The costume is a reminder that Native Hawaiians were forced to conform to an imperialist colonial society, and Hawaiian women were sexualized for Western entertainment. More than a century of exploitation of Native Hawaiian culture for the visitor industry feels impossible to reverse, and the sexualization of Hawaiian women is one shameful aspect of it. The whole arrangement and process of their old hulas were designed to promote lasciviousness, and of course the practice of them could not flourish in modest communities,” Bingham wrote. As Native Hawaiians were silenced, Hawaii was being molded into a marketing campaign that created a fictional paradise appealing enough for travelers to cross the Pacific to see. “What better way to sell Hawaii than with a scantily clad Hawaiian woman waiting to welcome you,” I’m sure must have crossed someone’s lips, because magazines, newspapers and advertisements in the early 20th century were flooded with images of hula girls. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Native Hawaiians were able to reclaim their identity and differentiate it from the tourism-born one that had spread rampant around the world. In 1964, the hula competition Merrie Monarch Festival was founded, and 1970 brought a strong cultural movement, the Second Hawaiian Renaissance, that sparked renewed interest in the Hawaiian language and other customs.

It wasn’t until King Kalakaua reigned in 1883 that there was a public revival of hula, known as the First Hawaiian Renaissance, and other practices returned. But that didn’t last long. Under the influence of the missionaries, Queen Regent Kaahumanu abolished traditional practices, including public performances of hula, in 1830. Instead, it was practiced in private settings among families who refused to let the traditions die.The hula girl craze exploded as Hawaii became the aspirational place to be. This was soon followed in California by tiki culture – another fantasy world created by turning Hawaii and other Pacific Island nations’ cultural elements into kitsch. Hula became a commodity and opportunists cashed in, creating a cast of dancers to perform in the U.S. and Europe. Some promoters hired white burlesque dancers in the states to portray exotic erotic entertainment without a care that the movements were not at all hula. Traditional Hawaiian hula skirts were made of ti leaves or kapa (bark cloth), and women were typically topless. The women’s nudity scandalized Western visitors and colonizers. Hiram Bingham, the leader of the first group of Protestant missionaries to Hawaii, arrived in 1820 and described Native Hawaiians as “naked savages,” having an appearance of “destitution, degradation, and barbarism” in his journal. He believed hula was a sexual perversion and waste of time. When the Hawaiian government was overthrown in 1893, its queen was imprisoned, and then Hawaii was annexed to the United States in 1898, cultural practices and customs, such as hula, were suppressed once again as the people were pushed toward Americanization. The Hawaiian language was also banned in schools at a time when Hawaii was one of the most literate nations.