Is Fashion demolishing our culture? That is a question we often face in our intent to be modern and yet to stay rooted to the culture of our motherland. In our hurry to be modern and advanced, are we slowly leaving our culture far behind? Or are we today, still rooted to our culture despite the lure of fashion and glamour?
I would like to start my point by saying one thing - A coin has two sides, both positive and negative. It is upon us to adopt the positive sides of everything and give up the negatives so that we can live more peacefully. I would whole heartedly agree that fashion promotes broad-mindedness and consequently aids to the development of the society. But here, we are not talking about how fashion is helping us. But we are talking over the point that Fashion, is gradually corrupting, if not wholly demolishing our culture.
Let me start with our culture first. India is basically known for its culture and broad mindedness and diversity. It's rich and varied culture is highly supportive and highly regarded amongst all parts of the world. The epics like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas, The Vedantas, and The Gita etc. teach us all a lot about the right way of life and the world. Earlier, children and kids grew up watching such ideal programmes. But with the advent of Fashion, it is not fashionable any more to show such tuff on television. Now what children grow up watching Rakhi Sawants and Mallika Sherawats on T.V. and learn from them ideas of indecency and vulgarity. I am not saying it is wrong. It can vary with opinions but what I am saying is it is contrasting to our culture, that it is anti-cultural.
I would like to take Women as a common example here because they are GENERALLY the ones who get easily lured by the world of Glamour and Fashion. Women, who were CULTURALLY entitled to Dignity, Respect and Protection are today portrayed merely as Sex Symbols and entitled to nothing more than skin-show. Don't you think there is a contrast between regarding them as mothers and regarding them a objects of sexual satisfaction and fantasy? I am not saying it is wrong. It may be right for some, and wrong for others. But that is not the question. The question is that isn't it ANTI-CULTURAL? And since we are talking about the demolishment of culture, I would say that indeed Fashion is guilty in this case.
Coming to men now, the recent trend of fashion of Metro-sexual men has encouraged men to opt for various trendy ways like Manicure, Facials, chest shaving, piercing, etc. But that can be easily overlooked. But what about the recent trends of wearing low-waist pants and jeans? Culturally, we all dressed decently and comfortably but now-a-days, the word decently seems to have been erased form the dictionary and all that's left is comfortably, which is not subjected to criticism since it varies from individual to individual. But the cultural teachings of purity and restrain which had earlier been practiced are seemingly replaced with lustful emotions and corruptive minds. His again is proven when you look at the number of cases relating to sexual assault and other related cases, which are sky-rocketing. Again, people may disagree, even I wear low-waist bottoms, particularly because I feel they are more comfortable than other approaches, but I say that it is ANTI-CULTURAL.
And Fashion is not just demolishing culture, but also CORRUPTING it! Today, Fashion has "transformed" cultural clothing from objects of beauty to objects of lustful desires. Today, Sarees, which were the traditional formal clothing for women, have transformed into "Backless Sarees", traditional suits have become deep necked, blouses have become transparent and so have other clothes. For men, T-Shirts have given way to deep necked V-Shaped T-shirts, (which has given the word "cleavage-revealing" a whole new meaning!) I am not saying it's wrong, I don't object to any person's personal opinion, but I can indeed say that in out culture, I have never seen anything like that before.
Fashion isn't just in the way we dress, but also in what we feel, and how we react to different situations. In the current day scenario, abusing unfortunately is very common. You can easily come across somebody indulging in this practice everyday and I think that the fact that it is Fashionable has something to do with its rise. Today, because it is trendy to opt for more not-worthy-to-be-named practices, a majority of the people are taking it up. Today, with the increase in Fashion, people are promoting lustful relationship and not concentrating on finding ever-lasting love. That is again a reason why the divorce rates of the country today are higher than ever.
I agree that there is a very positive side to Fashion as well, just like I said that there are two sides of a coin. But the argument is that there is a negative side to it as well, and unfortunately, it is looking good to eclipse the advantages of the positives.
. The onus lies on us to take only the positive sides of Fashion, and for that we need to use our own head before adopting any new trend or Fashion. And unfortunately, things are only going to get worse unless it is done, and done soon enough….
