Emily Ayers

Deborah Paczynski
ENGL 419.001
Visual Rhetorical Analysis

Fighting Cultural Appropriation with Images

Image from
https://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Poster_Campaign.html

When Halloween hits the stores, there is always a myriad of costumes of

different cultures to choose from. From Sexy Indian costumes to using actual
blackface, it seems like costumes designed to mimic entire cultures are mass-

produced and sold in every big-box Halloween store. Although the costumes
seem harmless, they spread misinformation about the cultures they represent.
That is why members of Ohio University student group Students Teaching
about Racism in Society (STARS) created the campaign Were a Culture, Not a
Costume. By creating these posters, which show the offensive costume and
members of the ethnic group it is targeting side-by-side, they hope to bring
awareness to an often-ignored issue.
In the 2013 campaign, STARS chose to create a series of posters
featuring the harmful and
culturally insensitive costume
in-between members of the
race. This analysis is focusing
on the poster that compares a
Geisha costume to Asian-

Figure 2: taken from http://www.pbase.com

identified students. As the image here shows,

Geishas are not sexualized expressions of
women. Geishas are traditional Japanese
entertainers, and it is an art.

Figure 1(2): Image taken from

www.halloweencostumes.com

However, there are costumes based on these outfits that are

bastardizations of long-held traditions. One can see by comparing figure 1 and
figure 2 that Geisha costumes are an amalgamation of multiple cultures, and
rely on stereotypes--many Geisha costumes use hair sticks which are usually
just chopsticks put into the hairstyle. It has been said by many AsianAmericans that chopsticks worn as hair accessories has never been a part of
their culture.
STARS utilizes many forms of visual rhetoric to get their point across.
The most effective one is contrast. By placing the offender, who is wearing a
Geisha costume, in between the other four subjects, who are wearing plain
clothes, the audience is forced to think about the implications of the costume,
and how it others Asians and Asian-Americans.
The group also creates an us vs. them situation by having the Asian
students looking disgusted by the cultural offender, and also appeals to
emotion with the sentence When this is how the world sees you, its just not
funny to drive home the point: culture is not a costume. The wearer can take
off their Asian-ness, but they cannot.
There is also contrast in the color choice: the background is a simple
white-to-gray gradient, and the subjects are all wearing red. Red is also used to
highlight the words This, World, and Not Funny. By highlighting these
specific words, the composer of the image is telling the audience that it is not
funny to stereotype.

The Were a Culture, Not a Costume campaign uses a catchy slogan,

bright colors, and contrast to create an effective ad campaign. By comparing
the normalcy of the marginalized group to the caricature that is the Geisha
Halloween costume, STARS conveys an important message, and does it well. Its
straightforward nature is balanced by the execution of the campaign--the
viewer does not feel threatened or lectured, just informed, and that always
generates awareness.

Works Cited
"S*T*A*R*S." S*T*A*R*S. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.
<https://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Home.html>.