This evokes the question of cultural appropriation, as many Hollywood celebrities Vanessa Hudgens, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez have began wearing the bindi as a fashion statement. While some individuals with traditional bindi-wearing cultures criticize this act, there are others who view it simply as an attempt to embrace Indian culture.
My belief is this: if you turn up to Coachella with a jeweled bindi on your forehead along with a profound knowledge about the religious and cultural meaning behind the ornament, then by all means, go flaunt that bindi! As proven, the bindi is more than just a red dot. Wearing a bindi is an act of resistance, particularly at a time when the Trump administration regularly enforces xenophobic policies and violent right-wingers target immigrant communities.
In South Asia, bindis have a rich, complex history. Traditionally, married Hindu women have worn it to proclaim their marital status. According to Hindu beliefs, the forehead is considered the third eye and it keeps bad luck away. While the bindi carries loads of religious, spiritual and even physical significance, for me, it's a connection to my childhood. It reminds me of watching my mother get ready every day, taking great care to complete each step of her extensive beauty routine: fixing her hair, moisturizing her skin, and then at the end reaching into her bindi box and adding that final touch.
I was mesmerized by the process as a little girl and when I first wore a bindi, an image of my mother was foremost in my mind. Like most South Asians in the diaspora, I grew up wearing decorative sticker bindis as a cultural fashion statement: an accessory to wear at parties, weddings, and family functions.
At first, I asked my Mom for a pack of her Bindis, but eventually, I started buying my own. Generally, there is a practice of wearing a red bindi in married women.
A red bindi is worn in order to make people understand that they are married. In India, the widows do not wear a bindi, however, there is a tradition of wearing a black bindi among widows.
For widows, black bindis signify a loss. The young girls can wear bindi of any colour and shape. In Hindu culture, Bindi plays a very significant role. Generally, every morning after taking a bath, a Hindu sits down to pray in front of God. He tries to find absolute truth and peace through his prayer. Also, it should be kept in mind that a person cannot sit in prayer throughout the entire day. As soon as you leave the room, you should mark your forehead with some mark, so that it reminds you about the activities that you have performed throughout the day.
The purpose of doing this is to the achieve the goal and self-realisation in life. In our society, there exists a concept of categorization or tagging people in groups.
Bindi performed the same function too. In order to keep the unmarried girls safe and away from danger, they were made to wear a black bindi. A married woman usually wore a red bindi. The four different castes wore tilaks of different colours although this was practised in very conservative families.
Generally, we wear the bindi in between our two eyebrows. Even if we do not agree with what someone believes in, we must always respect it. I hope that the people who are complaining about this article do understand this, and be more supportive towards the whole cultural appropriation idea. Tired of all the crybabies with no right to tell people what to do. Including the ignorant, the bad mannered or disrespectful … like the author of this ridiculousness.
Why is a muslim woman getting angry about bindis? One would say she is appropriating an issue that has nothing to do with her: what right does she have to appoint herself the moral guardian of Hindu culture? As a Black female I can relate. When I wear my natural hair in braids, of wrap my hair.
I am questioned. Shamed And ridiculed. But let a celebrity do it. I can completely relate. I am Dutch and Southeast Asian. Yeah, that means my skin is very pale. But I enjoy bindis and their association with the Third Eye and warding off bad luck. I do not want to offend anyone by wearing them. I am torn between wearing them nearly daily or not at all because of the comments I may get from those who believe I am too light skinned. It frustrates me very much because I am interested in my heritage and feel it is my right.
Any advice would be appreciated. Wear your bindi. I am completely Caucasian, and I truly love and respect the Hindu culture. I am married and meditate daily, I wear a bindi daily to represent my marriage and my third eye. I too get strange looks all the time for it, I live in a small country town where it is not accepted. However, I still believe it is essential for me to wear one. I completely understand where the author is coming from, but there has to be exceptions.
Just as I also wear a pair of deer hide moccasins an old fiend made for me in the winter. There are good and bad people of this world. My skin is also very fair, however I have always respected my Indian heritage. I have my left nostril pierced only after careful research, for my union. Many people have the nostril piercing for fashion but i wear mine without fashion in mind, it is a symbol.
I am very intrigued with body modification, and am planning my bindi implant. I know I will get a lot of comments. I like honoring heritage and religion. I choose to where my bindi on my fair skin with my head held high. I guess the author of this article must hate George Harrison. He also used his platform as a celebrity to organize the Concert for Bangladesh. I wear what I want and think everyone else should.. Let people live and enjoy each others ways , foods, spirit ,and so on..
I have a question. I would like to wear bindis as a representation of my third eye and for luck. Would it be offensive if I were to wear a bindi?
I ask because I would hate to offend a culture that I have tons of respect for. I feel you have every right being that 1 parent is South Asian.
I am not, but I am Hindu. I have been wearing different types of bindis lately. Such as the crystal beaded ones, the different colored felt ones and just kumkum. I get stared at, especially by children and a few times I have been laughed at by teen girls.
This just shows the ignorance and lack of knowledge people have. I am half Indian and half Norweigian, and I feel like im on both sides of this argument and can take neither. My grandmother have me bindis as a child and told dm there were a symbol of beauty and good luck. Ivd with them all my life since a young age. Because I look mostly white. I wear Bindis for cutural and spiritual purposes.
Bindis also can be found in ancient Kemet aka egypt. There is a lot of history not being added in the article and how or where the Bindi originated. Western existence is based on taking everything from non westerners and ideolizing it for profit!!!!!!!
Westerners have been developing and progressing the world for the past few centuries. Khem you are correct and hit the nail right on. I was thinking that the Bindis was also worn in Egypt. I am hindu. I am christian and I dont say people who wear clothing or jewelry with a cross on them appropriating my religion even though i always use the sign if the cross for things on a daily basis.
Excuse me? Please do your research before this. Hindu is a religion not a culture. Easily offended and easily judging people! Overall you seem very uptight, judgemental and ignorant. Hi, I have a few questions here. I just want to see if my use of a bindi would be considered cultural appropriation. So I was born into a Christian family, but did not practice the religion at all, in fact I spent more time studying my dreams and connecting with nature.
I studied the chakras, astral projection, and meditation. I felt connected to Hinduism, but also connected to other religions, cultures and philosophies. Many of them share the same morals, and those I live by. I have actually had dreams where Ganesh and Saraswati appeared in them, and Green Tara.
Dance is my main form of meditation, and I study classical Indian and belly dance. When I wear a bindi, it is for a performance, for a song that has deep spiritual meaning.
When I do counselling, I wear a bindi, and also during moon ceremonies. So I would like to know if this is offensive? I know what a bindi is.
I am white. We are all citizens of this planet, this time around. While my culture is not South Asian this time around, I know that I have had at least one lifetime as an Indian man as I had a spontaneous regression. I believe in reincarnation, and I believe that we will be a part of many different cultures and both sexes, throughout our lifetimes on Earth. It goes both ways. I will be sensitive to you, but to say that marking the forehead belongs to only your group, is xenophobic.
No one says you have to live in Asia to be a certain religion, so why do you have to live in India to be hindu. I love my country. I alone genetically share DNA with people from approx 15 different countries. As a result of my ancestors migration to this country which is made up of many many different cultures I do not have just one influence or tradition. Those who come here from other places need to be informed this is a new birth of a nation.
We all bring something to the table and a new culture will arise in time. Anyone can be any religion they want, but people are born into a culture. There is a difference between religion and culture! I know of the Penal gland the third eye also the culture I am white. Am I being disrespectful? Fantastic article. It annoys me to see my religion being turned into a fashion statement. But when I see groups of girls my age wearing them, it just makes me cringe. If anything, as a Hindu I would welcome anybody who embraces my culture.
I think its funny that this article was written by a muslim, a culture where the bindi is forbidden. I love wearing my bindi because I feel it connects me to the women in my family, my grandmothers and ancestors. It certainly makes me feel LESS self-conscious and more free to express my religion and heritage in america. Lol yes I totally agree with u Poornima!! I love u for what u said! My Muslim Fijian Husband and I laughed at this article!! You stole the words right out of my mouth! U go girl!!
Thank you mrs khan, thank god there are some practical and not-tediously-politically-correct people left in the world. Wow, thank you so much for this response.
I personally love India and Indian culture although I am a 17 year-old Mexican-American and currently living in Mexico. I am going to wear a Sari for my high school graduation coming up and I wanted to go full out with the Bindi and henna tattoo, but I had to do my research and know exactly what a Bindi represents before wearing it and that was what brought me here.
I can say I was so discouraged! As a Mexican, I love seeing when people from other cultures wear our typical Mexican dresses and see people wear charro sombreros. Sometimes we are mocked just like all cultures are mocked but I do not condemn these people for being ignorant, it happens. We are all ignorant in one way or another but I am thankful for articles and insights like these. I absolutely love America as a nation its not mine but i think its telling that the people disparaging the article are clearly neither hindu nor indian with the exception of the lady below.
Thanks for breaking it down, I was feeling greatly discouraged by the article. I want to wear a sari for a special event and I wanted to try wearing the Bindi but in no means of disrespect or to ridicule Hindu or Indian culture. I am a white British woman and religious studies student and I have converted to Hinduism. I wear a bindi almost everyday as a symbol of my religion, just like my Grandmother wears a cross as a symbol of her religion. You are Hindu so why would you even ask that????
Also it has nothing to do with color so why even take it there? Are you trying to pick a fight? What about our products and lifestyles? Yet no one cries foul …or worries about it. Appreciation and honor of a culture is a two-way street.
If something in your culture was made fun of in the past, but is now in the positive lime-light, maybe adjust your thinking to the idea that while it may not be what you would like to see, but at least the intent is a positive one? So what if Selena Gomez wears a bindi? Yet no one bats an eye and just moves on with life.
Yes, the Bollywood copy of Hollywood is tacky and embarrassing as hell, but there is a difference between that type of appropriation and a woman wearing a bindi as nothing but a fashion accessory. There is a differnce between a non-Hindu woman wearing a bindi with no understanding of its meaning and significance and Indian women wearing Ralph Lauren and Nine West, as American consumer brands are aggressively marketed around the world and American companies aim for those women to wear their products.
I think this article is a real shame, a lot of western women embrace Hindu culture and incorporate it into their own; the wearing of a bindi as a symbolic representation of their own third eye chakra. It would be nice to think that trend and popular culture could do some good in all of this, an opportunity of creating a familiarity among impressionable people of what a cultural aesthetic represents, I understand that you seem less than impressed by Selena whateverhernameis.
But is the point in harmony among humanity not acceptance? And is this article not just another form of separating us all and making us stand apart rather than being a unit?
I think this argument hypocritical and flawed. This article is absolutely ridiculous. What if a young woman decided to research bindis, knew the significance and as a result decided that she would wear one and fully respected Hindu traditions in doing so.
How would you know that? I have a feeling that you would not bother asking and would be extremely quick to judge. This is just as bad as judging people for wearing any item of clothing.
Lots of fashion items from different cultures are being embraced as the world develops and I would be proud, not bitter. The world is changing. You are talking about someone with an earnest heart and the author is talking about girls who wear it for fun like a shade of lipstick they wipe off at the end of a concert. You should attack the bullies, not people trying to preserve their culture as a culture and not a festival costume.
Wearing a Bindi is not the same as wearing blue jeans or a certain shirt. One is a piece of clothing the other is a symbol of something significant and sacred to their religion.
Given that a number of other cultures throughout history have also worn decorative forehead marks for a variety of reasons, perhaps it would be less offensive if people used a different name? Yes, that was sarcastic. I see the Bindi ridiculed in so much media. There is nothing wrong with it, I completely respect the culture. Western culture is still very dominant in the world today and this unfortunately often leads to mistreatment of minorities so, as a white person and as a decent human being, you need to be more mindful of other cultures.
Your need to wear a bindi as a fashion statement does not outweigh the importance of protecting the sacredness cultural traditions. I been practicing the religion for many years, and so on. I wear the bindi because I am married, and not as a fashion statement. I think people who wear it for kicks, or to be trendy is kind of insulting for people who wear it for the right reasons, and who appreciate the culture, religion, and follow it completely. Not everything needs to be a trend.
It is quite clear that you do not respect the culture. How do you respect their culture? By not saying mean things about them? By not teasing them and calling them names? Sorry, not enough. If you even had an ounce of respect for this culture you would not be wearing a Bindi. Respecting the culture would be doing research on it. Respecting the Hindu philosophy and all it entails and getting a full understanding of what you are wearing and why you are wearing it.
You want to know why? I agree with you. She explained it as a Blessing. I thought it was very gracious and wore it all day with pride. So what if someone from the motherland gifts it to you when not in the motherland and you decide to purchase them from then on out. Is that fine as well? As a non-Indian woman wearing a bindi with a colorful experience of online attacks, I wanted to write about this topic.
Cultural appropriation is a very sensitive subject, many people fear that the deep significance of a tradition or symbol will be lost or misused if others start to use it. The bindi is an iconic South Asian symbol, so should women who do not originate from South Asia be allowed to wear one?
Our world is shrinking, people are mixing, cultures are merging our marriage is one example of that and therefore cultural appropriation is inevitable, but is it always a bad thing? Many think it is. I personally feel we should all attempt to understand and acknowledge the significance of the symbols we adorn ourselves with.
We should learn what our wardrobes represent and assess whether that conflicts with our personal ethos. We should learn the history and try to understand the sacred significance of the things we wear so we are able to respect them.
If we all took more time to understand the cultures of the people who live among us, surely it would go beyond dressing appropriately and dissolve some poisonous prejudices. My experience, as a non-Indian woman married to an Indian man living in India, has been the opposite. On the days I have forgotten to wear a bindi, aunties have offered me a bindi from their handbags, my grandmother-in-law has been deeply hurt and a priest appeared from nowhere whilst I was waiting in a restaurant and poked me between the eyes with a stick covered in Vermillion.
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