Celebrities channel their inspirations for photoshoots from many places. Cardi B, unfortunately, posed as someone you should never try to recreate that has understandably angered a certain community.
To promote her new sneaker collaboration, Cardi recreated a pose of Hindu goddess Durga. Channeling religions in creative ventures is always a tricky subject.
Rihanna just learned her lesson about the importance of research when she used a sacred Muslim song in her Fenty Fashion show. Nicki Minaj also received some criticism for posing as the Virgin Mary in her pregnancy shoot although the backlash wasn’t very intense.
https://twitter.com/MissAmericHANA/status/1326420547387977731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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After the photos were released, people took to Twitter to drag the rapper for making the offensive move all for a sneaker promotion.
‘Cardi b did not pay “homage” to the Hindu goddess Durga by holding a shoe in her hand, this is plain disrespect and in no way cultural appreciation. she can’t getaway with this without addressing and apologizing for mocking our culture,’ one person tweeted.
‘Cardi B using Durga Maa to sell trainers?? When are people gonna realise our gods and goddesses aren’t there to be mimicked…,’ added another.
This user said: ‘People are saying Cardi B is paying homeage to our hindu goddess Durga. Durga maa is never depicted bare bodied , wear a shoe and used as an aesthetic. This is complete DISRESPECT.’
https://twitter.com/AaryaAnkaikar/status/1326441056028684288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Another outraged tweet read: ‘My religion is not yours to appropriate or even use as a promoting tool for something like shoes..its insulting the Goddess Durga..we even remove our shoes before praying seriously not done #CardiB I hope u apologise.’
The WAP artist ended up apologizing after the backlash and blamed it on a creative director.
‘A lot of my fans are telling I’m getting dragged throughout social media… because of my Reebok shoot and saying that I disrespected a Goddess. when I did the Reebok shoot, the creative were telling me, ‘You’re going to represent a Goddess, that she represents strength, femininity and liberation, and that’s something that I love and that I’m all about.’
She went on to say: ‘And though it was dope, if people think I’m offending their culture or their religion I want to say I’m sorry, that was not my intent. I do not like disrespecting nobody’s religion. I wouldn’t like people to offend my religion.’
Cardi said that she can’t change the past but will do more research for the future.