 Absolutely tasteless and awful. We have zero respect to the Japanese culture, do you? What's wrong with you? Kimono? More like Kim. Oh no. Uh, what did Kim do this time? Well, on Tuesday, June 25th, Kim released a new line of shapewear, which is basically form-fitting underwear. And the name of the company... It's kind of a play on words because her name is Kim. Makes sense, I guess. Basically, it's a line of shapewear for women of all different kinds of sizes, shapes, and skin colors. It comes in different sizes from double XS to quadruple XL, and it comes in nine different shades, citing her own struggle to find appropriate shapewear. That seems like a pretty noble cause. I mean, what's the big problem? There's nothing wrong when making shapewear. The problem stems from the name of the brand, Kimono. And as you probably know, Kimono is a traditional Japanese garment, a robe with wide sleeves and a sash around the waist. And as you know, this looks nothing. Like this. And now, the internet is absolutely furious. Add that to the fact that Kim Kardashian reportedly filed a trademark for the word Kimono. And if the reports are true, it essentially gives her rights and ownership over that word, Kimono. Which is confusing because the word existed before she did. I'm proud of that. Many people on Twitter didn't hold back, giving their thoughts about the situation. Kimonos in general carry a lot of symbolism and cultural significance from the material used to the patterns displayed to the shape and length of the sleeves. Different kimonos of different material and fabric were also worn during various seasons in the year. For example, something you wear in summer is different than what you would wear during winter. The kimono you wear were sometimes an indication of your social class or your position in society and government. Warriors in samurai would wear colors and patterns that represented their army. Sometimes kimonos would bear that person's family crest and essentially became a symbol of that person's family. On formal occasions, single women would wear highly decorative kimonos with wide, long flowing sleeves. While married women wear more conservative kimonos with narrow sleeves. Nowadays, kimonos are rarely seen in everyday life and are mostly reserved for special events such as weddings, funerals, tea ceremonies, and festivals. Because such a garment is significant to Japanese culture, people are calling this a blatant act of cultural appropriation. Many women responded by posting pictures of their own kimonos as a shot to Kim telling her what real kimonos are supposed to be. So what exactly is cultural appropriation? It's defined as the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of customs, practices, ideas, etc of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society. And this isn't the first time Kim has gotten into trouble in this issue. There was that one time she wore that Indian headpiece. Oh and there was that one time she wore the fulani braids. If you remember back in 2017, a teen wore a traditional Chinese dress to prom. Similar to Kim, she received a fair amount of backlash stating that the dress was insulting to Chinese culture and that such a cultural garment should not be worn as a prom dress. Unlike Kim, the responses were half and half. A lot of Chinese people actually defended her saying it's ridiculous to criticize this as cultural appropriation. From the perspective of a Chinese person, if a foreign woman wears a cheap bow and thinks she looks pretty, then why shouldn't she wear it? So it was interesting to see that most of the people bashing the teen were white Americans while the general Chinese public didn't really have an opinion about it. So it got me curious. Do Japanese people think that Kim Kardashian is appropriating their culture? Or is this once again just ravings from the internet? It's beautiful and it just is so culture-rich to us that I don't understand why anybody Kim Kardashian would name an undergarment line after the same thing. It's just, it's inappropriate. I think people take it too seriously. It's okay if she uses the word kimono. That's her choice. I've always been in the school of thought that culture is meant to be shared and enjoyed by everyone. They're not meant to be hoarded and only used by people of that culture. However, as society sees it, there is a very thin line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. So what do you guys think? Is this blatant Japanese cultural appropriation? Or is Kim innocent? Let me know down below in the comments. Hey, if you liked my video, hit like and hit subscribe. And remember that Kim Kardashian's failed wedding would have paid for your tuition for 2,793 years.