March 18, 2010

Kesha in headdress and warpaint



Kesha appeared on American Idol last night (3/17/10). At the 2:30 mark of this video, she goes offstage and returns wearing a chief's headdress and warpaint.

Some comments on YouTube:Kesha, sweetie....Are we suppose to take you you serious with that stupid headdress on? I mean come on...REALLY...SERIOUSLY?!!

Ok that was just painful!!!!!!! I hate the changed words and she really can't sing and what was with the Native American headdress????????

Ok what the fck woman you need to stop being a damn blonde and show respect to other ethnic group. Wearing a fake Native American headdress is very disrespectful to us and other Natives Americans. I don't know if you wanted to dress up like that, but you should think about it before you act.

Why'd she put on the Indian hat????????
It looks badd.
And on Racialicious:I'm not Native American or Indigenous, but man, that annoyed the fuck outta me. I don't know why or how. It's like seeing a white chick dancing and singing onstage in a saree or burqa for no fucking reason, except to look sooo "kool, lulz, omg how edggyyy."

Her performance was terrible and terribly offensive. All I saw was some ridiculous woman flopping around onstage mumbling "blah blah blah" while wearing a headdress and face paint. My feeling was that there was no real point to any of it except that the headdress and the tv-head dancers were all to detract attention from her formidable lack of talent. American Idol producers should be fired. What next? Juliette Lewis jumping around the AI stage in blackface?

The headdress was just. ... I have no idea. I think it's definitely using the idea of "Oh, this is so WACKY!" and completely ignoring the fact that she is appropriating someone's history and culture. :\
Comment:  The headdress is stereotypical, it's pointless, and it mocks the revered place of the feather in Native cultures. Congratulations, Kesha...you failed miserably. Three strikes and you're out.

For more stereotypical music videos, see:

Italian "Dance of the Indians"
MC Mong's Indian Boy video
Girl chief in Lady GaGa video
OutKast dances in fringed, feathered outfits at Grammys

3 comments:

Megan said...

she wore something similar on Jimmy Fallon a few months ago and I was surprised not to see anything about it on the blogs the next day - I guess this says something about the Jimmy Fallon Show...

Rob said...

For more on the subject, see Outrage Over Kesha's Performance.

john roberts said...

Wtf was that? I am not native and I was offended. Crap song, white girl with no rhythm rapping, trying to be black and insulting Native Americans. Everything that is wrong with our culture these days.