CultureBomb: Why Your White Fragility Can’t Handle Beyoncé RECLAIMING an Appropriated Style

So, you got on the internet today, probably stirred up some noise like Marvin or Piers Morgan, whining about Beyoncé “culturally appropriating” Marilyn Monroe in a Levi’s ad.

That’s cute. Real cute. Except it’s wrong, historically illiterate, and frankly, laughable.

Here’s your first culturebomb: Marilyn Monroe herself openly admitted that her signature blonde curls, sultry red lips, and that iconic pose were lifted straight from Black women like Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Yes, the very same Black women whose style and swagger built the foundation for what you call “glamour” today.

You say “cultural appropriation” like it’s some crime Beyoncé committed. Nah. Cultural appropriation is when you take from a marginalized culture without acknowledgment.

Monroe wasn’t a culture. She was an individual borrowing from Black women—who rarely got their credit.

Beyoncé? She’s reclaiming a legacy long stolen and forgotten.

Let that be your second culturebomb.

Now, let’s get something else straight: The blonde curls, the red lips, the sultry gaze—they didn’t start with Marilyn Monroe, either.

They existed across centuries, from Renaissance paintings to Hollywood’s earliest stars, and far beyond into multiple cultures and eras.

So Beyoncé slipping into that aesthetic is neither shocking nor “appropriation.”

It’s an homage to a style that Black women pioneered and popularized but never got the spotlight for.

Now, let’s talk about this idea that this Beyoncé ad is a “rebuttal” to Sidney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad.

News flash: Sidney’s ad literally bragged about “better genes” and “good genes.” Beyoncé’s ad?

No gene talk. No one is saying Beyoncé’s jeans fit better because of her genes.

You’re projecting because you can’t handle the narrative.

Here’s a third culturebomb for you: Y’all are so obsessed with policing Black women’s bodies—hair, lips, hips, curves—that you literally invent lies to rationalize your discomfort.

That’s not about jeans or ads. That’s about control.

Then This dude wants to start bitchin…paaalease

The Long History of White Cultural Theft

If you want receipts, here’s the culturebomb truth laid bare: White America—and frankly, much of the Western world—has built its pop culture on the backs of Black creators.

Elvis Presley? The “King of Rock and Roll”? He built his entire career stealing riffs, beats, and styles from Black artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. No credit given. Just royalties flowing upward.

Miley Cyrus? Suddenly “twerking” in a way Black women had been doing for decades, then acting shocked when folks call it out.

Iggy Azalea? A white Australian who built her rap career using the cadence, slang, and style of Southern Black culture, often with little respect or acknowledgment.

The music industry’s history reads like a culturebomb — Black innovation exploited, commodified, then repackaged for white audiences who act like they invented it.

And that’s just music.

Style, Hair, and Body: The Ultimate Borrowed Aesthetic

You ever notice how Black women’s beauty standards—full lips, high cheekbones, curves that don’t quit, rich complexions—are fetishized, mimicked, and repackaged as “exotic” or “new” by white influencers?

Think about this:

• Lip fillers making “full lips” the trend, when Black women have rocked them naturally forever.

• Hair braids, cornrows, box braids — suddenly “festival hair” or “boho style” when white celebrities sport them.

• Tan skin, curves, and “hourglass” figures celebrated on white celebrities who then get credited with “good genes” or “fitness dedication.”

This is not cultural exchange. This is erasure dressed as admiration.

The true culturebomb is that white beauty “standards” are nearly non-existent without borrowing from Black aesthetics.

The Myth of White Originality: A Grand CultureBomb

Here’s the kicker: White culture, especially “Western” culture, has almost nothing original. The myth that it does? Pure propaganda.

You want a history lesson? Let’s drop a culturebomb:

• European Renaissance art was heavily inspired by Islamic and North African artists.

• The “democracy” and “law” systems you brag about trace back to Ancient Greece — itself borrowing from Egyptian and Phoenician ideas.

• Your so-called “Western cuisine” incorporates African, Indigenous, and Asian foods repackaged and sanitized for mass consumption.

• Music genres like country, jazz, blues, hip-hop, and R&B? Entirely Black creations adapted by white artists and industries for profit.

• Fashion staples like jeans? Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant, popularized denim, but the workwear was modeled after durable styles used globally, including by Black laborers.

You live in a house built from borrowed bricks.

Every pillar of “white culture” has a Black or non-white origin story. If you want to understand appropriation, start here.

Why Policing Beyoncé Is Really About Fear

You’re not mad about jeans or blonde curls. You’re terrified.

Black women have always been targets of cultural policing because our beauty, style, and expression threaten the “norms” white supremacy holds sacred.

You saw Beyoncé, a Black woman, reclaim a look inspired by Black pioneers and popularized by Marilyn Monroe, and you flipped. Why?

Because it disrupts your neat boxes of culture and race.

Your obsession with policing Black women’s hair, lips, hips, and curves exposes your insecurity.

It’s a culturebomb — a loud, undeniable signal that you fear Black excellence, creativity, and freedom.

The Final CultureBomb: Know Your History Before You Police Black Women

So, before you hop on Twitter or TV and start accusing Beyoncé of “cultural appropriation,” do yourself a favor.

Read some history. Watch some documentaries.

Listen to Black women who have always been at the root of what you think is “white” culture.

Marilyn Monroe borrowed from Black women.

Beyoncé is reclaiming that heritage. White culture? Mostly borrowed, repackaged, and sold back to you.

When you try to police Black women’s style, you’re not defending culture—you’re fighting against a culturebomb that threatens your comfort and control.

Remember that the next time you talk about “appropriation.” Because the real crime is the cultural amnesia you’re displaying.

Beyoncé isn’t stealing. She’s rewriting the story. And that is the biggest culturebomb of all.