Cultural theming does not need to be exploitative

Theming a venue or area does not need to be exploitative, hurtful, or bad cultural appropriation.

While this isn’t a revolutionary conclusion, it seems that the idea of theming often carries this negative association.

To do proper theming without effects likely involves more artistic creativity and cultural awareness.

For example, it seems possible to make tiki bars without playing on negative ideas of “exotic” cultures (I think there was one in SF that was pretty good, has a “night sky” ceiling lighting).

Apparently, tiki bars were originally a sexualized escapism, seemingly a negative cultural appropriation. It appears that there is an ability to move away from over-simplification and harmful representation in that regard.