Cultural appropriation.

[bohoindigo]

Hi there,

I'm sorry if this seems like an off-topic or simply insane post, but I need to ask Finns about appropriation of Finnish culture.

If an artist used a Finnish name/pseudonym but was not themselves Finnish, would you consider that to be appropriation and disrespectful? Some folks may think I'm really over-thinking this issue, but cultural appropriation has come up a lot in a writer's group I frequent and I wanted to ask actual Finns instead of just guessing.

Many thanks,
BohoIndigo.

[Aate]

Well, it might be a bit annoying if you called yourself "Joukahainen" or something, depending partly on what kind of art you'd create, but I don't think anyone would consider it particularly disrespectful. If your art was really nice, many Finns might even be flattered that you chose a Finnish name. In any case, I don't think anyone would mind if you were to use more ordinary names like "Matti", "Anniina" etc., but then again, that's just my opinion.

Very nice of you to be considerate and ask, though! Goes to show what kind of a person you are.

[Upphew]

I'm sorry if this seems like an off-topic or simply insane post, but I need to ask Finns about appropriation of Finnish culture.

If an artist used a Finnish name/pseudonym but was not themselves Finnish, would you consider that to be appropriation and disrespectful? Some folks may think I'm really over-thinking this issue, but cultural appropriation has come up a lot in a writer's group I frequent and I wanted to ask actual Finns instead of just guessing.

Using Finnish name or pseudonym wouldn't be, in my books, be disrespectful in itself. If your art was disrespectful towards Finland/Finns, then the case would be different.

[ajdias]

If your art was really nice, many Finns might even be flattered that you chose a Finnish name.

[maceochi]

Another issue would be if an artist were to adopt a Finnish name and to claim that they were Finnish in a very prominent, even obnoxious way. I don't think this is what the original poster had in mind, but in my opinion Finns could find it annoying. What do you Finns think? If some foreigner without a drop of Finnish blood invented a mythical Finnish heritage for themselves and then mentioned their "Finnishness" at every opportunity? Not a very likely scenario, but still, interesting I think.