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Rethinking Bollywood Cowboy:
A Statement from Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP)
The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP) believes that all voices should be heard. While the Bollywood Cowboy theme may have been developed with good intentions, we would like to point out some of the concerns that our community has expressed. Please take a moment to critically think about some of the ramifications this theme has produced:
The South Asian community in Toronto is vibrant and flourishing. However, the lack of consultation at the organizational level with community groups, and the absence of South Asian fashion entrepreneurs at this event, further reinforces our community’s invisibility. While we recognize that tonight’s participants are long-time supporters of the HIV/AIDS movement, we believe that it is critical to actively work with and within the ethno-racial communities that are featured at such events.
Although Bollywood is a part of South Asian culture, it does not represent the culture. While we understand that the East Indian cinematic form has been embraced by the mainstream, to use it as a portal into Indian culture is misleading and unjust. We are concerned that this year’s theme has furthered stereotypes of South Asians as eroticized, one-dimensional characters.
One of Fashion Cares’ marketing materials features a sexualized and exotic woman seated in a goddess pose. Hindus and non-Hindus alike have been outraged by such flagrant use of religious imagery.
While this theme finds its inspiration in two popular genres, the pairing of cowboys and Indians alludes to the exploitation and extermination of Aboriginal peoples. While in this case South Asians are the primary target, the colonial connotations remain extreme, unfair, and racist. We are committed to working with other interested parties to ensure that this type of representation does not occur in the future.
We acknowledge that it takes hard work and dedication to produce Fashion Cares. However, as the only community AIDS service organization serving South Asians, we are disappointed that no community consultation at the organizational level occurred.
We cannot continue to ignore the ways in which damaging stereotypes are reinforced. The LGBTQQ community, from which ACT finds its roots, has worked extremely hard to ensure that sexual identity is recognized in diverse ways. We need your help to ensure that ethno-racial groups are seen in respectful and complex ways too.
We welcome debate and dialogue on this matter. Please contact ASAP at 416-599-2727 or, and/or ACT at 416-340-2437 or
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