UPDATE (Nov. 4 — 9:15pm ET): After this article was published, Pamela reacted to the backlash by posting a link to an article titled, “The Illogic of Cultural Appropriation” on Twitter.
ORIGINAL STORY: Some Twitter users are not happy about Pamela Anderson‘s Halloween costume. The 52-year-old blonde bombshell posted two sexy topless photos of herself for the spooky holiday but many of her followers were not too thrilled about the accessory that she wore. In one pic, she can be seen wearing nothing but white underwear with white paint splattered across her bare chest as she holds a Native American headdress in her hand. In the second pic, she is standing in the same barely-there getup with her back to the camera but this time, she is wearing the headdress on her head. “Happy Halloween,” she simply captioned the post along with a ghost emoji, but it didn’t take long for the responses accusing her of cultural appropriation to come in. Check out Pamela’s Halloween photos HERE.
“This is really disappointing & racist Pam, I thought you were better than this,” one follower wrote. “Pamela… please no. Like I genuinely respect you, you have broadly good politics and should really know better,” another wrote. “And you wore the feathers of how many dead birds, Pam? Cultural appropriation, racism and hypocrisy all in one photoshoot. I’m sure folks at @peta are mighty proud of their association with you,” a third pointed out.
Once a fourth follower wrote, “AND she’s against the seal hunt #racism”, Pamela didn’t hesitate to respond. “I am against the seal hunt. It’s barbaric and unsustainable ..to beat baby seals – crush there skulls for a 2$ pelt that there is no market for. Makes no sense. There are other ways .. to stay true to tradition – saving the environment,” she wrote back.
Despite the somewhat negative response to her Twitter pics, Pamela also took to Instagram to share the pics as well with a different, more lengthy caption. “Whenever you do something that is not aligned with the yearning or your soul—you create suffering. Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. #anaisnin ❤️ #warrior by @laurielynnstark#happyhalloween,” she wrote.
Although Pamela most likely didn’t mean to offend anyone with her Halloween costume, Native American costumes have long been criticized due to inaccurately portraying modern Indigenous people. Henu Josephine Tarrant gave an interview to NPR last week and explained why many people took offense to the former Playboy bunny’s photos. “It really is a reflection of how we look to [non-Native Americans] and what we are to them,” she said. “We aren’t seen as modern-day people at all. That’s also what makes it really difficult for people to understand that what they’re doing is offensive. Because for so long, it’s really been, I guess, ingrained into Americana, and cowboys and Indians is a part of that.”