how culturally significant they are in Japan. It is really disheartening to read that they are viewed in such a poor light considering all they are capable of doing.
I never really knew what being a geisha was until your post. I think you make a really good point on how these individuals are treated like “dolls.” Quite successfully sums up the whole idea of cultural appropriation.