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textbook:

Shiva is one of the main gods of the Hindu religion. When all is said and done, there are millions and millions of deities in the Hindu pantheon, so I guess Shiva is pretty special. In truth, my first exposure was in Final Fantasy VII when I summoned her using red materia to vanquish some foes. As one might imagine, Square Enix’s interpretation of Shiva is pretty off the map and hyper-sexualized but whatever. Shiva, like many (if not all?) gods of the Hindu religion is both man and woman and takes many different forms. As the god of destruction, Shiva represents positive and negative changes that range from the introspective to the more physical world and is often referred to as “The Destroyer”. 

I’ll be honest, my knowledge of Shiva is very limited, so if you’re interested I suggest digging a little further on your own. Obviously, I have chosen to depict Shiva in a fully female form, but like I said, he/she has attributes of both sexes…annnnnd I’m not scholar of religion up in this piece.

FYI: from Stardusted.Tumblr.com: “Heeey, so Hindu follower of your blog here! So Shiva. Shiva himself is the male manifestation of the universe, and his wife Parvati is the female manifestation of the universe. They each have 108 forms/names. The genderfluid version you’re talking about is Ardhanarishvara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara). As you see, if you read the article, it’s pretty complicated- and it made me really uncomfortable to see Shiva used for fashion this way. I know you probably meant no disrespect, but Shiva isn’t a woman. (and let’s not even get into the video game)”

1. Dress by Marchesa, shoes by Tsumori Chisato

2. Dress by Peter Pilotto, shoes by Alexander McQueen

3. Dress by Mary Katrantzou, shoes by Altuzarra

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