Jason Manford: Cultural appropriation is a load of b****cks

Jason Manford has branded the concept of cultural appropriation as a "load of b******s" in an online rant and suggested the term be changed to "cultural appreciation".

The comedian shared his thoughts along with an article from The Mirror which claimed Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague had accused of “cultural appropriation” by her Instagram followers for dressing as Cleopatra for Halloween.

Manford, 38, hit out at the use of the term – which is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as the 'unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society’ – on Twitter.

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He wrote: "What a load of b****cks. I always feel like Quite a lefty liberal until I read about ‘cultural appropriation’. What a w*nky, wokey term. Why don’t we can it ‘cultural appreciation’ and be friends again. (Waits to be accused of #WhiteManSplaining)."(sic)

However, a follower opined that it was "disrespectful" to wear another culture as a costume as they tweeted: "Culture is important and shouldn’t be used as a costume. The same way I wouldn’t dress up as a Native American. It’s disrespectful. I think there’s other ways to appreciate culture."

To which Manford responded: "Well if any ancient Egyptians want to complain, send them my way. Cleopatra could hardly be described as a poor minority, she was the leader of the most powerful culture on earth at the time!"

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Manford's comments come after Barack Obama challenged "woke" culture and the practice of taking people to task on the internet last week.

Speaking at the Obama Foundation's annual summit in Chicago on Tuesday 29th October, the former President of the United States suggested that being judgemental would not bring about change.

He told the audience: "I get a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people.

"If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because 'Man did you see how woke I was? I called you out!'"

"That's enough," he said. "If all you're doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far."