[[{“value”:”
Dressed in my traditional Indian sherwani, with its intricate embroidery, flowing gown-like material, complete with a headpiece, I thought I looked pretty cool attending a wedding of my good friend.
So it was with considerable shock that, upon posting photos to social media afterwards, I was accused of “cultural appropriation” due to my attire. Setting aside the fact that I was in fact required to wear the sherwani in order to attend, and that the groom provided the outfit for me, my blistering hot take this week is that cultural appropriation is actually… good.
I’m kidding. Sorta. Before the mob comes for me, there are of course, some parameters here that need to be established. Dressing up in Indigenous attire for Halloween is probably a bad idea. Same goes for those big triangle-shaped hats that Chinese rice farmers wear.
But if you are attending a wedding in a different culture, and they have certain customs and traditions and clothing associated with that celebration, then to me it seems more disrespectful to not wear that clothing than it does to “culturally appropriate” and wear the outfit.
As it was, I was the only white guy at the wedding, and at six-foot-four, I was also the tallest guy there, so I didn’t exactly blend in to begin with. If I were also to be the only guy there wearing a tuxedo, while everyone else was in a sherwani, I would have looked extra double outta place.
Moral of the story: use your best judgment, attain prior permission, and if it makes sense, then yes, it’s okay to do some light cultural appropriation.
Y’know what else white people should be culturally appropriating? Toilets.
Loyal readers will recall that I love me a good toilet. Especially the Japanese variety—the ones with the auto-opening lids, laser-powered self cleaning, and of course, the bum sprinkler.
The wedding I was attending was in Sri Lanka, a country I’ll admit I didn’t really know anything about, but had ignorantly assumed was a “developing country” and not as modern or sophisticated as Canada.
Boy was I wrong. Yes, there were some sketchy parts of Sri Lanka, but without exaggeration I can say the worst parts of Sri Lanka were still better off than Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside, or Port Colborne’s equally janky Lidsville, or even the rapidly deteriorating Byward Market in Ottawa.
Overall, I found Sri Lanka to be a beautiful, modern, safe, welcoming, sleek, and incredibly friendly place, even if it was stiflingly hot.
But what really made me fall in love with Sri Lanka, and what convinced me the country is actually more “developed” than Canada, is the fact that every toilet – every single one – everywhere, was both spotlessly clean and equipped with the beloved bidet feature.
Making the international toilet transition even more jarring was the fact that I left from Pearson Airport in Toronto, where the public washroom was very nearly unusably dirty and disgusting. Urine-soaked floors, overflowing trash bins, clogged toilets, broken faucets; the bathroom situation at Pearson Airport was what you’d expect to find in a third world country.
Then I flew to Sri Lanka, landed at the airport after a 22-hour flight with a very full bladder, ran straight into the washroom, and found a facility so clean you could eat off the counter, fancy faucets dispensing perfect puffs of fluffy hand soap, and best of all, sparkling clean toilets with the second best bidet system I’ve ever seen (Japan still reigns toilet supreme).
And I was delighted to find that every single toilet in Sri Lanka, be it at a tiny Buddhist temple, a bustling shopping mall, or a busy restaurant, was equally as pristine and well-equipped.
It is a testament to western arrogance that we still have non-bidet toilets here, and a damning commentary on our education system that I erroneously thought of Sri Lanka as a place less modernized than our own country.
There’s a lot of talk these days about changing Canada’s international trade and commerce partners to be less reliant on our neighbours to the south. I couldn’t agree more, and if I had one suggestion for our foreign policy advisors, it would be to strengthen our ties to Sri Lanka, and begin mass importing those wonderful, sprinkly, shiny toilets.
James Culic installed fancy bidet toilets in his house immediately upon returning from his trip to Japan a few years ago, and it was the best decision he’s ever made. Find out how to yell at him at the bottom of this page, or flush a letter to the editor down the email pipes by clicking here.
”}]]