Is Dreamcatcher’s name actually problematic? - A Thread (plus some ATLA too)

Basically a while back I was curious about the what exactly are dreamcatchers and so I did some research on them. And I found out that they originated from the Ojibwe tribe.

The purpose of dreamcatchers are to protect sleeping people from nightmares and what I found really interesting was that the Ojibwe word for dreamcatcher is asabikeshiinh, which means spider.

Now taking a look at the group Dreamcatcher, us fans know that their entire concept and storyline revolves around nightmares and the SPIDER. This means that HFE did research on the origin of the dreamcatchers before giving the group that name.

People claiming that their name is culture appropriation don’t seem to understand that it’s really not, rather it’s culture appreciation. If HFE debuted Dreamcatcher without their current concept (ie giving them cutesy concepts instead) I think that would be problematic.

But we can see clearly that Dreamcatcher’s concept revolves around the purpose and name origin of dreamcatchers.

On a completely different (or maybe not) note, it’s like saying that Avatar the Last Airbender, one of the most beloved animated shows, is CA.

But why is that ppl don’t call out ATLA when the show doesn’t always accurately portray Japanese, Chinese, Inuit, Tibetan culture(much like how DC cannot fully represent Ojibwe culture)?

Because the show takes those cultures, uses them as inspiration, then adapts them into something else that is freaking cool.

As an asian person, specifically Chinese, I appreciate how the creators learned each culture to make something different yet familiar. And the thought of a Non-asian person calling ATLA CA when I think they really celebrate asian culture, is high key cringe to me.

Now going back to DC, HFE basically did the same thing. HFE didn’t just name DC just because they felt like it, they researched and tried to understand the origin of the dreamcatchers so that they could give DC a concept that was inspired and adapted from the Ojibwe culture.

Of course, there’s no way from DC to completely culturally represent the whole meaning of dreamcatchers, but they never claimed to in the first place!

It should be noted that I’m not a part of this culture, I’m just stating what I think as an outsider, but most ppl who are making this into an issue are also most likely not Ojibwe.

If you’re not Ojibwe, you have no right to claim this to be CA, it really should be up to the ppl of the culture to defend their own, not outsiders defending their culture for them.

People nowadays don’t stop to think critically on whether something is actually CA when in fact it could be culture appropriation. Yet ppl continuously criticize their name.

Idk how many of those ppl watch ATLA and know about DC, but if you like ATLA but want DC to change their name, you’re a close minded hypocrite like just enjoys jumping onto bandwagon and never actually goes out to do your own research