Ugh, we almost made it through the Halloween season without any of the Kardashian-Jenners doing anything terrible and/or racist with their costumes. Personally, I sort of thought Kylie Jenner’s Xtina ensemble was the best costume this year. Khloe Kardashian is not going to win any prizes for her costume though – she posted these photos yesterday on her social media. Khloe was “Storm” from X-Men, the character played by Halle Berry in the movies. I get the silver hair and I get the light contacts. What I don’t get is the dominatrix catsuit, nor the silver forehead.
The X-Men geeks are pretty mad about Khloe’s costume for a lot of different reasons. One, Storm is one of the few mainstream African-American superheroes, and it does feel a little bit cultural-appropriation-y that Khloe is trying to be Storm. Two, it’s clear that Khloe didn’t really care enough about the character to get the details right. As I said, the dominatrix catsuit doesn’t look like the X-Men jumpsuit or whatever. And Storm never wandered around with a silver forehead, right?
Khloe’s boyfriend Tristan Thompson also dressed up as Marvel superhero: he was Black Panther, full on, with the mask and everything. Khloe included some photos of Storm and Black Panther looking friendly:
— Khloé (@khloekardashian) October 31, 2016
And here’s a questionable group photo where it seems like one their friends thought it would be cool to dress in “costume” as a Middle Eastern man. Nope!!
Happy Halloween pic.twitter.com/9RmCJx3S5L
— Khloé (@khloekardashian) October 31, 2016
And finally, because the buffet of cultural appropriation wasn’t finished, Khloe also posted this image of herself wearing multi-colored dreadlocks, because OMG WE NEED TO HAVE THE DREADLOCK CONVERSATION AGAIN.
See me try the hottest beauty looks from the Spring runway shows 😂 https://t.co/TaaKzm1lRN
— Khloé (@khloekardashian) October 31, 2016
Photos courtesy of Khloe’s Twitter.
She was jealous of all the attention duff was getting.
I don’t care for any nerd rage for a comic character. Please.
But, with the locs photo and the tweet with emoji laughing face…. I’m convinced these women troll black women in particular and revel in their outrage. Outrage over copying black women style keeps them in the news. It’s like the time Kylie had locs and made a comment like “white girls do it better” before deleting it, but not before Amandla Steinberg checked her. Is this not obvious?
I’m sorry but I can’t get on the sanctimony bandwagon for her dressing like Storm. She didn’t do black face. Now you can’t even dress like a fictional character of another race?? Thats insane.
Amen.
THANK YOU.
My question is, what on earth is going on with her lips???
That’s what I came here to say. THOSE LIPS.
I came here to ask the same thing. Lips WTF???
Yeah, I’m not going to jump down her throat for her choice, BUT I do find it a really bad Storm costume. So for that she gets an F from me. I mean it seriously looks like she just stuck random / silver stuff on her face, popped in white contacts, and said “boom, I’m Storm.”
And who cares if she got the costume just right based on the character? It’s a costume and you can get creative with it. I think the silver forehead looks pretty cool and she didn’t do blackface so not seeing anything disrespectful about the costume. If there is something I’m missing about why her donning this character would be disrespectful then please set me straight!
+1
I like the costume.
Amen!
Yeah, I agree. The need for costumes to be elaborate and perfect is annoying.
I have no problem with costumes not using Black face or dressed as someone’s ethnicity. Storm is a comic book character and I give Khloe a B grade.
People need to chill. Storm isn’t REAL.
I think in general it’s not a problem, though in her case with her history of appropriation and insensitivity it does annoy me a bit, also because it wasn’t done well.
Agree.
I have no fear when it comes to calling out cultural appropriation but come on…
Completely agree with you.
The biggest story here are her tragic lips. Seriously, my cat wants her butthole back.
YES Kitten. As I said above – THOSE LIPS W.T.F.??!!
OMG KITTEN!!!!! Genuinely laughed out loud whilst simultaneously being grossed out picturing my little pud’s butthole, lol.
Ahhh! Now I will forever see duck lips and think cats butt!!
Dying at, my cat wants her butthole back.
Khloe’s costume is alright with me. As is her boyfriend’s black panther suit. Don’t see appropriation there at all. The faux dreads though is another matter.
seriously.
I agree. I was distracted by the silver anyway.
I agree . To be honest, as a women with darker skin I get more uncomfortable when people paint their faces super white . ( but that’s my issue) in high school our choir we had to dress up as mimes with white face paint,and it really embarrassed me. But all of this over sensitivity to every little thing is ridiculous. I despise Halloween and dressing up anyways, but soon every single costum will be offensive yo someone for some reason.
I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. Love the excuse to dress up, see other people dressed up, have parties, and eat junk before going back to my regular routine. Hate the racist/ignorant things some people pull with this holiday, and hate how Halloween is just a free-for-all for people with old-school misogynistic beliefs (whether they’re conservatives, dudebros, liberal women, or feminists) to crawl out of the woodwork with their slut-shaming and rape culture-supporting shenanigans.
Truth. Thank you for being one of the very few voices of reason out there.
So does that mean no POC can ever dressed up (for Halloween) as a literary, fictional or real life character that isn’t a person of color? Because my BLACK grandaughter dressed up as Sonia Sotomayor. Also sick of the conversation about dreads. Wore my hair in dreads for many many yearss. Now I wear my hair straight. Am I appropriating white people’s hair?
THANK YOU!!!
For the love of god, seems nowadays nobody can be anything.
LA, I agree with you, and I’m black woman who writes about cultural appropriation. I think anyone can dress up as a fictional character. She didn’t darken her skin for the costume, so I’m fine with it. Do I think the Kardashians have a strange obsession with blackness that makes me uncomfortable? Yes. This costume might originate from their fetishization of black culture, but the costume itself is not offensive, in my opinion.
Agree.
TBH if any one else had been Storm no one would have cared but because of the Kardashian/Jenner history with black people that’s probably why.
As a black woman I don’t really care that much either, but I do that it’s weird that out of all the superheroes she could’ve chosen she chose Storm. You would think Mystique would be more her style.
Im pretty sure she purposefully chose Storm since she’s black. her boyfriend probably decided he was gonna be a black superhero so she searched everywhere for a black female superhero and found Storm so that she could somewhat “match”. And then did a horrible job with it
In Marvel comics, Storm is a romantic partner for Black Panther, I think…. so if her boyfriend was dressing up as that character it would make sense to do a “couples costume.
Yeah, I don’t get that at all.
YES! I don’t care for her or like her, but this is bullshit, let her dress like whatever character she pleases.
Totally Insane.
Give her a break at least she didn’t do blackface. And just because Storm is a Black superhero doesn’t mean that White women can’t dress as her. Would anyone be offended if Black women dressed as Wonder Womam, Super Girl or Black Widow.
As for her costume it’s not that good. And what can I say about the Middle Eastern costume, Lord help him.
Basically how it went:
*puts silver highlighter on the table*
*rubs forehead on the table* tada!
It was such a bad costume, they’re too rich to look this cheap.
Yeah the silver forehead was a bad choice, even if that’s how storm looks it is bad on her! Yep, doesn’t work I wouldn’t have guessed she was trying to be Storm.
Sorry but all I see is Porn Storm- with those lips, the posing and the boots.
So are little white girls who dress as doc mcstuffins culturally appropriating too?
Please, let’s not start that mess today.
Not start what? Storm is a black superhero. Doc mcstuffins is a black Disney character who has toys as patients. Kaiser is suggesting Khloe dressing as this superhero could be cultural appropriation. It would be the same thing if a white 6 year old girl dressed as doc mcstuffins. I’m not so naive as to say that I don’t see race but what is wrong with admiring a character of another race? Was I wrong to have bought my daughter a Tiana costume? It’s right next to her Rapunzel costume in her closet. She likes them both.
No it’s not wrong for your daughter to dress up as a fictional character, but let’s not act like cultural appropriation goes both ways, it doesn’t. Especially where Khloe Kardashian is concerned.
It’s a completely reasonable question. As for Marty who says it doesn’t go “both ways,” neither a white child nor a white adult dressing as a black character represent the “other” way. Reading, you can too.
@Sayrah, I think what you’re getting at needs to be said and discussed. This whole cultural appropriation thing is so confusing to me. I understand if people dress up as a black person or a Native American to make fun of their culture is wrong but I don’t see anyone making fun of the culture of others. Dressing up as a character that is not your specific ethnicity shouldn’t be a big deal as long as it’s not out rightly offensive. One can clearly see if the person is trying to offensive.
On another note, I know it’s a big deal when black people lighten their skin it and has everyone in a tizzie. In my opinion, they are lightening their skin b/c they think they look better. I go to a tanning salon to get darker skin (I’m white). So, does that mean that I am causing cultural appropriation b/c I like they I look with a darker complexion? This whole thing confuses me.
Thank you Bubbles, I agree with you 100%.
Some guy wants to dress as a classic “Indian,” cool, someone wants to dress as a Saudi? Cool. Maybe I want to do up some blonde braids around my head and wear lederhosen and be a German beer wench. Is that okay? People need to Chill TF Out. It’s HALLOWEEN. People dress AS THINGS THEY AREN’T for FUN.
I dressed as an Iraqi woman in abaya and hijab a couple years ago (I’m white) and YouTube’d how to get the scarf/headwrap just right – turns out they do it 1000 different ways depending on culture. So then I was wearing a pile of black fabric and looked like a muslim woman. Big deal, I wasn’t making fun of their culture.
People are impossible.
Her costume is garbage. That family has enough money to not look super tacky and wrong all the time and yet here we are. Like how could she not find someone to get her a realistic costume. I get people not feeling it because of this family and their love of all things stereotypically black and clearly a couples costume with her boyfriend, but the costume is just bad.
Please make her leave Tristan alone. The Kardashians have already ruined enough athlete’s lives without going after a Cav. She revolts me. Lebron, J.R., Kevin talk to your bud PLEASE. BTW she like Kylie, she looks the same in costume. Always the slu…same.
Tristan might want to talk to Delonte West to learn what happens when Lebron does not want another player with a particular woman. Granted Delonte was with Gloria but there is precedent here for Lebron getting what he wants.
I heard Lebron has already banned her from Cavs game. We shall see.
She looks a hot mess with the stringy hair and the half silver fivehead.
Original Mia: She was already at the ring ceremony. Lebron is Tristan’s friend/mentor. They have the same manager. I’m sure if Tristan starts to go off on his game, she will disappear. We are defending a championship and are no longer the hunter but the hunted and Bron won’t let a Kardashian ruin it!
Why did he ban her? I mean, sports is entertainment, I don’t get why they feel the need to ban anyone.
Didn’t he leave his pregnant gf for her? He sounds like a peach. And deserves everything that happens to him.
Agreed! What a way to start a relationship….
her mouth looks so dumb
Thank God she didn’t use blackface.
While there are a plethora of reasons to rag on the Kardashians, Khloe’s Halloween costume is not one of them.
I actually think it looks kind of cool. Who cares if it isn’t exactly like the movies or the comics. If everyone who wore a Halloween costume got their heads metaphorically ripped off because they didn’t copy all the details exactly right, Halloween would be phased out altogether.
The cultural appropriation allegations for this costume are also a big NO. There is absolutely nothing offensive about it. Ridiculous to even bring it up.
Sorry but Storm is not cultural appropriation. It would’ve been racist if she had done blackface but she is not doing either. What she IS doing is offending Storm fans everywhere with that awful getup
Thank you! Storm has always been my favorite X-men & that is NOT a Storm costume!!!
I think she looks cool, I wouldnt call this cultural appropriation. seems to me like some people look for any excuse to call out ‘cultural appropriation’.
Jaysus. It’s a comic character. One of the things I love about Comic-Con is that anyone can come as ANY character. Race, Gender, etc. – it does not matter. Real gamers or followers of comics are not mad about cultural appropriation, they are mad because a Kartrashian tainted something they love very much. Why couldn’t Khloe have just gone a sexy nun or something?
As a black woman, I usually dont care for the Kardashians but i wouldnt call this cultural appropriation.
I’m black too and to me it’s not appropriation but it is very poorly done especially after seeing Beyonce do it last year. I don’t think people would have minded if another white celebrity did it but something about the K’s dressing up as a traditionally black character just slots in nicely with their culture vulture ways.
Cultural appropriation is a slippery slope and I have to say, the idea that a white person can never adopt anything from another culture or race seems a bit of a stretch. Can I enjoy Mexican food? Can I wear a dress with a kimono sleeve? Better yet, can a middle eastern person wear levis and eat a hot dog? The answer to all of these questions is an emphatic YES!!!! It is human nature to look for the the best in others and adopt. Do I mean you can be racially insensitive or offensive? NO! The founding fathers meant us to be a melting pot. Everyone’s culture gets put in and it becomes part of us all. I love other cultures. I have things from other cultures in my home and fashion inspired by other cultures in my closet! Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!! PS I do love your blog. I respectfully offer my opinion merely as another point of view on a complicated topic. Have a great day!
Not a fan of the kardashian’s at all – I refuse to watch their show or buy their crap, but give me a break – It’s Halloween, she’s dressed as a fictional character, she’s not in blackface, and the US is a melting pot.
I’m 100% with LA & E.J. on this one.
hold on.
how is that even Storm?
it looks more like what a female version of Syndrome (from The Incredibles) would look like:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/pixar/images/b/b3/Syndrome.png/revision/latest?cb=20150215211805
Storm actually did wear a black catsuit with the similar emblem on the front when she was leading the X-Treme X-Men in the early aughts.
LOL of COURSE this *sshole wants to the a Black Superwoman for Halloween LOLOLOOLOLOL
Exactly. This is not cultural appropriation. HOWEVER, it has a certain level of trolling to it. Like, you just HAD to pick a Black character to dress up as. They get called out so much (genuinely), but still get away with it, that it feels like trolling. But I’m not going to get up in arms over the Kardashian-Jenners. I just can’t.
You and i see each other, Eye to eye, indeed!
Wow….all i came here to say is that that dude is rocking that black panther costume! That third pic with the entire group he is like dayummmm.
Enough with cultural appropriation on a super heroe costume in which is not doing anything out of the ordinary. Wow, taking everything to the extreme makes real issues get lost in the superfluous !
You should’ve posted the Beyoncé vs. Khloe Storm memes! Those were hilarious 😂
This isn’t appropriation. If she’d painted her face black, that would have been a different story. This is cosplay gone HORRIBLY wrong, however. Ick. I’ll give her and her boyfriend props since Storm and T’Challa (Black Panther) were married in the comics. Still, she has the money to do a better costume than that.
One of my friends has a 14 year old daughter who cosplayed Ms. Marvel (a teenage Inhuman whose family is from Pakistan and is a Muslim, for those who don’t know) at a convention this summer, and has worn the costume to other events since. It’s an amazing replica of her costume, and she was a hit at the convention. My friend said that she got stopped by every Captain Marvel (Kamala’s hero and the reason she choose to be Ms. Marvel) for pictures. Haha!
Anyway, my friend posted a picture of her daughter on-line, and actually got a few complete strangers calling her all sorts of names because of appropriation. Never mind that the girl picked that character because she’s her age, she is obsessed with Ms. Marvel comics, and she’s an awesome Superhero/role model.
Thanks for pointing out that Ororo and T’Challa were a couple. That’s what I was about to say. Maybe she picked Storm to go along with Black Panther.
I think costumes and cosplay as a character who happens to be another race is fine, as long as you don’t try to do blackface or some other racial makeup.
I have a friend who loves Zoe from Firefly. I cosplay Kaylee, and she would love to be Zoe along with me, but she hesitates because she is white and doesn’t want to offend. I tell her the same thing. You can honor the character without doing racial makeup.
I understand her trepidation, though, because I want to be Agent May from Agents of SHIELD, and I’m hesitant. My eyes are almond shaped, and I like to wear winged eyeliner and play up the shape subtly with makeup in everyday life. If I were in costume as Melinda May, I would be terrified to do that because it might look like “yellowface.” I still might cosplay her, but I would not do my eyes the way I normally do just so as not to offend.
I wondered if Khloe sprayed her hair to make it silver and just “missed” and got her forehead, but I would think she’d have the resources to fix that if it were the case. Maybe she did her hair silver and then the color rubbed off on her forehead afterward from the hair. That would make sense to me. Otherwise I have no idea why the silver forehead.
At a Convention, I don’t think you’d have anyone say anything about Zoe or May. I’ve seem PLENTY of people who were not Asian cosplaying Daisy and May. Cosplay is really about love of the character, so as long as your respecting the character, I don’t see why it would matter.
My daughter’s best friend is a POC, and we went trick or treating with her family last night. My daughter was the Hulk (I’m telling you, my child is obsessed), and her friend was the happiest and most adorable little Wonder Woman that you’ve ever seen. My daughter got the most surprised comments from people. One lady jokingly suggested that she should wear a purple tutu or something since she is a girl, and my daughter looked at her like she was nuts and informed her that the Hulk would look ridiculous in a tutu.
LOL! I also cosplay She-Hulk. I love that.
Out of curiosity, did your friend’s daughter wear a hijab? I know Kamala doesn’t wear one all the time.
@Amy Tennant
Nope. Kamala doesn’t wear it when she’s in her uniform/superhero costume, whatever you want to call it. She doesn’t usually wear it in her personal life either. Mostly places where she’d be expected to, like a Mosque.
OK. I knew she didn’t wear it most of the time! That was the only thing I could think of though that might have offended people was if your friend’s daughter had worn that. That just makes the reaction more baffling.
I’m white, am I not allowed to dress up as Storm also? Can my sons not dress up as Static Shock, or Mr Freeze from Incredibles? Only lighter complected people should dress up as Superman? That is kind of too much. Is it that it is only bad when someone white dresses as a character that is not white? I understand the problem with real people, but fictional characters I thought were open to everyone. Little Orphan Annie can be both but Storm cannot? This is weird to me, while we are encouraging, rightly, the casting of Idris Elba as a kick-ass, more than capable James Bond – I think it is too extreme a view that it does not go both ways – I don’t agree that folks who are not bi or multiracial cannot halloween as characters who are not their same skin color.
She looks bad to say the least.
As a black woman I don’t see anything wrong with her dressing up as storm I don’t get the anger towards that, I guess people just hate them sooo much *i don’t care for them because I just think they like to stir shit up for attention* but I actually like the make up and as long as its not blackface am cool
Oh, come on. Maybe she’s Storm when Storm is off-duty. You think Storm chills in sweatpants and gnarly Black Sabbath t-shirts with holes in the armpits? NO. Storm wears latex catsuits and high heels all day erry day.
I don’t like the silver forehead, though.
She looks a hot mess and her lips… I don’t even know what’s going on with them. That’s all I got!
I have mixed feelings about white cosplay of black characters, but she didn’t do black face or anything in that vein, so this isn’t something I’ll get up in arms about.
We’re only allowed to dress up as a superhero who has the same skin color as us? So black men can’t dress up as Batman or Spiderman? What if a white man loves Black Panther and dressed up as that character? Black women can’t dress up as Wonder Woman? A white woman can’t dress up as Vixen? That doesn’t seem right to me. I think we should be able to dress up as whatever fictional character we want regardless of the skin color of the character and our own skin color (as long as we’re just wearing the costume and not painting our skin color a different color).
I don’t think it’s cultural appropriation to dress up as a fictional character who happens to be of another race (without doing things like blackface) either, but because of the history the Kardashians/Jenners have with race, it’s easy to wonder if she had some type of appropriation-like motive for wanting to be Storm this year.
At this point, I just don’t get why there are STILL, in 2016, people in America who make decisions like “Hey, I’m gonna Dress Up As A Native American (or some other group of people they’re not a part of and probably don’t spend much time throughout the year educating themselves about or dealing with the modern struggles of) in some very one-dimensional way” and don’t see anything ignorant about that choice.*
*Except for the thirsty card-carrying members of the “anti-PC crowd.” Their reasons for dressing up like people of color as a costume are always pretty obvious and racist.
Wow, she looks terrible, like cos-play porn. Can we also do a side to side comparison with her old face?
I must be the only person who doesn’t care for the character of Storm. I don’t read the comics, but when Storm starts her whole blue eyes and outstretched arms, I roll my eyes. She could be killed five times over while warming up for a weather related trick.
As a black woman I would just like to say that dressing up as a fictional character who just happened to be black isn’t cultural appropriation. It’s called Halloween. As long as you aren’t covering your face in shoe polish or grabbing the extra dark can of spray tan, then I think you’re ok.
I also want to make it very clear that no one cares if white people wear dreadlocks. It’s just a hair style. I had dreads for 6 years and used to watch Youtube videos of white women putting in fake dreads because I thought they looked cool. Honestly, as long as you don’t look crazy, no one really cares how you wear your hair.
Thanks for posting. I’m white and I’ve been thinking lately about trying some braids. I see African-American women with some cool braids but I wasn’t sure if I would offend people if I did that.
I don’t think its cultural appropriation to play a FICTIONAL SUPERHERO who just happens to be black in the comics/movies. Its not like she was in black face.
Not the best Storm costume…but probably better than what I could probably come up with.
Those lips look painful.
Question: At some point, will respected, top-notch plastic surgeons stop treating the Kardashian/Jenner clan? Kim is starting to drift into the category of someone who has had too much surgery, especially her nose. At some point, all of the lipo, injections, facial surgery and reshaping must be dangerous.
First off cultural appropriation isn’t just about when another race dresses up as another race. It has to do with notions of power, equality, etc. therefore people who lack economic power and social power as compared to whites cannot culturally appropriate. That being said, Khloe is just dressing up for Halloween, and this feels like everything else they all do for attention. That Klan loves to emulate all things black, and in all cases they do it poorly, right down to the physical tropes of big butts and lips. This costume isn’t anything different. Thank goodness she didn’t go in black face…whew.
Trash. She has enough money to not have messed up this costume.