{"id":711,"date":"2011-08-18T16:29:06","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T20:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/?p=711"},"modified":"2011-08-18T16:29:06","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T20:29:06","slug":"the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html","title":{"rendered":"The Economist and its phallic “lump of ice”"},"content":{"rendered":"
As a school child, I often found myself embarrassed by the exoticized description of my faith<\/a>. \u00a0With those days long behind me and being far more confident, as an adult, I often find myself forced to face descriptions in magazines and newspapers which would make the average American wonder, \u201cWhat sort of weird religion is Hinduism?\u201d<\/p>\n

While school textbooks still leave much to be desired, instances of exoticization and eroticization by the media have become less frequent over the past decade. \u00a0I believe this is the result of the Hindu community and organizations, like the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), which have made concerted efforts to reach out and engage journalists and reporters. \u00a0But despite the efforts to improve the manner in which Hinduism is portrayed, there is clearly a long way to go.<\/p>\n

On July 21, The Economist<\/em> wrote a piece on Kashmir<\/a>, the conflict-ridden region in India, and described the Amarnath cave, one of Hinduism\u2019s most sacred shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva, as a \u201cpenis-shaped lump of ice.\u201d \u00a0Countless online comments to the article clearly demonstrated the outrage and insult felt by Hindus across the board at the magazine\u2019s crude and sensationalist description of that which is holy to one billion people worldwide.<\/p>\n

Why would a such a well-respected magazine allow such a disparaging description to be published and then refuse to retract it?<\/p>\n

In an effort to get an answer to this question, and also to request a retraction, the Hindu American Foundation reached out to the South Asia editor <\/a>and suggested an alternate (and more respectful) description of \u201cnaturally formed ice stalagmite worshipped as a form of the Hindu God Shiva.\u201d \u00a0To his credit, the editor did reply promptly to the inquiry. \u00a0Unfortunately, he pointed to his reference of wikipedia which defines the Shiva Lingam as \u201cmale creative energy or of the phallus.\u201d \u00a0While there is no denying the existence of this definition, couldn\u2019t he have continued reading to the next sentence which provides \u201c[a] complementary theory [that] suggests that the Lingam represents the beginningless and endless Stambha<\/a> pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva?\u201d<\/p>\n

When given the choice between two theories, why was the former found more worthy of publication in such a well-established magazine? \u00a0And even after making the decision to use the phallic interpretation of the Lingam, why choose the needlessly provocative, crude, and anatomical description of \u201cpenis-shaped,\u201d and that too with the qualification of \u201clump of ice?\u201d<\/p>\n

HAF made both of these arguments<\/a>, among others, to The Economist<\/em>, to no avail. \u00a0To that end, the Foundation launched a campaign on change.org<\/a> yesterday. \u00a0For every person who signs the petition, a pre-written letter is sent to The Economist<\/em> with a request to replace the offensive description of Amarnath with respectful language. \u00a0\u00a0As of the writing of this blog, almost 400 people have signed on. \u00a0Click here<\/a> to see the campaign and sign on.<\/p>\n

I sincerely hope that The Economist<\/em> reconsiders its poor choice of words and replaces them with respectful terminology. \u00a0These types of descriptions, however small they may appear, are read by countless individuals, many of whom do not have much knowledge about Hinduism. \u00a0It presents a distorted image of a truly beautiful faith replete with thousands of years of philosophical thought. \u00a0For a magazine of such a high caliber, The Economist<\/em> could do so much better.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a school child, I often found myself embarrassed by the exoticized description of my faith. \u00a0With those days long behind me and being far more confident, as an adult, I often find myself forced to face descriptions in magazines and newspapers which would make the average American wonder, \u201cWhat sort of weird religion is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":390,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Economist and its phallic "lump of ice" - Om Sweet Om<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Economist and its phallic "lump of ice" - Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a school child, I often found myself embarrassed by the exoticized description of my faith. \u00a0With those days long behind me and being far more confident, as an adult, I often find myself forced to face descriptions in magazines and newspapers which would make the average American wonder, \u201cWhat sort of weird religion is…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-18T20:29:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sheetal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Economist and its phallic \"lump of ice\" - Om Sweet Om","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Economist and its phallic \"lump of ice\" - Om Sweet Om","og_description":"As a school child, I often found myself embarrassed by the exoticized description of my faith. \u00a0With those days long behind me and being far more confident, as an adult, I often find myself forced to face descriptions in magazines and newspapers which would make the average American wonder, \u201cWhat sort of weird religion is…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html","og_site_name":"Om Sweet Om","article_published_time":"2011-08-18T20:29:06+00:00","author":"sheetal","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html","name":"The Economist and its phallic \"lump of ice\" - Om Sweet Om","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-18T20:29:06+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-18T20:29:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/892f83fe41e8ba0b2d625fb00436cec8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/08\/the-economist-and-its-phallic-lump-of-ice.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Economist and its phallic “lump of ice”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/","name":"Om Sweet Om","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Sheetal Shah","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/892f83fe41e8ba0b2d625fb00436cec8","name":"sheetal","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b81\/b81e39bd8aa137041bf8c5f1ece2d99fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b81\/b81e39bd8aa137041bf8c5f1ece2d99fx96.jpg","caption":"sheetal"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/sheetal"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/390"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":712,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}