Gold Coast yoga wear company Flow Yoga Wear are in trouble with Hindu communities in Australia and across the globe for making and selling culturally appropriative/exploitative/just plain dumb yoga pants featuring the image of Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha is one of Hinduism’s most widely known deities, with a head that looks like an elephant.
Earlier this month in the US, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, asked for an apology, and for the product to be taken off the market:
“Lord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to adorn one’s legs.“Such trivialisation of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over.“Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else, if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivialising it hurt the followers.”
The Hindu Council of Australia called the leggings “very insensitive“, and backed Zed’s request for product withdrawal and an apology, while Hindu consumers are taking to Twitter to encourage others to contact the company in protest.
Devout Hindus r protesting against Flow Yoga Wear at
Email : hello@flowyogawear.com
Read more : https://t.co/QoAnKrs6Xx@SV99999 @RSS_Org pic.twitter.com/y2sbNP2Cub— ?????? ????? (@avi_hjs) June 23, 2017
But Flow Yoga Wear’s owner Kylie Morris says her intent with the design was “to show honour and respect“:
“I am currently seeking counsel privately from people of the Hindu faith, my customers and my conscience.“I wanted to showcase artistically a design that could link to yoga in a deeper, more meaningful way. And I think this is why customers love the design so much.
“I have yet to say whether I will remove or change the design. But I definitely have never said that I refuse. Before I act I will listen and before I react I will think.”
The aptly named Ganesha leggings, part of their Flow Collection, are currently out of stock, but would usually sell for $75 a pop for a capri-length pant, and $80 for full-length. They are Australian-made and designed, and have been sold by Flow for the last two years.
The tagline for the product on their website is: “Grant us Always New Energy, Spirit & Happiness Lord Ganesha!” I’m just going to leave that there.
Flow Yoga Wear also sell Buddha Says tees, which are currently out of stock, because it’s not enough to appropriate only one culture in your designs. But you can buy a crop shirt that says ‘Heavily meditated’ which is heaps funny to people who have never needed to take medication. Those shirts are made in Bangladesh, the third largest Hindu state in the world.
It’s not the first, and it certainly wont be the last time that western yoga practices have pilfered traditional cultures for money to enrich their lives.
Photo: Facebook.
Source: Brisbane Times.
