Good or bad? Please read and react. Priya Tanna. Write to her.?

Question

Priya Tanna is a 34 year old Yogue Editor based in Mumbai. India has an enormous amount of poverty, about 456 people live on less than $1.25 a day (World Bank figures last week). Thousands of Indian people have committed suicide - farmers - because of debts. Vogue India made a 16 page photo shoot showing impoverished Indians wearing $10,000 luxury goods like Hermes bags. People struggle to survive in the streets. India is a caste system. Luxury brands have barely made a foothold in the middle class and upper class markets where people go from no money to lots of money quickly, so Americans want to manufacture the materialistic need. The supporters say that they want to create "aspirations" for the Indians, by these luxury goods. PRIYA TANNA spoke to critics who were outraged over the telephone and she said, "Lighten up."

Thousands of people commit suicide in a cold, cruel environment and a caste system and amid torture and violence. PRIYA TANNA's response is, "Lighten up". Good American? Measure success by good, things, stuff?

(Consult New York Times Article on C1, September 1, 2008)

Answer 1

To me, it suggests that the message that it sends is "Happiness is found in stuff". Which is a message that shouldn't be be sent to the less fortunate people of India, but it also shouldn't be sent to any class of person in America either.

It's because of this mentality that you have so many young people with the mindsets that are showcased so well in American shows like "My Sweet 16". Ugh, it infuriates me.

I think "lighten up" was the wrong way to backup her piece, it would, and no doubt did, only further infuriate people who were already upset by the magazine spread. Aside from that, it's just not a professional response for an 'artist' to give.

Artists of any medium should always be ready to defend their work, especially one that takes such a bold approach.

Answer 2

I would LOVE to be able to contact this woman and give her a piece of my mind.  LIGHTEN UP?? What planet is she on!??? Suicide, poverty and the caste system are all not a HAPPY HAPPY FUN FUN thing to talk about.  How tacky, rude, un moral uncaring, unfeeling and down right F'd up of Ms. Tanna to even insinuate that vogue India's spread that contained an ENTIRE family of three shoved on the back of a moped toting a $10,000 bag is anything less than an insult to the very topic of poverty and to the millions of people all around this world (in India and everywhere else) that are struggling to even put food in their mouths and keep their children fed.  She is arrogant and sadly misinformed if she thinks that her layout, which also consists of a baby on the hip of an impoverished and weathered elderly woman wearing a $100 Fendi bib is anything less than an atrocity towards human kind.  What is worse is for Ms. Tanna (for lack of wanting to call her anything else in a public forum) to stand behind her decision to publish such monstrosities and not even have the decency to admit that it was a SEVERE misjudgment on her part to run something so insulting and hurtful.  LIGHTEN UP!??? LIGHTEN UP is ALL she has to say!!??   CMON - SOMEONE please let there be justice in this world, force that pathetic excuse of a woman to have to live a single second in the shoes of a struggling hungry person and then tell her to lighten up and get a grip on life.  THAT layout has NOTHING to do with fashion and everything to do with being an abominative insult to people every where.  

Answer 3

That is your culture. I wonder how India survived with the caste system but I know the answer right at the back of my head "that is the way of their belief" but we need to respect your culture, your thinking and everything about your lifestyle. sometimes it is so sad to think that a number of impoverished individuals (not only in India) are ending their hardships by committing suicide. I think something must be done. Honestly speaking, I don't know what is the meaning of "lighten up" by Priya Tanna but I am still I am thinking tht it must be one of the religious outlook of the Vogue editor.

Answer 4

Priya Tanna should be fired and tortured for her ridiculous comments, as well as her participation in allowing impoverished Indians to be placed in fashion ads.  It shows what a sad, and souless person she is.  It is what you would expect of someone trying to get attention, versus someone with class, and intellect.  Fire Priya Tanna.  She is filthy.

M. LaRochelle