5 ms·

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/open-kimono.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/open-kimono.asp Apparently it is considered at least a little racist.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/open-kimono.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/open-kimono.asp Apparently it is considered at least a little racist. I don't know why, though - is "loose your tie" (not sure if English has similar phrase; said to an angry person) racist? Would "show your cards" be racist?

Mandatum 6y ago
Not sure about lose your tie. On show your cards, sounds like poker. There's no culture-tie to cards.
- TomMarius 6y ago
  Card players are more than not white. Other people than Japanese wear kimono, e.g. in martial arts, even these that split off a hundred years ago - is that racist too, then?
  - eesmith 6y ago
    Racist usage is contextual. What's racist in one context is not racist in another. I might call my kids "little monkeys" if they act rowdy at home. But given the long racist history of calling black people "monkeys", that same term might not be interpreted the way I mean it should I refer to rowdy black kids that way. And I would be in the wrong, because it's wrong that I should have gotten to be an adult without learning that aspect of American history. (I shouldn't get away with that privilege, to use the modern term.) So we have to look towards how the term came about, the racist and sexist interpretations of both "kimono" and "geisha" in American culture, the origin of the term in the era when Americans were worried about Japanese economic dominance (why did the phrase come out of the US instead of Japan?), etc. Along those lines, how did the term get to be "open the kimono" instead of "drop trousers" or "go skinny-dipping"? And in real life, what secret is opening the kimono supposed to reveal - the color of one's underwear? The existence of one's genitalia? Given how many times I've gone skinny dipping - including at clothing-optional areas - and taken a sauna at public bathhouses, well, plenty have people have seen me naked. I still have lots of secrets. So I don't even see how the analogy is supposed to be relevant.

Mandatum 6y ago

Not sure about lose your tie. On show your cards, sounds like poker. There's no culture-tie to cards.

TomMarius 6y ago
Card players are more than not white. Other people than Japanese wear kimono, e.g. in martial arts, even these that split off a hundred years ago - is that racist too, then?
- eesmith 6y ago
  Racist usage is contextual. What's racist in one context is not racist in another. I might call my kids "little monkeys" if they act rowdy at home. But given the long racist history of calling black people "monkeys", that same term might not be interpreted the way I mean it should I refer to rowdy black kids that way. And I would be in the wrong, because it's wrong that I should have gotten to be an adult without learning that aspect of American history. (I shouldn't get away with that privilege, to use the modern term.) So we have to look towards how the term came about, the racist and sexist interpretations of both "kimono" and "geisha" in American culture, the origin of the term in the era when Americans were worried about Japanese economic dominance (why did the phrase come out of the US instead of Japan?), etc. Along those lines, how did the term get to be "open the kimono" instead of "drop trousers" or "go skinny-dipping"? And in real life, what secret is opening the kimono supposed to reveal - the color of one's underwear? The existence of one's genitalia? Given how many times I've gone skinny dipping - including at clothing-optional areas - and taken a sauna at public bathhouses, well, plenty have people have seen me naked. I still have lots of secrets. So I don't even see how the analogy is supposed to be relevant.