Penises of Paradise: You could be forgiven for thinking a post with this subtitle refers to the prowess of the male Mutineers. Alas, our significant others demand truth in advertising. Actually, our old friend Beads of Paradise has thrown a new wrinkle into its exotica-dealing ways: it’s encircled Ganesh with a garland of penises. A dangle-sutra. A dick-lace.
I’m bemused by the dildos strewn around the feet of the idols, and the well-hung Buddhas dangling off Christmas trees. Is this Inuit-Hindu totemic mashup? Is it a newfangled fertility ritual? Are they invoking the subcontinental symbol of disgrace, the garland of shoes? Andrés Serrano would be proud.
Color me unimpressed by the gonads on display. Here’s what a real New York set looks like, from this year’s Halloween parade (NSFW after the jump).
okay i want to torch this store.
seriously? who the fuck thought this would be an intelligent idea?
can you get more offensive?
manish, please please please tell me you said something?
But those penises are circumcised…. 🙁
Chill out allmixedup .. You can do a pornographic Jesus next Durga Puja.. Why can’t we be more relaxed about sexual expression ? What is so special about a garland of penises, as opposed to, say, a garland of human skulls (which, Kali adorns) ?
Please don’t even joke about that. Non-violent critique, please.
Shiva Shiva!
This is offensive. And I am not even a religion-hawk. Apart from the fact that this trivializes the faiths of a huge fraction of humans, this is syncretic exoticisation at its worst.
This is what crunchy-granola-chewing window-dressers at ‘Beads of Paradise’ probably think when they are not tweaking out on X to Buddha Bar-III :
“Yeah, let’s add some Mayan symbology, a few Chakras for good measure and some Mughal miniatures of azaan being called from slender minarets. Everything these crazy Eastern people do is so..like….groovy. Let’s throw in a vaginas too for good measure. Those Hindooos … they’ll worship any ole thing! I think I learnt that in college — well probably I am projecting, since I was in a 420 haze all through college…but you know, …like.. whatever.”
goddamn hippies!
Where is this store?!?
Yeah, allmixedup, after you’ve done that, take your Sainik & RSS buddies & go torch some cinema depicting western ‘decadence’. Then go and vandalize artists works cos if offends you and quite obviously, you know whats best for us all.
Damn hippies…
they could at least have added some yonis to those lingams.
re: ABC Home: I was there on Saturday and had a good look at the ‘offensive’ displays. Along with the Hindu and Buddhist iconography, I saw quite a number of crosses, I.N.R.I and all. Why didn’t you post pics of those?
I bet there were complaints because I was one of those people that bitched about it and I made a whole bunch of people do so. I complained to the manager at the store who told me to contact the main office. I sent them a fax telling them that it’s insulting enough that my gods (shit I don’t even follow them) were Christmas (Pagan/Catholic) ornaments, it was insulting to see them as bathroom decor. Glad to see they changed it.
Now this whole phallus thing is irritating. Nothing like a blessed penis but could you spare us from sticking them around and on gods. I don’t care who’s gods they are. It’s out of line, insulting and pathetic, fuck the first amendment.
Hooray for Gulab Singh!
What I want to know is…WHERE ARE THE VAGINAS?! Where where where? Is there only room for penises in paradise? Hehehe, I can’t stop laughing at the picture. So ridiculous.
Did you get any strange looks while taking all these nice pictures, Manish?
For all the commentators that feel this obeisance to the hindu religion should first go get that. I would be pissed if this were really something “bad”. If you have a problem with phallic symbol on our Gods you should go torch every Shiv Linga everywhere. And while you are it protest and torch all ancient temples and religious texts that are “sexually concious”.
The only “western decadence” that these self anointed Hindus have picked up is puritantical views, contrary to the openness that is the hallmark of our religion/way of life. Call me up when someone places shoe or something around a God – I’ll join you. Until then, chill out and be proud of our heritage and religion that has always accepted sexuality in its glory.
While I agree with you, Linga, I sincerely doubt that that was the intent of the window dresser who did this display!
Disgusting……..
As a follow up – I completely agree with janeofalltrades that it is insulting to use our Gods as Christmas tree ornaments or bathroom decor but objecting to phallic symbols is sophomoric when its what we worship all the time.
It’s out of line, insulting and pathetic, fuck the first amendment.
uh. i am sure you were saying that rhetorically, but let’s watch what we say! (note the irony) this has nothing to do with the 1st ammendmant. a private company is open to public pressure, we don’t need to bring the 1st ammendment into this. the 1st comment, and to some extent this comment, reminds of the dumb-ass sikhs in britain who went rampage over that play earlier last year.
There was exactly one cross on Nov. 6, and it’s prominently posted in the photo album.
Shivalingas are stylized and somewhat abstract, they aren’t literal carvings of phalluses.
A bearded man named Sigmund was taking notes 😉
I thought I had seen Kali with a garland of penises (penii?) before, not just human heads. I know that the 50 skulls is standard, but I thought I had seen the lingams as well.
Ahhhhhdaflkadfj!
i didnt mean to start a tirade!
in order of appearance:
first, i’m obviously not being serious and i will refrain from ‘joking’ in the future.
second, gulab, my issue isn’t necessarily against art. i’m all for free expression and art. but is there a line between art and just doing something because it’s popular or you’re trying to attract attention?
third, yest another desi:
i would never actually vandalize anything i’m just obviously shooting my mouth off b/c i’m offended with the work. and please dont ever put me in the same lot with the RSS. and i dont speak for you or anyone else, just me. and if i saw that in person, then i’d walk into the store lodge my complaint and then probably never shop there again.
people are free to express themselves. and i’m expressing my disgust with this piece of ‘art.’
It’s a pretty stupid display, agreed, but would we have minded as much if it were a Shiva lingam adorned with little Ganesh statues? Things that make you go ‘hmmmmmm’…..
Has anybody wondered how the hell they got hold of so many Hindu artifacts in the first place ?
Sigh… there is a fine line between appreciation and appropriation, and it has been crossed.
Check out those dildo-looking “lingams” – it’s even written on the side, so it must be a lingam! How exotic! I, too, can own a wooden, circumsized penis statue for $48! Maybe they should check around a bit before labelling it as such. Wonder what’s written on them?
But yeah, let’s not talk about burning buildings down… that’s a little fundamentalist. Let them sell their weird stuff, complain to management about the really offensive stuff, and laugh at them when we come over to visit and a penis-decorated Ganesh adorns the front hallway. And if you really want to piss THEM off in return, make some crucifix Christmas ornaments. Or chocolate crucifixes with raspberry filling. Yum. Fight kitsch with kitsch, not fire.
Um, there’s a big difference between shiva lingams and dildos, and pretending otherwise is disingenuous.
Manish, I appreciate your going through all the trouble to take the photos–and you always take such good photos–but could you make the top pic a little smaller, or maybe could someone post something else? It always being there when I load up Sepia Mutiny is starting to freak me out a little. I mean, it’s a little creepy.
Has anybody wondered how the hell they got hold of so many Hindu artifacts in the first place ?
Yeah, actually I was just thinking about that. But are they Hindu artifacts, or made on some commune in California, or manufactured in a Sri Lankan sweatshop? I would love to see the “Made In” tags on this stuff…
The penisgarland, however, around Ganesh is hardly a question of provenance – it’s one of display and presentation, and responsibility falls solely on the person who put that particular display together. I’m not Hindu so I can’t really be offended by it, but I am annoyed at the sexual exotification that happens so often by people who look like me when it comes to any culture where the dominant skin color is darker than the Italians. Hell, include the Italians in that.
Very Interesting article you might want to read
http://www.physics.iitm.ac.in/~suresh/articles/husain.html
[Rest deleted by admin – NO INCITEMENTS TO VIOLENCE in this post. Not even ironically.]
1) i assumed that comment #1 was rhetorical too. but just as some here are offended (rightly from their grounds from what i can tell as an outsider) by this image, i am offended at even the implication that violence or legal sanction are the appropriate sanctions that must be meted out against blasphemy. the right to blaspheme is a sacred value that i cherish (again, the irony was intended).
2) i’m a little creeped out by the photo too
so instead of doing my reading on the resource conservation and recovery act…i’ve been sitting and thinking about why this image bothers me so much.
and i think i’m narrowing down concerns… so far what i’ve got is: 1] it bugs me that people seem to equate hinduism [icons or whatever] and sexuality. and while sexuality plays a huge role in hindu culture and i’m not a prude… i’m turned off by the fact that it seems to be the one aspect of hinduism that is most often capitalized on in art. 2] i’m sort of beginning to see the humorous side of this
what bothers me is the hypocrisy. people regularly make fun of hinduism in ways which would be just as appropriate for idolatrous catholics convinced that the image of mary the mother of god is etched into an oak tree, or muslims who think that not eating during daylight hours but stuffing yourself like a pig overnight is somehow seemly and sanctified. if god can be 3 and 1 simultaneously, iz it that weird that he might manifest himself in elephantine form?
No I didn’t mean that literally but I am insulted and I don’t find it to be an artistic expression. There is a line of respect and decency the display crossed and I find it terribly crass. I’m certainly not the type to go on a rampage but I have been known to find cerebral ways of making things go my way, this is one of those issues I would effect if I could and generally we all could 🙂
Definitely offensive – art is meant to push boundaries for sure, but this is ruddy rude.
Someone read tahat Ganeh’s father Shiva as alingam is meant to portray male fecundity and this is what we get? Bloody annoying.
Never been offended by hippies. I think they are harmless…
On a different note — Hindu deity related — what happened to that Chocolate Ganesh post? It seems to have magically disappeared.
‘Twas a dupe.
Tacky and stupid beyond belief.
Discussions of whether people are “prudish” are not relevant – whether or not people reacting to this find sex to be shameful or whatever, we all know that the effect of introducing literal sexual imagery to almost anything is to render it unworthy of respect in most observers’ eyes. When the thing which is so debased is an artifact/symbol of another culture, it transfers that disrespect to that culture.
Deepa
I think you make a good point in your last post.
The shrill cries of those who shout yoo-hoo! yeah! Sex! Why cant you damn Indians lighten up and be a free and crazy Indian like me! I like Dildo’s on Ganesh statues! Woo hoo!
They’re kind of missing the point.
Is anyone going to write them an email or drop them a letter? It may be more productive than just discussing this amongst ourselves. I’d imagine it’d be best if someone who had seen the store’s display themselves wrote it. It may a case of simply making a polite complaint and they will remove the penii.
Really, it’s pretty funny. Given the apotheosis of sexuality among the hippies (and hipsters), it’s quite nice to be able to tell them to go suck on some elephant dick. Lit-rally
What is this obsession with making fun of Indian Deity’s for entertainment? This is the fourth or fifth such incident this year. Well let me think from the other side…”Why are so sensitive about such issues?”….stepping back to my side…”Because we are”
Okay, All_Mixed_Up, if you were indeed joking, I apololise for coming down a little hard on that comment of yours. And please dont stop cracking jokes on my account – good or bad 😉 Speaking of which, andrea, I’m not sure if your “Fight kitsch with kitsch” remark was a joke too. But if it wasnt, I’d have one or two things to say about that 🙂
What I’d really like to know is where is this magical ‘line’ that has been crossed? Who drew it? What is “a little fundamentalist” and “not-so-fundamentalist”? Is there any other real reply to that except “There just is a line you cant cross. So shut up!”?
(regardless of the fact that this doesnt appear to me to be any serious attempt at art, as much as a bunch of wannabe comedians trying to poke some fun.)
I certainly will. Shit between complaining about this and whining about the Ganapati bappa in the bathroom decor I’ve officially turned into my mother!!!
Address for letters:
Thanks, Manish.
i think it’s pretty sacriligeous.. it’s insulting, sickening, and really is pissing me off… call me an aunty, mother, whatever.. and i hate the title of this post… piss krishna? that itself is disgusting.
It’s intended to be. Here’s the reference.
reference schmeference.. still not sitting well my dear manish.. not well at all…
Exactly. As a description of the Ganesh-a-lingam, it’s supposed to piss you off, chick pea.