Comment on Anti-racism be like
AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 5 months agoMia, the Land o Lakes butter maiden, is actually rather interesting, at least the modern version they got rid of. The artist was a member of the Red Lake Chippewa and the design included traditional Ojibwe floral motifs. Yeah, it needed to go, but it wasn’t the worst by a long shot.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I just love the idea of a native american being iconfied for… butter.
like, wow, that’s so very, very native and authentic - butter.
I get it, it’s the land-o-lakes, minnesota, and they take butter fucking serious folks, they make it, they eat it, they sculpt it, so yeah, they’re REALLY into butter… but why the stolen iconography? why associate the native americans, who didn’t domesticate cows, with butter of all things?
like what the actual fuck was the line of thought?
LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 5 months ago
Interesting read about this..
The native cultural influence is pretty strongly interwoven in the fabric of Minnesota. It’s very possible the thought process was just that the locals associated that image with their state, just like the brand name.
The Anishinaabe and Dakota have had major influence on the state and that’s been rectified in recent history with the renaming of certain places back to their native name, like Bde Maks Ska.
Most of the naming in the metro(and the state name) comes from the Dakota peoples. The Anishinaabe were located more in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin so you’ll see the influence there. For example the town of Biwabik in the iron range which is the Anishinaabe word for iron.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
so is cultural appropriation of iconography that doesn’t belong to white people. and to have the person ‘serving’ up the butter, kneeling?
think they would have done that with a white woman?
What’s the Anishinaabe word for racism?
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The Anishinaabe and Dakota were the lost butter tribes?
No? No, no they weren’t. Make it make sense lol
CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Your thoughts are interesting, but I always presumed it was just a simple tribute of sorts. Like you said, Land-O-Lakes, beautiful, natural scenery of America…accompanied by a beautiful Native American woman.
Now take the product itself, like you said, make it make sense. Ehh. Maybe you just can’t. They wanted a mascot & instead of a smiling cow or potato, they chose a woman. Sex sells!
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
cultural appropriation sells. it’s not just any woman kneeling serving up the dairy products, nah… keep telling yourself it didn’t mean anything, maybe one day you’ll believe yourself, but make no mistake, they wouldn’t have put a white woman kneeling there.
so figure it out.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
cultural appropriation sells. It’s not just any sexy lady. recognize it for what it actually was and everyone moves on.