# Reading Response 6
## Oct 28 Fri - Tiktok, Fakes, Appropriation
### *Ain't Got Enough Money, On Techno-orientalism, Coconutkitty143*


There is a new degree to which people attempt to genuinely change their race or trick people into thinking they are a different race. In fact, it is quite scary to see the lengths that people go to so in order to do so.

The first person I thought of who has gone to the extreme is Martina Big.
Even the small bio on her website has the phrase "I'm a black, international photo model and I have the biggest breasts in Europe." However, as seen by this next image, she is obviously not black. 
Martina has oversexualized herself through the guise of being a black woman. Therefore, she profits off of their suffering when she truthfully has no idea what it is like. Similarly, but not to the same exact extreme, [Cherid](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15327086211029357) wrote about [Ariana Grande](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYh6mYIJG2Y) and [Christina Aguilera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg8QgUIKXHw)'s music videos. These two white women darkened their skin and existed in spaces that are historically black. While they are not claiming to be black like Martina Big, they are still certainly profiting off of this appropriation of black culture.

The Black community is not the only community where people are attempting to change their race to. As [Kim](https://reallifemag.com/on-techno-orientalism/) described, the Asian community is no stranger to the people who genuinely attempt to be Asian. People get surgeries or even just use photoshop to get their desired result. Kim mentioned how the Asian culture frequently is thrown back and forth from being something desired (like people attempting to be Asian) or being hated (as evidenced by the thousands and thousands of hate crimes against Asian people). Like [Cherid](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15327086211029357) wrote, "the mechanics of cultural appropriation thus maintain racial and ethnic hierarchies that effectively disempower communities that are already marginalized." In white people appropriating other cultures, they continue to reinforce white people being oppressors.

Additionally, race is not the only aspect about a person that some people attempt to fake online. Coconutkitty143 has faked her age. As [Jennings](https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/7/6/22561197/coconutkitty-diana-deets-itsnotdatsrs-asianfishing-deepfake-catfish) wrote, this comes from a problem of people catfishing online through photoshop and CGI. Coconutkitty143 has profited off of the oversexualization of young girls, similarly to Martina Big in regard to Black Women. This goes to show that the people that are getting taken advantage of are always the ones who are not given a voice. Therefore, it is immensely harder for them to fight back.