I've only recently, say, in the past year or two, been introduced to the concept myself. And I think that nearly everything you've suggested plays into the idea, especially the twee romanticizing, being patronizing, or pretending one is from a culture when one isn't (and when one does that, I think the "misrepresentation" part follows right on its heels.)
Most of the reasonable concerns I've seen voiced or written don't seem to believe that only members of any given culture are allowed to write anything associated with or inspired by that culture.
What they do seem to have concerns with are a) fetishizing a culture, largely in the same pew as romanticizing, only even more skeevy; b) treating an entire culture as "ooo! A new toy that I can use to dress in/write with/borrow from!" without acknowledging that there is a, you know, culture behind those Japanese phrases, indigenous American myths, Indian saris, etc.
I think it boils down to respect or lack thereof. People who make it clear that they've taken the trouble to study the culture from which they are borrowing, or by which they are inspired (hell, if something inspires you, you should take the time to learn a bit about it before you use parts of it); that they've gone to the trouble of asking folks from the culture some respectful questions; people who also make clear that they will take some liberties, but will clearly state what is a liberty, what is an invention and what comes from the culture ... those people are probably less apt to get side-eyed by folks from the culture.
I think it has a lot to do with perception of whether the culture being borrowed from/appropriated/used as inspiration is, in the real world, a marginalized culture or one that has a certain amount of power in this world. The more marginalized a culture, the more apt its members are to feel that they are being dealt with in terms of an unequal balance of power. If you have no power, and you feel as if you're belittled and denigrated every day of your life - and then you watch people come and take one more thing from you, whilst exclaiming over its "cuteness" or "exotic charm", I imagine the urge to kill can get pretty immediate.
no subject
Most of the reasonable concerns I've seen voiced or written don't seem to believe that only members of any given culture are allowed to write anything associated with or inspired by that culture.
What they do seem to have concerns with are a) fetishizing a culture, largely in the same pew as romanticizing, only even more skeevy; b) treating an entire culture as "ooo! A new toy that I can use to dress in/write with/borrow from!" without acknowledging that there is a, you know, culture behind those Japanese phrases, indigenous American myths, Indian saris, etc.
I think it boils down to respect or lack thereof. People who make it clear that they've taken the trouble to study the culture from which they are borrowing, or by which they are inspired (hell, if something inspires you, you should take the time to learn a bit about it before you use parts of it); that they've gone to the trouble of asking folks from the culture some respectful questions; people who also make clear that they will take some liberties, but will clearly state what is a liberty, what is an invention and what comes from the culture ... those people are probably less apt to get side-eyed by folks from the culture.
I think it has a lot to do with perception of whether the culture being borrowed from/appropriated/used as inspiration is, in the real world, a marginalized culture or one that has a certain amount of power in this world. The more marginalized a culture, the more apt its members are to feel that they are being dealt with in terms of an unequal balance of power. If you have no power, and you feel as if you're belittled and denigrated every day of your life - and then you watch people come and take one more thing from you, whilst exclaiming over its "cuteness" or "exotic charm", I imagine the urge to kill can get pretty immediate.