Do you think this is offensive?

[dulcemariamar]

www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/kim-kardashian-i-hate-indian-food-not-indian-people-2012305

Kim Kardashian said that she thinks Indian food is disgusting. And now people are going crazy on Twitter saying that her comments were an attack on Indian culture. What do you think? Do you think food and culture are so closely linked that if you say that you hate a certain type of cuisine that means that you also hate the culture?

[thumper55]

nbd she is talking about food and only food

[anna7602]

Well, DD reminded me the other day that it's not nice to say "yuck" or "disgusting" about food. (I was referring to the nastiest candy-coated cross between a jelly bean and a marshmallow that I had the bad luck of plucking out of DD's mixed candy bag the other day.) "You can just say you don't like it, mami." She's totally right. So yes, there's a better way for KK to express her "opinions and tastes" as she put it at the end of the article.

But I don't really care about the Kardashians one way or another, so I wouldn't have gotten my panties in a bunch about this.

[Cheesecake]

I've said it before and will say it again, people are stupid.

Do little kids who don't like their veggies hate vegetarians?
Does having a problem with Mexican immigrants mean you think Tex-Mex is icky?
I don't eat fish, so I guess I must truly hate the Japanese right? But I do like yakitori, so does that mean I need a shrink.
And my friend who hates any type of spicy food, she must be a total right.
And the fact that I think bacon makes life better, must absolutely mean I have a problem with muslims and Jews, correct???

It's just food, and people have different tastes. Whatever!


I have fat fingers, please excuse typos!

[tktravels]

I don't find it offensive. I do, however, wonder why people who are in the spotlight haven't learned to speak a little more tactfully.

That being said though, it drives me a little batty when people who dislike a certain food or cuisine feel the need to paint a picture as to why they dislike it. My mom, for example, refuses to eat most Desi food (I married into a Bangladeshi family) because according to her, it looks like baby poop. A simple "no thank you" would do without giving anyone else some really lovely imagery at mealtime.

I also think the leap from cuisine to ethnic group is a bit ridiculous.

[Deleted]

I think people really ought to have better things to talk about. She said she thinks it is disgusting, boo-freakin-hoo. People will be offended because they want to be offended.

[americaninoz]

I agree with tk, it was silly of her to say, however people need to chill out, she's talking about food not culture !!

[bugabean]

I think some types of food are disgusting too. I don't expect anyone to care unless they are cooking for me. Not offensive.

[clogged]

Yup. Some food is disgusting, but is in no way a reflection on people, culture, religion, or whether or not they love dogs.

weird it got made into an issue.

[fernane]

I think it's incredibly ridiculous to get in an uproar over. Everyone has food they do and don't like. I don't like Indian food, either..I don't like the spices. And just bc I love certain other foods doesn't mean I love their culture. Foods have nothing to do with a particular culture as a whole IMO.

[GilliC]

Honestly, I think this kind of reaction is sadly typical of India. They like to get all up in arms about little things, and since there are a billion of them, and they speak much better English than the general Chinese populace (who do the same thing), we end up hearing about it more.

I remember a few years ago, when some athlete (tennis player maybe?) was photographed with her bare feet up on a table, and due to the framing of the photo, there was Indian flag near her feet. Apparently exposing her bare feet to the Indian flag was the biggest insult ever, and people were actually threatening to lynch her for her flagrant disrespect of the country.


There is a reason that politicians get elected in India by campaigning to rename things that still have British names. India has a crazy level of national pride and sometimes lacks a bit of common sense.

(Like I said, China is the same way, especially since their government eggs them on. The difference is that they don't have as much freedom or as many international platforms to voice it. And the rest of the world already realizes that China is a little bit crazy.)

[dorothyinAus]

I think she could have phrased her opinion better. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's "disgusting."

Gross and disgusting are words that really bother me when people are describing food. If you don't like it, that's fine. But other people do. Calling a dish gross or disgusting feels very degrading or belittling to others' opinions to me.

I don't care for curries, raw proteins (whether fish, chicken, pork, or beef), or lettuce. But I would not call them gross or disgusting.

I think it's a big deal made of nothing, but she has put herself in the public eye, and big deals made of nothing are the stock and trade of people in the public eye.

[travelingturtle]

If I hadn't known that it offended someone, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But, since I now know that it did, I can see how the word "disgusting" could be taken that way. I'm not too familiar with the culture in India, but if food is very important to it (which I think it is, but I just don't know) then yeah, it's probably offensive. There are so many other ways to say you don't like something. Overall, though, it's a big deal about nothing. It's bringing much more attention to it than it needs to.

[popcorn]

It's an opinion about food.

Dumb thing to make into an issue and not offensive.

And I think plenty of foods are gross and disgusting, but that doesn't mean I am belittling people who like them. The same way people who love foods I don't like aren't belittling my dislike of those same foods. It's called an opinion and if I don't like a food I can describe my dislike however I choose.

Obviously if someone made food for me and I didn't like it I wouldn't say it was gross because that WOULD be offensive. Speaking in general terms, not offensive.

[clickerish]

Um, Kim Kardashian offends me by her existence...so I don't see why her dislike of Indian food is any more stupid than half the other stuff she says. It's not an attack on Indian culture.

[crimsonandclover]

First off, I see nothing offensive about it. PPs have already expressed my opinions (Gilli, I think I love you), so I won't bother repeating what's already been said. However, I do think it's a little strange when people say they don't like "Indian" food since the food is so varied. Maybe she just had a curry she didn't like, but would like Tandoori or something else. Not even everything is spiced with curry, if that's what she doesn't like.

Whatever, though. I honestly could not care less what she likes or doesn't like. It reminds me a bit of the flap a few years ago over Richard Gere kissing that Indian star - like you said, Gilli, since they speak English they can make their million voices heard a lot better in the States than when someone does something to offend the Chinese.

[bugabean]

May 31, 2012 6:44:45 GMT -5 popcorn said:

And I think plenty of foods are gross and disgusting, but that doesn't mean I am belittling people who like them. The same way people who love foods I don't like aren't belittling my dislike of those same foods. It's called an opinion and if I don't like a food I can describe my dislike however I choose.

ITA. To me, "it's disgusting" means "it's disgusts ME" unless you specify otherwise. If I don't know how ANYONE could avoid being disgusted by something, then that it what I will say. I guess I can see how it could be interpreted otherwise, but I can think of a million times someone has said something is boring, amazing, exhausting or whatever and it was very, very obviously only about how THEY felt. I don't think "disgusting" is different than that.