India: Not a Prop Bag

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Trend Alert: The Bindi

Bindis have been gaining popularity across the pond as a style statement and have finally started to creep their way into the wardrobes of fashion forward ladies in the States.

Back in the day, bindis were decorations that signified age, status or religion throughout South Asia, specifically India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Now, bindis are still worn throughout South Asia, but have fallen into a much more light-hearted role.

This is not the first time bindis have become a fashion statement in the western world. Back in the 90′s, Gwen Stefani wouldn’t even leave her house without wearing one — most likely due to her relationship with No Doubt band member Tony Kanal. His family was from India and she became very interested in their culture and fashion. Today, celebs such as Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Madonna have been spotted wearing the bindi.

What do you think of bindis becoming an everyday fashion accessory for the hipster crowd?

By: Amanda Raye of Broke & Chic

Trend Alert: White Hipsters are Assholes!

Reblogged 9 months ago from fashism

122 notes

cultural appropriation,

About India: Not a Prop Bag

I blog about cultural appropriation, south asian politics (mostly Indian and Indian diasporic), racism and obnoxious, voyeuristic photography.

This blog is an attempt to train one of those harsh white Phillips tubelight on all that ugly commodification of people and culture. This blog IS intended to smash white savior-dom in the face until it bleeds, cries and whimpers away. This blog IS intended to shame exotification and neo-colonialist assholery.

Plus I like pretty pictures.

This blog is NOT for India cultural appreciation tourists. Seek your fix for upper-caste, light-skinned Bollywood love elsewhere. This blog is NOT here to showcase the "vibrancy" and "colorfulness" of Indian people. Seek your nonsensical, colonial exotification elsewhere.

This blog is NOT for educational purposes. That takes some effort and no one is paying me to do this. It should go without saying that any opinions here are mine, and does not represent any nation, creed or astrological family.

Please Take Note White Peoples
I will not be answering any questions that are “is this cultural appropriation” or “should I do this, I am worried I am racist!” — type questions. I am sorry. They bore me. If it bothers you that much, you should be able to scroll, link and read, instead of presuming I will take time to write you a reply. There is plenty of stuff on this blog that already answer these questions. And if you still haven’t sought what you are seeking… go to the library, read. Or don’t. Whatever. I do not care about your cultural appropriating soul — I am not your cultural appropriating soul checker. I might post your questions to for crowd-sourced advice though. If I feel like it.

A word on submissions:
I will not post photos that seem personal and submitted without the person-in-photo's consent. I do see a difference between that and a person posting embarrassing photos of themselves on a public platform like tumblr and it gets reblog.

For the purposes of my submission rule, Facebook is not a public platform. So please don't download photos from your facebook feed and submit it to me. I will not post it if it seems like the person doesn't seem to be aware that their picture is spread like that.