*~ Asalam'alaykum wr wb~*
The South Asian culture can really be an embarassment sometimes. I've been staying at my aunt's place these past coupla days and all she watches all day is either Zee T.V or GEO. For those of you aren't familiar, they are some of the large South Asian cable networks. I'm not one to watch these channels because I certainly don't have time and also, I personally think its crap. I'm sorry if this offends some of you, but it really is. More specifically the dramas are so wasteful, unislamic and spread the worse sort of cultural stereotypes ever!
****
One drama focuses on the life of a married girl who is hated by her jealous sister in laws because of her dark complexion. They can't fathom how such a dark girl could land such a handsome, fair skinned guy. Yea, it shows her difficulties in living with such people, but still the entire time, the viewers just feel bad for the "poor, dark" girl, kind of like, "how sad that she's so dark." What type of message does this send to people?! How will we as Muslims move past cultural stereotypes and cultural thinking?
wasalaam,
Madiha :)
posted by MnM310 at 6:51 PM
27 Comments:
salaaam
sorry been MIA! miss u lots. hope to catch you soooon. Hope you are doing good. take care
wasalam
Junk TV, lol. Buy her the HOUSE MD series, she may just switch.
We shall forever remain slaves to our cultural idiosyncrasies. Our culture shall continue to dictate our lives as our feeble mind judges it to be our unique identification. We would be lost without it. *sigh*
Hate it, Loathe it, Detest it.. we still have to live with it..
What you have reiterated is mostly true for South Asian Muslims. *emphasis on the South Asian part*
Dark people are lucky. They don't get sunburn as easy. We should be envious of their superpowers.
Desis, especially muslim desis live in a moral vacuum, which always surprises me because I see Islam as being a very ethical and just religion.. unfortunately they have managed to just turn it into rules with little or no real depth of meaning attached. Being Muslim for some ppl is just a matter of having a beard or Hijaab and praying regular and thats where it ends... its not a means for transforming one's inner self.
HOUSE MD is fookin awesome, its a tad reptitive at times but quality nonetheless. Still havent finished watching the second season
The cultural preferance of fair skin to darker skin is so bloody ingrained in our peoples. IT's sad, really. Look at our own parents and family. They're always like, ya ppl shouldn't emphasisze looks so much in rishta stuff but then what's the very first physical characteristic they notice and mention when deciding whether the person can be categorized as good looking or not...complexion. IT's like the guy can be a beast but as long as he's gora, they'll say he's handsome. wth?? So hypocritical. anyhooo, i'll be seein u this weekend, yay!
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anon: aww its ok :) I know you've been really busy...but u shoulda totally posted that thing you were telling (singing lol) to me :p
khadiijah: hey asalam'alaykum! Wuts House M.D. bout?
Farsh: yea sadly...I hate that bout our culture too! And sometimes the older women will say something so gay that i can't just believe and i mean wuts the point in trying to correct em..its like banging ur head against a brick wall!
Mash: lol yea man thats wut i tell my mom. What really makes her mad is when i say "black is in, mom!" haha dude i gotta find out wut this House M.D. stuff's all bout...
Samosaaaaaa! yea rite! the first thing they look @ is skin tone. Sometimes i get so annoyed that they won't even be able to get past the skin tone! Like thats all they'll keep talking bout, nothing bout wut the person does or is like in personality. Or lets say the guy/girl is super smart they'll be like. "aww bechara/e is so dark, but @ least so and so is smart" Pshh...its like the person has a freakn curse or something!
I'd say it's the best TV about..well, from what I hear because I dont watch TV. It's based on a team of Doctors in the best diagnostic department for 100 miles, headed by a consultant/leading doctor called Dr House (Hugh Laurie is his name, I think). It just follows them in their case solving basically, but is soooo interesting, because Dr House only picks the "diagnostically interesting" cases. If you get the chance, watch an episode. I've never watched ER, so can only compare it to Casualty (that's yeaarrsss old lol) and it's about 100 times better than that :D
I guess considering your more law-y than medicine, you could incline to the west wing more, but you seem to be a middle type of person to me, so Im sure u'd like them equally.
It's so good I watched seasons one and two in 2 days and now I'm twiddling my thumbs, lol. Sorry I rambled.
wassalam.
Oh and on the topic, I think things are changing in this "fair is beautiful" problem, not just in our generation, but even my mum's. There is 'ope.
that channel should be banned :p
Salam
I think that explains why their country is so far behind, in economy, technology, education, and so on.
Putting someone down for the colour of his skin is just plain stupid, I mean excuse me but its two thousand and bloody 6!
Racism is something that will always exist and its a sin of arrogance.
I believe the first sin recorded was the sin of pride.
I mean didn't satan himself say that he was better than Adam (as)?
So the people who share that sort of view when it comes to dealing with others are only imitating satan.
Very nice post Mahida, sterotypes effects us all. Through television, or movies. Ive gotten my share in life. :)
were u referring to:
zaraa gorey mundeyaa dey naal nachley?
;) lololol
khadiijah: sounds good! haha and acutally i like never watch "lawyer" shows! lol..my favorite are the murder mystery ones..like csi, cold case files and swat and House M.D. sounds like something i'd totally watch :p
And no way...changing?! Although, today, while watching Zee t.v. (yes, thats all they watch in this freakn house) they were showing fashion models in some Indian show who were tan! :O :O :O lol
b'hood: lol go ahead and try it out foolio..u'll get mowed over by all the aunties! hey i'd pay to see that! ;)
Muslim Freedom: walaikm'asalam :) yea good point homie...they are definitely imitating shaytan when they put down others for skin tone etc...the most important thing in determining a person's worth is looking to that person's imaan!
almira: jazakallah :) and t.v is something for the masses...the more ignorant, undeducated ppl are, the more they are likely to believe stuff (more like "crap") they see in the media!
anon: lol exactly! now u gotta sing it to me on next time :p
wasalaam... Madiha :)
i simply cannot vait...:-D
oh how vas the khutbah? and jummah namaaz all toghether?
"poor, dark" girl, kind of like, "how sad that she's so dark."...This is just shallow...I swear what really matters is what you have in the inside!
hey girl.. man, I totally relate to your annoyance. When will they learn? It's not even just South Asians, it's Arabs too.. my dad's relatives think I'm sooo lucky cos I have "fair" skin (my mom's English) whereas my mom's side are constantly on the beach trying to acquire a tan..wassup with that? I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Insha'allah they'll learn one day. :(
ahhhh...lots of stuff though that South Asians and Arabs can be proud of
:-)
salaam hope you are keeping well :).I agree with freecyprus( I must blog about this)And about people they like what they dont have see what I have posted He!He!He! .Inshallah Allah forgive us and show us his rehma.
Wish you well
Anon: salaams..yea the khutbah was MashAllah amazing! I wish u coulda been there! He even stayed behind to discuss preperation for ramadan & to answer any q's ppl mite have :p
Neverland: hey salaam so good to see you commenting :D I so agree *shakes head*
hanna: yea i'm sure the arabs do it too...sad to see that muslims do it so blatantly. And i notice that "fobs" do it even more so! Which is worse cuz they're from an "islamic nation" whereas those of us growing up in the western world, think its just plain rude and refrain from commenting on someone physical appearance. I'm not saying its not there around here, its just not so much.
FreeCyprus: haha yea there are good things of course, but this is one area that really annoys me! :)
zingy: lol salaams! Ameen to ur dua and yea, i totally agree that we have a lot to be proud of, but should work on this one weakness :)
wasalaam everyone!
Madiha :)
you gotta post moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Its not the cable network's fault. Thats sadly what happens in our part of the world everyday in real life. If you lived for an year or two in Pakistan, you would know :). And to be honest about it, I think the crap on the American cable networks makes crap in our own cable networks welcome and appealing.
is this Reza? THE REZA who wanted to throw a hissy fit b/c madiha accidently made a html error and msipalced your blog link? OMG! !
:-D
im a jerk..sometimes..i know :-D....don't worry thsi resident anony wont be making so many appearances anymore..
man , it's so true. people start wacthing these dramas and they're glued. (it happened to me once *embarassing secret* though, i still thought they were stupid all the way through...ahem.. salaam )
by Allah (Swt)! i pray that bollywood be destroyed. what really sux is that my mother is all into those types of soap operas (or whatever you'd like to call them). but it's not only my mother, almost all of my family members are into that crap
what behooves me is that....
here are people, whose lives are more f'ed up than you can imagine; and they can do so much and so little time to make it better/improve it. Rather, they waste their time entertaining themselves and watch these stories THAT AREN'T EVEN REAL!
subhanallah!
salaamaleykum..
lol..its not only S.asian culture...SE asian people also inherited this stereotype...but then again...i dont really see this as a big issue..as i've noticed that the skin complexion of the people doesnt really affect their social status anymore...except of coz... people tend ot say..'ali the dark one' in contrast to 'the fair skined ali'... at least in this part of the world...it doesnt interprete to insult- rather distinguishing from physical features.
b'hood: salaams..i finally am! :p
reza: i dont think that its what happens EVERYDAY...and plus media is a propaganda tool and quite effective in implementing & promoting postive ideals. If they keep showing the stereotypical goings ons of the culture and @ the same time make it look "ok" then how is that helping to better society?
anon: haha yea i think so. Wut no appearances! :O :O :O
sha: haha don't worry, after staying @ my khalas for only a week, i was already like into what was going on lol. It is kinda addicting...Kind of like desperate housewives LOL
slave of Allah: Hey asalam'alaykum wr wb :) yea the thing that really gets me mad is that, living in western society, we'd expect to see these same motifs in a drama, b/c its a kafir culture. You don't expect to see it in dramas, shows, etc from the Islamic countries! Especially @ the extent that they are shown!
Afzal: hey homie! asalama'alaykum! Haven't seen you in a while huh? Dude, i dont know bout that...I know ppl say Oh the dark one v. the white one, the fat one v. the skinny one, but i know how when it comes to marriage the dark/light still makes a huge difference! :O You'd be surprised! For us girls, If a guy's "white," its like he's automatically handsome, even if he's not by our standards. Its so unfair!
wasalaam everyone! I'm sorry i was a lil busy and didn't reply sooner ( i tried once, but the stupid comp froze and i gave up :P). Jazakallah for commenting :D
~ Madiha ~
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