I ate at an Indian restaurant last night with a few friends, and the whole time we were captivated by the music videos that were playing on the TV. They were all Indian music videos so we could not understand the words which forced us to pay attention to the storyline of the music videos instead.
The music videos were not much different from what we see in America on MTV. The women were dressed in almost no clothing and dancing around one man who was usually the center of the music video. There were typical gender issues such as the women were usually wearing white and the man was wearing red or black. What was most interesting was our shock at the music videos being displayed in a family restaurant and the lack of response from the Indian owners and the other Indian customers in the restaurant.
We started discussing while we were eating how conservative America is when it comes to dressing, dancing, sexuality, the body, etc. No one else in the restaurant thought it was inappropriate to have these sexually-charged music videos on while eating their family dinner with their three-year-old child next to them. It was an interesting change of perspective -- especially for me who grew up in a household where MTV was a blocked channel on the TV my whole life.
As a kid I was obsessed with Bollywood movies which are all about love stories between a man and woman. But it's true -they we always in in crop tops/ intricate bras with matching skirts if not wearing "american" clothing (jeans, etc.). This is definitely a cultural thing where their traditional outfits are just simply way different to what we are used to, similar to middle eastern belly dancers or women in exotic outfits (or lack of them) in Brazil during Carnival.
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