#reclaimthebindi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

raat-rani · 1 year

Text

ft/ mom’s dupatta

#bollywood #indian #desi #punjabi #browngirlsgang #dance #kathak #bindi #makeup #girl #browngirl #brown #india #reclaimthebindi #lengha #selfie #takingbackourculture #culture #anarkali #tjmm

80 notes · View notes

majorbaby · 6 days

Text

very very long rant

when i first left tumblr after the porn ban, the sjw stuff was starting to plateau, but you still had big bloggers ironically calling themselves misandrists in bio. I say ironically because unlike an open misogynist, an open misandrist cannot amass vast structural power, they instead will remain on the fringes of society. before they can even be shunned in the mainstream or the elite, they're being shunned by their own peers.

at that time, there was a lot of popular blogs run by (sometimes allegedly) racialized people or "poc-run spaces" like thisisnot[country] and blogs specifically dedicated to pointing out cultural appropriation. i personally contributed to the reclaimthebindi which in retrospect seemed inspired by blackout selfie day (not to be confused with thr subsequent 'blackout' posts associated with BLM - that was later), altho idk to what extent the south asian diasporic community (of which i am a part of) actually paid homage to the black blogger/s responsible for blackout day.

now many of those blogs are defunct or have been scrubbed from level-one searches of tumblr, and their history has not been well documented. it's hard to understand what the climate was unless you were there because not many secondary sources, like the one you're reading right now i suppose, exist. or they weren't well-circulated. this one won't be, i'm turning off reblogs i think.

this is, in my opinion, in contrast to other major trends in internet culture that inform offline social justice movements. that's your gxmxrgxte (so well-ingrained in my memory that it still upsets me enough to censor today), metoo and the annual around ao3's right to host any and all content with very limited few exceptions.

reclaimthebindi is still up, so are a few of the thisisnot blogs, but you can't really tell that they were all interconnected, a part of the same zeitgeist. i have a few theories as to why, and which one you pick depends on how generous you are when imagining the people who ran these blogs. some of them for sure were run by bored college students seeking an outlet. some of them were denied recognition by their offline peers because of racism, so it felt good to find a space where they could actually amass social capital on the basis of the very thing that disadvantaged them in every other space. some were concerned with punitive justice, others with restorative justice. some just posted black and brown bodies so that those images would exist on the internet somewhere. some were run by racefacing white people who also felt like outcasts offline, and saw a quick and easy way to be embraced elsewhere. it's possible that some people did it for a combination of these reasons.

whatever benefits there may have been, it wasn't enough to keep the momentum going. very few put out 'retirement' statements, most just stopped posting and were eventually purged. tbh, i see the draw in airing your grievances all in one place, but it's exhausting, and eventually your supporters grow tired of the negativity, and you grow tired of the negativity too. that's why i think it's usually better to stick to posting and sharing the stuff you love, not the stuff you hate, or at least, find a balance. though their presence is much, much smaller, creator networks for women, lgtbq, and racialized people have sprung up, and so have spaces where people post and repost art that engages with class, race, gender etc.

but it still feels like racialized people have a much quieter voice on tumblr. i have to rely on stumbling upon them naturally, which is next to impossible, especially if you're on tumblr for a small to medium sized fandom, which i think most fandoms are these days. your supermassive fandoms - doctor who, sherlock, kpop, harry potter, the mcu, also no longer dominate the site. i would still say tumblr is the big fandom site, but a lower user count means that the internet's fandom site is smaller than before.

so, less users in general, and any existing minority shrinks. and if we're talking racialized people who are lgtbq, that's an even smaller minority.

this in my opinion has contributed in a major way to the backlash against feminism, the idea that "terfs ruined feminism" with the subtle suggestion that feminism has perhaps failed, or was never really good to begin with, and a laser focus on terfs as the ones responsible as though the mainstream, patriarchal, cis-heteronormative bloc had absolutely nothing to do with it. or the ludicrous idea that terfs are the mainstream, patriarchal cis-heteronormative bloc. two things can be bad, that doesn't mean they're the same thing.

anyway! a big part of the original tumblr feminist movement was not just the "poc run blog" but in the "woc run blog". "poc" was absorbed into BIPOC, and "woc" is a legacy term. your woc were regularly venting about how being a woman of colour means choosing between your race and your gender, putting up with the misogyny of the racialized men in your life who you show up for constantly but who throw you under the bus when the white man asks them how high to jump. now there's white lgbtq bloggers all over the place asking whether you "include black and brown men when you said you say men are trash?" (yes, i absolutely am) and if you ask that question to a room full of white people, they're all going to keep their mouths shut because they don't want to appear racist.

well, white men do not have a monopoly on misogyny. misogyny levied at racialized women by racialized men is a huge intra-community barrier to trying to organize against racism and white supremacy. it is extremely upsetting to see white people suggest that racialized women, lgbtq people and children are not oppressed by the racialized men in their own communities. that we are not survivors of domestic abuse, sexual abuse or that we do not endure oppression under patriarchy in the home, workplace and in society inflicted upon us by our own kin, which compounds upon what we already absorb from white people.

and they can go on doing so on here because many racialized women have shut up and gone away. even running blogs aimed around celebrating themselves has become a service to white consumers that they've done thanklessly for years. just to hear that actually, they have no right to say "men are trash" because what if the brown man that abused them or their mom or their aunties overhears and gets his feelings hurt. didn't we discern the difference between hurt feelings and systemic oppression almost fifteen years ago on tumblr dot com?

like, sure, maybe we should adjust "women only spaces" to be "spaces for women and trans people" but we can do that and not pretend that we have absolutely no idea why women live in fear of men, or that a reasonable amount of fear is completely unwarranted.

man it is one thing to come back here to find all the, admittedly, sometimes kind of annoying sjw blogs around race gone, and another to see a resurgence of popular MRA talking points. but i see how that's happened. racialized women are done talking about this, and who can blame them. white women, and i wish i only meant cis women, get slapped with 'terf' the second they open their mouths, so they are also done talking about this.

if you managed to read all of this please be a little careful when reblogging posts that are critical of feminism. yes, there are a few bad-faith actors within feminism, but feminists in general are a minority group, even if it doesn't feel that way on tumblr. think about it, how long has it been since you saw someone with 'feminist' in bio? is it a good thing to keep facilitating this growing resentment against feminism? has feminism done nothing for us? should we toss it out with the bathwater?

13 notes · View notes

konhomadhu · 2 years

Text

Happy deepavali/ Diwali 🪔 💖🤲🏼

May you all be blessed in this time with health , wealth and happiness 💖💖

#desi aesthetic #desiblr #reclaimthebindi #diwali #diaspora #saree #diwalioutfit #desi academia #indianclothing #indian culture #hinduism

52 notes · View notes

agnistyle · 5 years

Photo

Major mood: not your average ladki 💪🏽 . . The DEVI lehenga is a two piece top and skirt set for the girl who is looking to switch things up! We had a vision of taking art and applying it to traditional South Asian clothing patterns in a way that breaks the standards of everything you’re used to. Imagine a fun, quirky lehenga with illustrated motifs that represent YOU. . . . We’re scraping the heavy embroidery, sequins, floral & paisley prints you’ve seen before, and giving you artwork that looks and feels empowering! We wanted to create something that isn’t for the average girl or event, but rather a piece that makes statements in more ways than one.

SHOP LEHENGA | Instagram | Model

26 notes · View notes

quadraticreciprocity · 5 years

Text

i didnt get tagged in top six of 2018 but u fools did u think that wld stop me

2019 better be good to make up for everything I put up with this year

im tagging: @sierpinskis-assket, @yoongitv, and whoever else wants to do this

insta: @ cupofkaavi

#my face #top six selfies #woc #browngirlsgang #reclaimthebindi #desi #indian #brown girl

44 notes · View notes

kathanisharma · 6 years

Photo

these pics made me feel good and confident ✨

#selfies #browngirlsgang #brown girls gang #bellarke fam #self confidence #medha's face #medhamonologues

246 notes · View notes

urban-artfitters · 6 years

Photo

42 notes · View notes

desimartinis · 6 years

Photo

IG: swetharedddy

#desi girl #Indian Fashion #browngirlsgang #brown #desi #poc #people of color #bindi #rtbw #reclaim the bindi #reclaimthebindi #taking back our culture #takingbackourculture #indian clothes #browngirlparty #browngirlbloggers

71 notes · View notes

astitva-jewels · 2 years

Photo

OM SILVER BINDI.. Anna/Bindu is known as the third eye chakra and is linked to the pineal gland …related to balancing and inner guidance.. Power of OM with healing properties of silver designed specially at our Studio.. Follow for more such creative ideas @astitvaasjewelsstudio #drshellysjewellery #weddingplanner #eventplanner #bindi #bindilove #bindilove❤️ #bindibook #bindibabe #bindis #bindiswag #reclaimthebindi #bindiya #bindicrew #tribalbindi #silverbindi #indibindi #stonebindi #handmadebindi #foreheadjewelry #astitvajewels https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc5dhFeJphe/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

0 notes

kashmirikuri · 5 years

Text

Hello hello are there any South Asian business or shops that you guys love (clothes, candles, jewelry, deodorant???) please hmm or let me know!! and if u own one shout urself out!!!

#desi #reclaimthebindi #browngirlsgang #me #op

1 note · View note

wowsobrown · 6 years

Photo