Interesting. I hadn't heard much about Norway in it. I love history, so nice learning some more. I did learn that he had stolen art and had a collection hidden away. I knew he was part Jewish. I guess there is a lot about history I still have left to learn too, but always nice to learn more. Recessive genes are interesting and I'm always curious how they are programmed in different Sims games especially when supernaturals are involved. Yes there is inconsistency with many war related stuff. I never understood the need to squish differences between people. I have been watching some more shows made in different companies and realizing the normality mentioned in this thread in them. Like similar fashion and hairstyles. Kind of noticing it with the Sims too. Interesting how trends seem to spread worldwide.

It's a diverse crowd, but right now, and I feel my profile pic giving me *that* look, no blue or green people. I tend to deny darker skintones blonde hair, except if it's supposed to come out of a bottle or it's supposed to be one of those 80's relics that used to believe that there is no such thing like too much solarium. Some of my darker sims have broader noses and fuller lips, and some of my - middle-eastern?- sims had stronger noses as well, and I did that on purpose, which is probably what you are asking for. In the beginning I had a lot of stereotypes running around, gingers with green eyes who had irish names and blondes with blue eyes with nordic names. Thinking about it, there might have been a slight over-representation of red-haired hunks. And I guess there was a lot more chesthair than you see on your average trip to the beach.


No.


I found myself giving out the "bro" trait an awful lot to black people. I didn't even think about it. Blonde people someone ended up becoming family people, and the aforementioned red-haired hunks tended to live in the woods. I actually did create some additional sims just to even that out.



I hope you got something out of it. I think the results could be interesting, and I never really thought about the implications up until now, so I got something out of it as well. Maybe you should include gender issues as well, there aren't a lot of games where that field is represented in any way.

1) Yes. No.
2) No. No.
3) No. No.

To me, an ethnicity is just a descriptor of physical appearance, not an indicator personality or lifestyle (in real life, too, but especially in a game like the Sims).

"Cultural appropriation" is, to me, an entirely idiotic concept; a culture loses nothing when someone outside the culture eats its traditional meals, wears its traditional clothes, etc. (even when done badly).

There's really no such thing as an "unauthentic" Sim. Anyone of any race can have any personality and, especially with the growing prevalence of bi-racial marriages, skin colour does not have to correlate to other physical or facial features. Virtually any Sim you make (aside from Sims with, say, green skin) could very well be a real person. Aside from that, all my Sim families end up being very similar (and none of them are realistic). They spend as much time as possible building skills, always get perfect grades, always reach the top of their careers, always are at peak fitness, virtually never get a divorce, have completely happy families, rarely do anything unproductive, etc., but no one is/has all of those things in reality.

I'm not going to make this into a WWII thread. The way that war developed was alot about domination and what Germany needed. They needed icefree harbors which Norway has in abundance, we also have a very long coastal border with the British. I know they consider themselves a borderless country, but in a war on water and in the air that's not the case. Norway has a long long long coast and it all faces Britain and the open athlantic ocean.

It's been said it was just a lucky draw we ended up on the allied side when the nazies occupied us. Both the British and the Nazies was setting out mines in Norwegian fjords.

We have a very long border eith the Swedes as well and they were spared. Mainly because the only thing they had the nazies wanted was iron which they sold them very gladly, and shipped through Norwegian harbors.

When it comes to what you call appropriation, I find it more fun if it doesn't. Like aboroginies in Australia who has light hair and dark skin ... I think. You're probably going to tell me I've got it all wrong though

There are some Aborigines and Melanesians with dark skin and blond hair.

Interesting and nah I wouldn't. I'm not the type of person to have to be right all the time. XD I know I'm wrong a ton of times. I watch some Korean dramas in which they color their hair a lot which is interesting. I guess I'm enjoying diversifying my entertainment to beyond just Hollywood entertainment. I find it fascinating with how diverse the world is. Hopefully I can the chance to travel more someday. When it comes to hair, it is interesting to see what colors people choose like SimGuruDrake's range of color choices. I actually would like to see some more afro hair types in the Sims 4 I think how SimGuruKimmie put it. She said it is more challenging to make, but braids and dreads are easier to do.

Shiiiii, I went as far as putting Turians and Asari in my game lol

Someone once explained to me on here that cultural appropriation is an issue because it takes away from a historically oppressed group of people. And I get that, I do, but I still agree with you, ZenGarden. There are so many things that I still don't really understand. Like, let's say a black woman wears a kimono-inspired shirt. Is that cultural appropriation? At what point do we stop incorporating aspects of different cultures into our lives? Like, is it wrong for me to wear a poncho, since the clothing is traditionally tied to Mexico and Peru? Isn't that more divisive? If a white guy can't wear dreads because it's appropriation, but the black guy can't wear them because it's stereotypical, who gets to wear them? However, as a white woman, I accept that my opinion doesn't really matter on the issue and I try to respect whatever those of different races feel is right.

I guess to answer this post's questions:

I don't really see sims as having different races, considering there are quite a few red-headed black sims and white, blond sims with traditionally Asian facial features. However, while creating my own sims, I try to respect the "rules" to be considerate. I do put the occasional pair of dreads on cyber-goths, though. I usually don't post pictures of my sims, but absolutely stress out over concerns of offending someone. By offending, I mean truly hurting someone or making them feel lesser-than. I don't care if you're just wanting to pick a fight because you can't contain your angst.

I swear, people just argue about cultural appropriation for the hell of it without knowing what it means.

People of one cultural doing something native to another is not appropriation (like the issue of a white peoples wearing dreads).

People of one cultural stealing something from another and claiming it to be their own is cultural approriation.

Stop it y'all.

As an African American I'd just like to speak on the issue of dreads
Dreads are not exclusively a "black thing" it only seems that way because of our grade of hair which is commonly naturally curly, coarse and thick.
We can dread our hair naturally and with methods that are more... sanitary ; u ;
Some white people have curly hair but it doesn't have the "grade" or thickness to actually dread.
The thin soft hair doesn't cut it either which is why some (most XD) black people typically believe white people purposely don't wash their hair so it eventually becomes dry and dirty and easier to, not dread, but mat.
With that being said... most white "dreads" are really just matted hair :/ and I'm trying to say this as objectively and unbiased as I can.

As what has already been explained, cultural appropriation is a thing. No, simply wearing a kimono is not cultural appropriation and some Japanese people encourage it, especially if they're the ones teaching you about it and how to wear it.

Cultural appropriation is when you're literally taking something from another culture and oppressing other people celebrating their own culture. The dread thing was only an example. Dreads are easy to wear in our hair, as are other naturally black hair styles. In some parts of the world, dreads has become a part of their culture. But sometimes in society, people will look at black people with dreads and natural hair styles as bad people, unprofessional, or dirty. They'll then turn around and wear afros, dreads, and other similar hair styles and be praised for creating a 'new look'.

That's not to say other races and ethnicities can't wear these styles. That is not the problem even if some uninformed people say it is. The problem is being stereotyped for your own culture while the ethnicity/race in power can take that same culture and do what they want with it without ramifications. It's not just a stupid thing that people complain about. Only a few decades ago, natural black hair was practically banned. Perm it. Hot comb it. Do something, but you weren't allowed to wear it curly else face even more discrimination. This still persists today. There are schools districts in the US that want to ban afros, dreads, and braids because they're 'distracting', but these rules will probably only apply to people who are black and others will be overlooked.

Cultural appropriation is not something to grab your pitchforks over, but one should be aware of history or why some people in certain ethnicities are still upset or overly sensitive about certain topics. I can speak so much about the hair thing because even if I don't share the intense feelings some others do, I still live the battle of wearing my hair straight, or wearing it curly. My hair isn't quite curly enough to wear an afro, but it would be SO COOL to try it someday. And yet, I still feel the pressure not to. Don't brush it off because you don't get it. Read, try to understand, and just be aware.

But despite all this, I still think it doesn't matter much with the sims.

I confess to matching hair types to skin-tones when creating darker Sims, but I'm not a Simmer who regularly uses CAS beyond the initial set-up of a household. I don't necessarily think about them in terms of real "races" or "cultures", but the City Living bug of producing a ton of Asian- and Arab-style names is twigging me in a little bit more when I send my Sims wandering around the neighbourhoods (not so many Anglo-Saxon type names anymore, and a whole pile of Nakamura/other very Asian names and Al Arabi/other very Arab-style names).

I've created Sims specifically with the idea of having them be "immigrants", and so their names/appearances/dress style will often reflect that.



Like many others have said already, I don't often think about the appropriation of cultural markers/traditions. I find the game doesn't really give you much opportunity for it, when played without mods or extra custom content. Beyond a handful of CAS-related items - which aren't really what cultural appropriation is about in my opinion -, there really isn't much "culture" in the Sims. I define cultural appropriation as things like using sacred or spiritual symbols and objects as arts-and-crafts activities, so my personal views on appropriation lean more towards the spiritual or religious aspects of a culture. Clothing and hairstyle, unless they carry a specific purpose in a wider worldview, don't necessarily fall under the "appropriation" banner in my books. Example: Wearing a hijab or other type of woman's head covering goes through the following "tree"...

• A practicing member of a religion which requires women to cover their hair (Islam, Orthodox branches of Judaism or Christianity, etc.) regardless of their ethnic background?
  Visiting a holy site such as a temple/church/mosque or similar (think Mecca, Vatican City, etc.)?
  Living/traveling in a country which requires it (regardless of the person's own convictions - think of places like Saudi Arabia)?

If all of the above are answered "no", then I find that to be cultural appropriation.

Case in point: as a public elementary school teacher in urban Canada, our school divisions and Education faculties have put a lot of effort into raising awareness of FNMI - First Nations-Metis-Inuit - culture authentically and respectfully within our curricula. Things like referring to traditional dress as a "costume" - use the word regalia instead. One thing I didn't know until a workshop during my teacher training years... Dreamcatchers are considered sacred objects in the Ojibwe culture, meant to protect the person receiving it. Using a dreamcatcher as a cool crafty activity or as nifty decoration can actually be considered quite offensive. (I would imagine similar objections are made to the "God's Eye" weavings in the States?). Many FNMI languages sound "funny-haha" to kids when they don't realize that it's a real language, particularly when it's in a drumming setting, so any lessons I do which include a language base (for example, Social Studies in grade 3/4 where I'm from includes learning the national anthem in one of the local languages of Ojibwe or Cree) include prefacing it with a discussion about how to show respect for others' culture and language.


See question number 1. When I do go into CAS with the expressed intent of creating a particular culture, I try to be authentic - even though I don't tend to upload pictures of them. It's my own personal belief. Trying to authentically portray more precise clothing restrictions will sometimes drive me bonkers (for example, and I'm defaulting to Islam because it's a widely-known practice, trying to create female sims who follow hijab customs is tricky for me because of the restrictions in the types of clothing- a difficult time with finding modest coverage on tops and full body dress without defaulting to CC, and only having one or two suitable bottoms - I'm not even going to get started on the head coverings. I really dislike those turbans as they don't accurately reflect the culture. They may work for some traditional African-style dress, but it's not suitable for a Sim meant to emulate a strict hijab dress code... No, maybe I will get started on the head coverings...)

(in the rant below, I use the word hijab to specifically refer to the headscarf. It can also be used to refer to the whole outfit from head to toe.)

I live in the middle of the Prairies here in Canada. We're 2-3 hours' flight away from any major trans-oceanic international airport. I teach in the largest school division in the city, which encapsulates the inner city, working class AND upper-class regions. I see all manner of Muslim dress standards from a variety of cultures: Syrian, Somali, Sudanese to name a few. I see girls from as young as 5 wearing hijab. I see kids who are dressed in "North American" style, but whose mothers and teenage sisters/aunts/etc. are in hijab. I see mixtures of the above whereby the child may be in hijab, but otherwise dressed in "North American" clothing, or vice versa: that they're dressed in long skirts/dresses and long sleeves to conform to modesty standards, but are not yet wearing hijab. I really, really would like to more accurately portray that wide variety of cultural dress styles in my game. We live in a multi-cultural world, and I like my game to reflect that.

The genetics component of Sims 4 irks me, though - especially when dealing with what would be considered an interracial family. Sims 2 was more faithful to inheritance of genes and features. My S2 families with one light-skinned parent and one dark-skinned parent would more frequently end up with children whose skintones fell somewhere in the middle - the way it typically happens in real life (I'm aware there are real world cases of interracial children with one 'extreme' or the other in their skintone). The S4 coding for genetics seems to have been stripped way back from their S2 days, and recessive traits are getting lost within a generation.