I want to talk about these two reasons for self-stereotyping, and then consider whether it’s okay for us to do it when, as I mentioned, it can reproduce reductive stereotypes.įirst, I’ll give you a little historical background for all of this. The second reason is we’re working the system to gain some financial advantages from selling or displaying cultural stereotypes. The first is we’re reclaiming our culture with some unfamiliarity and distance from the cultures of our “homelands.”
![reclaime the bindi reclaime the bindi](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cc_xqeqUIAAaSwG.jpg)
There are two main reasons why we might be considered to be culturally appropriating as people of the Asian diaspora. And doing so can further perpetuate limited and harmful conceptions of who we are. Sometimes, reclaiming culture can also mean self-stereotyping. It’s important to work through these struggles by doing things like reclaiming our culture - proving to ourselves and the world that we’re not simple stereotypes, we’re way more complex and beautiful.īut this can get tricky.
![reclaime the bindi reclaime the bindi](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/the-bindi-22963/95/the-bindi-54-728.jpg)
often undermine the emotional consequences of things like microaggressions and cultural identity conflicts, but these problems are definitely significant. Often, we live between multiple cultures and might face all sorts of reductive stereotypes. When I wear a bindi, it represents my resistance to the ways that my South Asian community has policed my gender and claimed that South Asianness is narrow in its possibilities.Īs people of various diasporas - that is, people who have migrated from their homeland(s) for whatever reason - we often struggle with feeling like we don’t belong.
![reclaime the bindi reclaime the bindi](https://imgix.bustle.com/mic/ti61nzms8tsh4lpnflqtp3edgz6aectmkdcpu2lvjo306cwac4kmb74cxdxg8xos.jpg)
Especially because, to me, it isn’t just a decorative symbol. born South Asian, I have found a lot of power in reclaiming the bindi. Colorful illustration of South Asian themes.Īs a U.S.