Friday, July 16, 2010

I like to watch home improvement shows

Shows like Better Homes and Gardens, Gardening Australia, The Garden Gurus; I like to see their houses, into their gardens. I think it's a great place for ideas on what to do around the house and yard. But there is one thing that really bugs me, and even more so when I see it replicated in an acquaintances garden or house, and I don't feel comfortable pointing it out.

I am talking about the honking great Buddha head on your wall/table/in the middle of your courtyard/that your fountain is spouting out of.

My sister calls this cultural appropriation. Okay, so, you're not buddhist, this isn't your way of life, but all the same you feel you have the right to pick and choose from something you find "exotic" and "unusual";
Firstly, it's disrespectful on two levels;
One, You've got Buddha as an incomplete entity, in your garden, when you've got no reason for him to be there, other than you thought it looked cool. And it must be okay because you saw it on TV/in a magazine/in the paper.

Secondly, how offended would you be if someone from another culture (and religion) took a Jesus statue and turned it into a fountain, and then suddenly everyone had them in their garden? Probably you'd feel kind of icky, and feel that it was wrong.

Forget "on two levels" doing this is just plain disrespectful.

1 comment:

  1. It's not that I call it cultural appropriation, it's that it IS cultural appropriation! i CALL IT LIKE I SEE IT, is what I'm saying.

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