{"id":21592,"date":"2024-02-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/?p=21592"},"modified":"2024-12-18T14:56:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T13:56:49","slug":"culture-wrappings-iii-please-keep-your-beautiful-feet-away-from-my-beautiful-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/2024\/02\/21\/culture-wrappings-iii-please-keep-your-beautiful-feet-away-from-my-beautiful-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture Wrappings III:\u00a0\u00a0Please Keep Your Beautiful Feet Away from my Beautiful Books\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s a scene in the kids TV show, Arthur,<\/em> where Arthur and his friend Francine are accidentally locked in the local library one night. (At some point they find the break room where there\u2019s food and drinks, so really it\u2019s not the worst place to spend a night, at all<\/em>.) At one point they attempt an escape by building stairs out of books in order to reach the high window latches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t watch that scene without cringing as their animated tennis shoes go pounding up the makeshift steps made from stacks of precious library books. The thought of whatever dreck from the outside being scraped across all of those wonderful covers invokes a pain not unlike period cramps. Granted, the cartoon sidewalks are usually spotless apart from the occasional pile of leaves and errant chewing gum, but that doesn\u2019t mean it would have been any better if they\u2019d taken their shoes off. Feet on books? No. Just, NO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Indian culture \u2013 and I know this holds true for many cultures across Asia \u2013 your feet and specifically the soles are the most \u2018unclean\u2019 part of your body \u2013 probably at some point in a literal sense but always in the symbolic. There are a lot of foot action taboos which pretty much link back to the same thing and that is to avoid being disrespectful or outright desecration of something. In Hindu culture, when taking blessings, as a show of respect we touch the tops of our elders\u2019 feet to show that we will humble ourselves for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t point your feet towards people or religious items and don\u2019t sit like an oversized doll with your legs stuck out in front of you \u2013 or splayed for that matter \u2013 in temples or during religious ceremonies. Don\u2019t touch anyone with your feet, it\u2019s incredibly disrespectful \u2013 and cultural aspect aside, dragging your sweaty human paws which have collected the grime of your unswept floors is generally unappetizing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, definitely, definitely keep your feet away from books, notebooks, paper, musical instruments, and generally all materials connected to learning. For those self-appointed experts on semantics, yes this includes computers. Although, unless you don\u2019t have the use of your hands and must rely on your feet to accomplish most tasks, I can\u2019t imagine many situations in which you would need to be rubbing your feet across your computer. Whether you think this is a strange, or irrelevant practice shouldn\u2019t matter, but it\u2019s something that is completely normal in a shared cultural space that easily creates a barrier outside of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is the \u2018divine\u2019 explanation which is arguably the simpler one because it offers the most concrete reason. The goddess Saraswati presides over knowledge, wisdom, education and the arts. To step on a book or kick a musical instrument \u2013 or smash it onstage \u2013 is to directly disrespect and defile the goddess herself. (By the way, why do musicians smash their instruments on stage? Is it like a Shah Jahan kind of thing where no music can ever sound as good as it did in that moment? Because by that logic, the musicians should then be smashing themselves, right?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t like this explanation because it feels a bit isolating. As if someone who has no connection to Saraswati could never understand. But I still think of it as the simplest answer because it possibly gives people less of a reason to argue. However, regardless of religion \u2013 because it\u2019s important to remember that being of Indian descent doesn\u2019t always equate to being a Hindu \u2013 education, arts, and knowledge are valued in Indian culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kicking, stepping on, or otherwise disrespecting that knowledge on purpose is not only hurtful, I\u2019d say it\u2019s a pretty clear reflection of someone\u2019s character. Is there anything so terrible about having respect for knowledge? In theory, it shouldn\u2019t be something that divides us, but rules about where and how we direct our bodies are nevertheless apt to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If objects of learning are sacred, why do we usually talk about the bodies that made them in the context of offending or pleasuring others? Hands, feet, eyes, lungs, lips, shoulders, hearts, back, bums, genitals, thighs, wrists, intestines, foreheads, chests, the whole damn package. It\u2019s a mosaic of different purposes, strengths, abilities and uses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having grown up female in the South Asian diaspora, there are a lot of rules and expectations connected to the body. Though it\u2019s fair to say that every culture has ways of dictating how bodies should behave and often which is then often subject to different fusions across time and geography. In my experience, the expectation seems to be that your body must be some kind of mystical, east-west chimerical figure that has the ability to both fade into the background so as not to call attention to itself while simultaneously standing out as the gold standard in qualities ranging from to virtue, intelligence and education, to being a cultural representative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a lot of expectations to put on your body when the earliest messages are that our bodies are inherently wrong and offensive. Talking about bodies, I\u2019m not just referring to the sexual aspect, although that\u2019s the thing that as a girl, we were supposed to avoid at all costs. Your level of ignorance when it comes to sex must be so high that you almost behave as if you don\u2019t have a body. Because drawing attention to it turns you into some kind of sexual aerosol spray, dispensing both a come-hither scent and the ruin and shame of your family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a little kid, my dad used to bring me back souvenir t-shirts from his business trips, always multiple sizes too big. \u2018You\u2019ll grow into them!\u2019 was always his logic as the shirts I wore from Orlando, New Orleans, and Phoenix went to my knees. As a fully grown adult, people regularly lose track of me in groups of primary school children. Of course the real irony is that if my dad buys me a shirt now, it\u2019s annoyingly<\/em> my size, rather than my preferred over-sized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-puberty, you\u2019re the darling of your male relatives. A little dolly to be snuggled and rewarded for your innocence. The moment puberty hits those same males treat you like you\u2019ve contracted a contagious disease. You bleed every month while their bodily rules of conduct include a fear of being contaminated. They are unnerved by the thought and sight of a body crawling towards womanhood. In other words, it\u2019s impossible to talk about South Asian bodies without implying the \u2018sh\u2019 word(s): shame\/sharam<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t sit with your legs open. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go change, you\u2019re showing too much skin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s school, not a beauty contest. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last argument has always led me to wonder if showing skin and splaying my legs equates to competition standards of beauty. It makes sense given the number of other bodily things that get carped about like skin lightness, facial and body hair, wrinkles, posture, size. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this controlling of bodies isn\u2019t just limited to beauty, although I could fill a lot of pages just talking about that. I saw a recent post from The Pink Ladoo Project in response to an article where a white mother shared her and her son\u2019s weekly routine which included only showering two times a week. Not to be confused with the \u2018nothing shower\u2019 trend, this tradition of barely showering is backed by a surprising number of white celebrities, some of whom believe that waiting until your natural scent is unbearably foul is your body\u2019s way of telling you it\u2019s time to wash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overwhelming response amongst South Asians was something along the lines of, imagine if this were a trend started by a BIPOC person!<\/em> While others shared their experiences of \u2013 despite daily showers \u2013 being bullied for \u2018smelling of curry.\u2019 It\u2019s a smelly body paranoia that is carried into adulthood and leads people to fling open all windows when any kind of spices are being cooked.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point you might be wondering, how did we get from the TV show which gave us the important catchphrase \u2018having fun isn\u2019t hard when you\u2019ve got a library card!\u2019 to\u2026this? <\/em>It\u2019s a topic that becomes more confusing the older I get. If, culturally, we are taught to revere the texts and instruments and works of art that further our knowledge, why can\u2019t we have the same reverence for our bodies which produce them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was well into my twenties when I discovered some of the bizarre powers a body can have. At a now defunct weekend festival in the neighborhood where I lived I was taking part in a quality control task, sampling gin and tonics from the different street stands. If you\u2019ve also done this, you know that food is an important part of the job. It was a sweltering summer night and I was wearing an oversized t-shirt and a miniskirt. Tucked onto the steps of a darkened stoop my now ex-partner and I were gorging on pizza slices as big as our heads, reveling in the cheese pulls, when from somewhere from the depths of righteousness came striding, two of the cause\u2019s most annoying soldiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taller of the two proceeded to berate me loudly about my exposed legs, about the white man I was with, and about the beer beside me. When I think about this situation now, it\u2019s hilarious. Why should these low-budget enforcers of women\u2019s behavior scare me? I have looked into my mother\u2019s eyes and asked to go to a sleepover. That\u2019s scary. These guys were amateurs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, from the shadows of a neighboring stoop rose a hulking figure over two meters tall and built like a Clydesdale horse. He was backlit by the sickly orange streetlights, so at first, all I could see were the silhouettes of very unseasonable combat boots and the round lines of a bald head. He walked into the puddle of light thrown from a nearby stand, my suspicions were confirmed by the large hammer of Thor swinging from his neck, and the tiny woman behind him with dyed blonde streaks and an arm and chest covered in tribal and nordic imagery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the righteous pair caught sight of the right wing pair, the former shot an expression of loathing in my general direction and slithered away into the crowd, presumably to get another drink. The right wing Clydesdale stopped in front of us, shooting his most aggressive glare towards where the morality brothers had made their escape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Is there a problem?\u2019 he asked me in German, with the air of someone who would really like there to be a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the moment of shock, the encounter had left me seething. But of course, this would be another case of having crafted the most searing responses hours too late and only getting to use them when recreating the scene in the shower and playing all the parts. I destroy them every time, including the Clydesdale, who instead of listening to me when I said I was fine, used the opportunity to start blathering to my white ex-partner about \u2018those\u2019 people coming into the country and having no respect for culture or women. It should be noted that his lady companion was also trying to enter the conversation, but clearly this stale, bullshit diatribe about plagues of migrants coming over to steal jobs was men\u2019s talk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few minutes of him spewing  hot air, the Clydesdale glanced over at me as if finally remembering why he had faked a bout of chivalry. I tried to look him directly in the eye, exuding toughness while swigging my beer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Don\u2019t worry,\u2019 he assured me as though speaking to a child. \u2018In this country you\u2019re free.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in my home<\/em>, I thought to myself, you would not be allowed in unless you take off your boots first.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Granted, the cartoon sidewalks are usually spotless apart from the occasional pile of leaves and errant chewing gum, but that doesn\u2019t mean it would have been any better if they\u2019d taken their shoes off. Feet on books? No. Just, NO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":21594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,2417],"tags":[1993,2648,2044,400,2568,2636,2043],"class_list":["post-21592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poco_lit_space-en","category-essays-en","tag-culture-wrappings","tag-essay-en","tag-feet","tag-india","tag-non-fiction-en","tag-priya-singh-en","tag-south-asia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21593,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592\/revisions\/21593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pocolit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}