Far Northern Attire

[Midareyukki]

You clearly don't get my point. The Sami people are the ones making this alive, not you wearing an outfit. THEY are the ones that hold the knowledge, nurture it, pass it on for generations, make the decisions that change that particular culture. THEY should be involved.

Well, what do you think of the people identifying themselves as Sami people or with Sami descent saying they are fine with this sort of thing and denouncing the council?

Also...

Who said I have zero opinions on the New World, or even Thavnair and many other instances? I could spend all day here talking, but we're talking about the Sami subject. So because I didn't made a topic regarding the New World attire or whatever, I can't talk about the whole-instance regarding traditional attire? You literally can't know what is my opinion regarding everything that there's in the game, I'm not sure why you're assuming you do. Besides, every post I'm advocating that there should be new, better ways for the entertainment industry handling the act of getting inspiration from cultures around the world.

You can still talk about it, since the thread overall is talking about cultural appropriation and why the Sami Council issued a statement and whether other such councils can and have not.
No one said that you can't talk about this one thing because you didn't have a thread on another. And I fail to see where you got that reading. You aren't being accused of that :T

Because it is true New World, Thavnair and many other locations (Bozja, Sharlayan, Yanxia, Azim Steppe, the Ananta tribe...) have real world influences from specific cultures, some of which are ethnic minorities. Square Enix didn't get such feedback from them, or any such institution representing them. Yet Square too didn't have anyone of those cultures involved in the creative process. If we're talking about the Sami people, it's only fair we then extrapolate to every other instance of such. Minority or not. It's still a different culture outside that of American and Japanese. So the question does remain: is it a bad thing that Square Enix included those areas with such cultural overtones?

In the end, I think you're right, to an extent. Cultural Appreciation does exist, and so too does Cultural Appropriation. However, those terms are thrown around without their intended meaning. You CAN appreciate a culture without resorting to take it and do whatever you want with it, and when there's respect for the culture, it isn't inherently appropriation unless you seek to deface it, monetize it and/or strip it from its cultural context. And unfortunately, those situations aren't straightforward in some cases. And you can't always work with that culture directly... but you can still represent them with respect and with an informed mindset. With that in mind, I have another question:

As I just mentioned, a cultural item is appropriated when you strip it from its context and monetize it. I feel like the biggest hurdle of this situation is the fact that this outfit is on the Mogstation; it likely wouldn't stir up anything if it were in the game as a crafted item. However. The Sami council is claiming this to be similar to the Gakti... yet it's already been demonstrated by people in this thread that the Far Northern Attire is equally similar to other North Eurasian cultures' outfits. Like a mismash of different elements, with the end result being naturally similar to the Gakti. The latest I can remember was Burmecia when replying to Iscah on page 15. So... is this the Gakti or isn't it? And if it's not, then can we still consider them to be appropriating the Sami directly?