Why I Hate Madonna (If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em :-p )

January 14, 2005

[i posted this once before, back when it first came out, but I can't

find it in the archives now, so here it is again -- for those who are

riding this strange Madonna thread:]

WHY I HATE MADONNA:

Subtle Racisms and the Exotification of My South Asian Self

by Sriya Shrestha

Sitting in NYU classrooms, I am struck by the extremely light, tiptoe

approach students take when it comes to racial issues. They strain to

make sure they leave only tiny marks behind, nothing to offend

anyone. Nothing can be said, no generalizations can be made, because

that would be prejudiced, stereotypical and negative.

Yet in taking these painfully planned baby steps, most manage to be

grossly ignorant, racist and ridiculous - usually without even

noticing. Still, everyone continues to strain for those tiny steps.

During a small group discussion on everyday racism in my South Asian

diaspora class, my classmates were constantly qualifying their

statements: "Not all [blanks] do this, of course, just some." When I

mentioned that I am often exotified, seen with disgusting oriental

fantasies by white men, and never Asian men, my white male groupmate

delicately reminded me I was on the verge of making a gross

generalization. I replied that it was not a generalization; it was

the truth. But wait, I was reminded, you don't want to say that all

white men would look at you like that and that no Asian men would.

That is true; I did not want to say that, and I hadn't.

What I think my concerned classmate was doing was simply mentioning

that some - not him necessarily - may think I was being a reverse-

racist. And I believe this same deep-seated white fear of reverse

racism fueled the sudden, fierce anger expressed by some white (or

should I call them Caucasian?) students during a later discussion at

the idea that perhaps there was something slightly more offensive

about Madonna wearing a bindi, sari and henna then there was about

her donning and defaming the Catholic cross. White kids think the

same rules apply to them, about what can be said and what can't, and

in my experience many students of color feel the same way. Nearly

everyone at NYU shudders at the thought of offending anyone, but what

they lack is actual knowledge of what is offensive, how and why.

Rather, they attempt to be politically correct, using terms like

African-American and Hispanic, but still managing to claim that a

black student has the same benefits as a white one if they both come

from an elite private school or that Latino immigrant workers should

be grateful for the low-wage, exploitative jobs they find in the

United States. These PC pushers still manage to be out of touch with

reality, out of touch with what racism, sexism, heterosexism and

prejudice really is.

They do not understand that a history exists that makes Madonna's

flippant, fleeting usage of South Asian-Hindu fashion and culture a

bit offensive. A history in which we have been the source of the

West's stories of mystery, enchantment, oddity and the exotic. We

have always been trinkets and charming tales. We are brass pots and

spiritual men who can float; and tongue-tickling spices and thick,

luxurious rugs; and skinny, starvation-swelled bellies standing in a

brown mass waiting to be saved by British food and religion. We are

the women who, due to a lack of a strong Western-style feminism,

starve, suffocate and drown our baby girls for not being baby boys.

We are anything but human.

And now, many years after British colonialism, in a global market run

by U.S. imperialism, we are once again remembered by our trinkets.

While South Asian women remain invisible in U.S. pop culture, they

are now seen painted on Madonna's hands, glittering on her forehead,

wrapped around her personal-trainer-trimmed white body. We are her

toys, her fashion, her flavor of the month. We are alternative

lifestyles full of spirituality, meditation, incense, homeopathy and

relaxation. We are frozen samosas and TV-dinner channa masala at the

local grocery and iced chai lattes at Starbucks.

And suddenly now we are also frightening, fiendish and dangerous. We

are fearing for our lives and livelihoods because we have been

transformed from trinkets to terrorists. Our foreignness has become

less charming and increasingly frightening. And Madonna's phase of

wearing us on her body has only made it easier for us to be targeted.

She reduced us, or reinforced an already existing reduction, to

inhuman, fashionable baubles. And it is not difficult to stop giving

visas to a bindi or a set of gold bangles. Nobody has qualms about

jumping or shooting several yards of rich, luxurious silk. Who would

mind throwing thousands of Buddha, Shiva and Laxmi print T-shirts

into detention camps without explanation or lawyers? After all, ultra-

fashionable tops do not need legal representation.

So I think that when Madonna stretches the boundaries of Catholicism,

uses a cross to criticize the racist, white supremacy and

puritanical, sexually-repressive aspects of her religion, it is quite

different than her playing dress-up with a culture that no one owns,

but that she can still certainly exploit. I'm sure if she had not

already dropped South Asian for Americana, she would have rapidly

done so after Sept. 11, 2001. Or maybe her desire not to blend in

with the post-Sept. 11 barrage of red, white and blue pasted across

everyone and everything explains her recent switch to a Che Guevara

style pseudo-revolutionary. We all know how she likes to be

different, cutting-edge. I bet my grandmothers would be pleased to

know that, a few years ago, they beat the world's most popular, trend-

setting pop diva to the fashion finish line.

SOURCE: Washington Square News, NYC

URL: http://washingtonsquarenews.com/brownstone/identity/6429.html

January 14, 2005

Namaste DB,

I'm really not sure about the point of this article. Why would it be less

offensive that

Madonna made crucifixes into props than when she made saris into props?

And I really don't believe in "reverse racism" racism is racism, period.

Overall, I think that there is a real problem with the fact that the consumer

culture in the

U.S. is blind and unthinking. We insist on one language, we gun down brown

people that

we mistake for other brown people...etc etc. We don't take responsibility for

our effects on

the world and we don't make it profitable for the media to feed us anything but

candy.

The venom that is being spewed out at the female pop idols that are at the front

of this

makes no sense to me. Why isn't there a thread about Rupert Murdoch?

To me, attacking the symptom is just another way of refusing to recognize the

real

problem.

Blessings,

pr

, "Devi Bhakta" <devi_bhakta> wrote:

>

> [i posted this once before, back when it first came out, but I can't

> find it in the archives now, so here it is again -- for those who are

> riding this strange Madonna thread:]

>

> WHY I HATE MADONNA:

> Subtle Racisms and the Exotification of My South Asian Self

>

> by Sriya Shrestha

>

> Sitting in NYU classrooms, I am struck by the extremely light, tiptoe

> approach students take when it comes to racial issues. They strain to

> make sure they leave only tiny marks behind, nothing to offend

> anyone. Nothing can be said, no generalizations can be made, because

> that would be prejudiced, stereotypical and negative.

>

> Yet in taking these painfully planned baby steps, most manage to be

> grossly ignorant, racist and ridiculous - usually without even

> noticing. Still, everyone continues to strain for those tiny steps.

> During a small group discussion on everyday racism in my South Asian

> diaspora class, my classmates were constantly qualifying their

> statements: "Not all [blanks] do this, of course, just some." When I

> mentioned that I am often exotified, seen with disgusting oriental

> fantasies by white men, and never Asian men, my white male groupmate

> delicately reminded me I was on the verge of making a gross

> generalization. I replied that it was not a generalization; it was

> the truth. But wait, I was reminded, you don't want to say that all

> white men would look at you like that and that no Asian men would.

> That is true; I did not want to say that, and I hadn't.

>

> What I think my concerned classmate was doing was simply mentioning

> that some - not him necessarily - may think I was being a reverse-

> racist. And I believe this same deep-seated white fear of reverse

> racism fueled the sudden, fierce anger expressed by some white (or

> should I call them Caucasian?) students during a later discussion at

> the idea that perhaps there was something slightly more offensive

> about Madonna wearing a bindi, sari and henna then there was about

> her donning and defaming the Catholic cross. White kids think the

> same rules apply to them, about what can be said and what can't, and

> in my experience many students of color feel the same way. Nearly

> everyone at NYU shudders at the thought of offending anyone, but what

> they lack is actual knowledge of what is offensive, how and why.

> Rather, they attempt to be politically correct, using terms like

> African-American and Hispanic, but still managing to claim that a

> black student has the same benefits as a white one if they both come

> from an elite private school or that Latino immigrant workers should

> be grateful for the low-wage, exploitative jobs they find in the

> United States. These PC pushers still manage to be out of touch with

> reality, out of touch with what racism, sexism, heterosexism and

> prejudice really is.

>

> They do not understand that a history exists that makes Madonna's

> flippant, fleeting usage of South Asian-Hindu fashion and culture a

> bit offensive. A history in which we have been the source of the

> West's stories of mystery, enchantment, oddity and the exotic. We

> have always been trinkets and charming tales. We are brass pots and

> spiritual men who can float; and tongue-tickling spices and thick,

> luxurious rugs; and skinny, starvation-swelled bellies standing in a

> brown mass waiting to be saved by British food and religion. We are

> the women who, due to a lack of a strong Western-style feminism,

> starve, suffocate and drown our baby girls for not being baby boys.

> We are anything but human.

>

> And now, many years after British colonialism, in a global market run

> by U.S. imperialism, we are once again remembered by our trinkets.

> While South Asian women remain invisible in U.S. pop culture, they

> are now seen painted on Madonna's hands, glittering on her forehead,

> wrapped around her personal-trainer-trimmed white body. We are her

> toys, her fashion, her flavor of the month. We are alternative

> lifestyles full of spirituality, meditation, incense, homeopathy and

> relaxation. We are frozen samosas and TV-dinner channa masala at the

> local grocery and iced chai lattes at Starbucks.

>

> And suddenly now we are also frightening, fiendish and dangerous. We

> are fearing for our lives and livelihoods because we have been

> transformed from trinkets to terrorists. Our foreignness has become

> less charming and increasingly frightening. And Madonna's phase of

> wearing us on her body has only made it easier for us to be targeted.

> She reduced us, or reinforced an already existing reduction, to

> inhuman, fashionable baubles. And it is not difficult to stop giving

> visas to a bindi or a set of gold bangles. Nobody has qualms about

> jumping or shooting several yards of rich, luxurious silk. Who would

> mind throwing thousands of Buddha, Shiva and Laxmi print T-shirts

> into detention camps without explanation or lawyers? After all, ultra-

> fashionable tops do not need legal representation.

>

> So I think that when Madonna stretches the boundaries of Catholicism,

> uses a cross to criticize the racist, white supremacy and

> puritanical, sexually-repressive aspects of her religion, it is quite

> different than her playing dress-up with a culture that no one owns,

> but that she can still certainly exploit. I'm sure if she had not

> already dropped South Asian for Americana, she would have rapidly

> done so after Sept. 11, 2001. Or maybe her desire not to blend in

> with the post-Sept. 11 barrage of red, white and blue pasted across

> everyone and everything explains her recent switch to a Che Guevara

> style pseudo-revolutionary. We all know how she likes to be

> different, cutting-edge. I bet my grandmothers would be pleased to

> know that, a few years ago, they beat the world's most popular, trend-

> setting pop diva to the fashion finish line.

>

> SOURCE: Washington Square News, NYC

> URL: http://washingtonsquarenews.com/brownstone/identity/6429.html

January 14, 2005

may I add one line in reply?

I faced racism at its worst in the first year of 21st Century; there was a code

of silence in the press and BBC and CNN except for casual references and i faced

and won at great personal and financial loss.

So I know what it is.

prainbow61 <paulie-rainbow wrote: