“You’re offensive!” spit back the mouth underneath the bobbing homemade headdress.
It’s been a popular trend this past season in our beloved Mighty Utah Student Section to sport homemade headdresses in the style of our mascot. The students taking the time and effort to dress up are probably not setting out to offend people, but they are displaying ignorance unbecoming of college students. During the final game of the football season, against the University of Colorado, most students were still on break from Thanksgiving, and the MUSS looked particularly empty, yet there were still at least three headdresses visible in the crowd, their craft-store feathers waving in the wind. Headdresses have also been spotted in the student section at the men’s basketball games.
Wearing a headdress in the MUSS is a terrible idea. Firstly, the ignorance and presumptuousness of it all is offensive to the history of this country and this university. Secondly, none of the headdresses I’ve seen show any particularly exceptional skill in crafting. Thirdly, it harkens back to the pre-Swoop days when the U (shamefully) had a white guy dressed in knock-off American Indian attire as our “Crimson Warrior” mascot. Lastly, it blocks the view of people behind the headdress-wearer, and occasionally feathers brush against a stranger’s face, making it even more weird and uncomfortable for everybody.
The MUSS Spirit/Conduct Guide strictly forbids the wearing of “war paint […] traditional Indian headdress or anything else that would be disrespectful to the American Indian nation or the Ute tribe,” yet in the MUSS, headdresses persist.
The MUSS is under the purview of the MUSS Board, who, after multiple attempts, could not be reached for comment, but it is unclear as to whom disciplinary and enforcement responsibilities fall to.
According to the American Indian Heritage Foundation, “each time the chief, warrior or other important tribe member committed a brave act, a feather was added.” Spending a few hours once a weekend doing the Third Down Jump or learning all of the lyrics to “Utah Man” do not count as brave acts. Warbonnets and headdresses are not even common among the three Ute tribes, according to a Ute Indian fact sheet. Furthermore, headdresses are not just ornamental, they are deeply spiritual to some tribes and are used during ceremonies and weddings.
In 2012, Victoria’s Secret dressed a model in animal print underwear and a feathered headdress and sent her down the runway during its annual fashion show. Both the model and the company later apologized publicly and pulled the segment from the fashion show’s television broadcast. If a major corporation that sells lingerie cannot get away with appropriating such culture, how is it possible that a state-funded public institution can? If Victoria’s Secret can recognize and apologize for its mistake, students in the MUSS certainly can see where they may have gone wrong, can’t they?
Clearly these students are putting in a lot of time and attention into hot-gluing gaudy feathers to beanies in an effort to express their school pride, but what ever happened to good old fashioned chest painting? As evidenced by the verbal altercation between MUSS members I saw at the Bucks game, headdresses are causing tension between students in the MUSS. If we can’t be fraternal and collegiate to each other there, where can we?