is completely alien to our culture to have young skimpily clad Indian girls sporting pompoms on their derrieres dancing around furiously

2 words: Menaka & Rambha.

Have you seen the movie “The Replacements”.. Now those were some fine Redskin cheerleaders.

The reaction of hindu extremists is not surprising and it just draws a yawn from me on a slow news day.

I think the idea of Redskins cheerleaders is great. It will also help in increasing the enthusiasm of NRI’s settled in North America. All that talk about cheerleaders being ‘distractive’ doesn’t make sense to me. If professional players can’t keep their eyes on the ball then maybe they shouldn’t be playing any cricket at all. I don’t see how its bad for the fans either they are going out there to be entertained and in a slow sport like cricket i don’t see how dancing between each delivery and after every shot would ‘distract’ the fans from the actual game. I think Indian media and fans shouldn’t be so uptight about this, its a a great idea and we should have fun watching them.

2 words: Menaka & Rambha.

Runaji, mythology is not contemporary culture. All mythologies had ‘temptresses’. Circe, Medusa and the nymphs were the temptresses of Greek Mythology. So what. There is also the antithetical Madonna, whose myth has also profoundly affected Western culture, values and mores.

Hindu mythology also brings up any number of male celibates - from Bhishma to Hanuman to Ayyappa. Selective mythology does not define culture, especially contemporary culture. At best it identifies a strain within it.

But there is one aspect of your analogy that I like: Ordinary Indian men are about as likely to get near the Redskins cheerleaders as the ancient Greek mortals were to get near the nymphs, or Hindus to the apsaras!

Ordinary Indian men are about as likely to get near the Redskins cheerleaders as the ancient Greek mortals were to get near the nymphs, or Hindus to the apsaras!

Ouch! The truth hurts, chachaji!

Runaji, mythology is not contemporary culture.

Chachaji,
I never said it was. If you see the quote I was responding to the words completely alien to our culture-which seems to indicate that there is no precedent - either historical,mythological or current- to such stuff as skimpily clad women. I think this is rank hypocrisy.Unfortunately the Hindutva/Indian-ness brigade usually resorts to the catch-all “against our culture” to protest whatever is the disfavor of the month.

I gave examples of ancient culture /mythology. I may well have referenced current stuff that one sees in contemporary Hindi cinema- skimpily clad females,vulgar lyrics, apsara costumes etc etc.Thats also part of culture - albeit popular culture.

I have no issue with anyone protesting cheerleaders as affecting their personal sensibilities- that is their right and prerogative.But to couch it in terms of being against Indian culture-ancient or modern is hypocrisy.

Everyone is free to be a cheerleader and to employ them. But is this really helping anyone? Of all the comments in the various articles, very few were from women in India. How do they feel about this? And assuming the trend of cheerleaders spreads, along with skimpy uniforms, how will this help/hurt Indian women in their daily struggles with inequality and objectification?

Eye candy is good, but at the cost of lowering women’s stature?

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i think calling all these pom pom girls is and bollywood star is all to attract more cricket fans for more entertainment