#pottu

Personally, I don’t say bindi at all. I’m South Indian. Many South Indians say pottu. bindi politics did not start with white girls at Coachella. Bindi politics have been around for centuries and is one of the greatest forms of gender-based oppression in our society. I know. I am the daughter of a Hindu widow. And to be a Hindu widow is to be an outcast. To be a daughter of a widow is to share in her shame. Seeing young desi women, mostly high-caste, well off, from privileged families, marching to “reclaim the bindi” is a very triggering experience for me. Each hashtag re-traumatizes me. There are the obvious problems with the “movement.” One, it promotes northern supremacy with the use of the Hindi word bindi. It erases all the other cultures that also use a form of the bindi, including several East African and Middle Eastern cultures. It leans into the belief only Hindus wear bindis. But most harmful, it is a form of historical revisionism. It tells a narrative where all desi women proudly wore bindis and bindi politics started with white girls at Coachella. In addition, it paints the picture that privileged western desis are the victims of these politics. When the truth is bindi politics are as old as Brahminism and the real victims are the widows of South Asian society, especially in the most rural areas, at the hands of South Asian society. The widows who are standing up against this and fighting and claiming their rights to wear bindis or bottu or pottu or whatever it is that they call it are the true heroes. They are reclaiming the bindi. They are the ones we need to stand behind. So many of us are so concerned about whether or not white girls get to wear bindi or pottu but we are erasing the existence of the multitudes of South Asian women who are not able to wear them at all. Bindi politics are one of the most horrific systems of oppression against women in our own society. It is a form of violence against women, especially aimed at some of the most vulnerable members of South Asian society-South Asian widows.

ஏன் விதவை பெண்கள் பொட்டுவைக்கக்கூடாது என சொல்கிறார்கள் தெரியுமா?

கணவரை இழந்த பெண்கள் ஏன் பொட்டு வைக்க கூடாது என்று தெரியுமா?

கணவரை இழந்த பெண்கள் ஏன் பொட்டு வைக்க கூடாது?

'പൊട്ട്'-അപൂര്‍വ്വ സിന്ധിയുള്ള പെണ്‍കുട്ടിയുടെ കഥ