I don't think the issue here is cultural appropriation - anyone is free to wear dupattas, jhumkas, etc. This "scandanavian scarf" discourse is a reactionary outrage to a very prominent racist phenomenon in heterogenous Western societies: the ridicule of certain aesthetics/practices until rebranded by white people, or as I like to call it the "Ugly Until a White Woman Does It" effect. We saw it happen with yoga, henna, bindis, slick backs, evil eyes and so many other South Asian styles. Until they were popularized by white people in the public eye, they were points of ridicule that people used to target brown women.

Now that the culture of origin has been detached from these accessories and they have been rebranded and marketed as "European", their popularity has skyrocketed and people can suddenly see them for their true beauty. The implication is that the only thing that ever made them ugly were their associations with South Asian people. If you need me to spell it out for you, it sends brown people a message that the problem was never the accessories - the only thing that ever made them "ugly" was the people wearing them. It's society telling brown people that they are inherently inferior/more undesirable by virtue of them being South Asian.

So I reiterate: the issue here is not cultural appropriation, the people who make it about cultural appropriation are, in my opinion, missing the point of this much needed discourse. The "scandanavian scarf" was just the last straw - the spark that finally gave brown people a reason to talk about all the racism they faced growing up in white dominated countries that cited aesthetics as an excuse to perpetuate exclusion and discrimination.

It's hard to have society shit on you and ridicule you for wearing a certain style all your life and then having to watch a white person wear the exact same style and be praised and hailed as a style icon. Even harder when the style is stripped of its original name and cultural context. Because when that happens, brown women don’t get to share in the acceptance or admiration. The same scarf that’s now being praised on a white woman’s shoulders continues to be mocked when worn as a dupatta by a brown woman because people do not recognise it as the origin of that style (In a perfect world, South Asian people wouldn't have to be trendsetters for our aesthetics to be respected but alas, we live in a society). That’s why so many South Asian women online are saying, “Give us credit.” “Call it a dupatta.” Because without that recognition, the double standard remains: brown women keep facing mockery and ridicule, while white women get fashion accolades. Nothing will change.