Indian, American. Immigrant, Culture. Sexism, Racism. Wife, Mother, Physician.

These labels, these titles have been, and continue to be such a prominent part of my life. They define me.

I started dating and felt consciously discriminated against for the first time. Coming out of a long term relationship, moving to a bigger city and really putting myself out there, made me realize that I look different and I do not like it.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and as a person of color, there are times where I find it difficult to see myself being represented. I’ve realized that the lack of Asian LGBTQ+ representation has impacted the way that I feel about myself as a young woman.

I can’t speak or understand Hindi, much like many American children of Indian immigrants. I garble my way through popular Bollywood songs and I watch my movies with subtitles, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating Indian cinema.

Are dating apps racist? I’ll admit, this title is clickbait. But do dating apps, which in many ways I am indebted to for liberating me from the drudgery of feigning enthusiasm when engaging with strangers, serve as a vehicle to exoticise women of colour and further our oppression by imposing racial stereotypes onto us when we are least expecting it?

To what extent are there demographic differences in defining cultural appropriation, using fashion in America as a case study? Major magazine industries, such as Vogue and other designer brands, have recently been under fire for using various Asian cultural motifs.