FeministsIndia breaks the news about the death of Prof. Neera Desai, who seems to have been an amazing woman.
One of the pioneers of Women’s Studies in India, Prof. Neera Desai, passed away on 25th June 2009 in Mumbai. She was 84.
Prof. Neera Desai was the Founder Director of Research Centre for Women’s Studies (1974) at [...]
Archive for the 'Feminism' Category
Prof. Neera Desai - pioneer of Women’s Studies in India
Published by June 30th, 2009 in Feminism, India and Women. 0 CommentsSilence and resistance
Published by June 25th, 2009 in Caste, Dalit, Feminism, Gender & Sexuality, History, Human Rights, Patriarchy, Politics, Prejudice, Violence and Women. 0 CommentsAnu explains that silence doesn’t mean the absence of resistance:
This on the face of it seems like pretty sound explanation, so with a magic wand if we push the upper caste down the ladder, upper caste men lose their ‘manhood’ when their women are appropriated and humiliated, right? Any caste that finds itself at the [...]
‘Madhavikutty’
Published by June 3rd, 2009 in Books, Feminism, Gender & Sexuality, Language, Literature, Media and Women. 1 CommentJo is ’sad because she wouldn’t be there anymore to speak of love’:
For most of the Malayalees, Madhavikutty was a porn writer. Ask the common public, who couldn’t see the truly original soul that she was, about Madhavikutty and they would say, “I know, I know… she is the one who wrote “Ente Katha” (My [...]
Ultra Violet
Published by June 2nd, 2009 in Blogging, Feminism, Gender & Sexuality, Human Rights, Internet, Patriarchy, Society and Women. 0 Comments..is back. At http://ultraviolet.in in a new home. Please go check.
The dickless variety ain’t allowed
Published by May 11th, 2009 in Feminism, Prejudice, Society and Women. 0 CommentsEden Gardens and her friends have been trying to find a place for themselves. A public place, to hang out with friends, to have a laugh and to share a cup of tea. Unfortunately, in spite of not being males, they chose to wear shorts and smoke at said locations. Read up about what happened [...]
Aparna Singh discusses abortions and sex-selective abortions:
The dilemma is this: on the one hand, it is important that women have the right to abort as an inalienable right over their own bodies. On the other hand, to prevent the rampant killing of foetuses identified as female, the government has made such identification illegal. Then, is [...]
IHT carried a very insightful article by Anand Giridharadas titled “A feminist revolution in India skips the liberation”. I would have posted excerpts, but the piece is worth reading in its entirety, so I suggest you make a quick detour to the IHT site before taking a deep breath (highly recommended) and plunging into my [...]
The ‘teacher’s burden’
Published by October 20th, 2008 in Development, Environment, Feminism and Globalisation. 0 CommentsSneha Krishnan finds the existence of a patriarchy in globalization:
So, even as we speak of great development, we need to ask ourselves, “What is development?” Development to me may be the ability to communicate to the world using my Apple Mac laptop built and bought in California, while I stretch on the divan in [...]
Shilpa Phadke questions Anand Giridharadas’ understanding of Indian feminism:
Mistaking one work of fiction to represent all women in a country is rather blinkered and when it’s a country of the diversity and complexity of India, it borders on the ridiculous. Compounding this by attempting to pontificate on a subject about which you clearly know nothing [...]
The chipko movement, genre and decolonising the mind
Published by October 7th, 2008 in Books, Feminism, India and Society. 3 CommentsI’m a big fan of Vandana Singh, and I’m pleased that she’s currently blogging at Jeff Vandermeer’s Ecstatic Days. In this post, she discusses how a trek she went on in her teens was her first intimation that
a) feminism was not an exclusively Western phenomenon, and b) people, however poor and illiterate, could lift themselves [...]
Adding to Shruthi’s earlier post here.
Abi has compiled some reactions, including the above, and agrees with another blogger that it’s ‘unfuckingbelievable’. Especially one session on occult.
As if dissing women in general and IIT alumnae in particular wasn’t enough, these guys have put together “a mystic trail” — right within the IIT-M campus — that will [...]
Emma is very angry. And I can see why.
Let’s get this straight okay - spouse as per this assorted group’s parlance means “wife”. No, men do not qualify. You see, they are the IIT alumni. You got to be kidding me - women and IIT alumni! Of course not. The only way a woman can [...]
Unmana advocates the end of marriage as an institution:
But property rights can be protected through shared ownership and wills. We should perhaps have some mechanism through which you can register one person as your “next of kin” with their consent. That takes care of who to inform in a medical emergency or whose permission is [...]
Beth, a bollywood fan, analyzes the movie “Chak De, India” and tells us about the good and the bad in it. Reacting to the incident about the girls bashing up the roadside romeos at the restaurant, she says:
Chak De! India is for me a feminist film, unapologetically, boldly, with heart and humor. But women taking [...]
“I wish this had happened to my daughter”
Published by September 9th, 2007 in Feminism, India, Society and Women. 0 CommentsPavithra Srinivasan talks about a release of a book on one the major issues in India.
Gita Aravamudan, the author, went to describe her own experiences as she researched information and wrote the book. Coming across the issue in the early 1990s when she went to Usilampatti, Tamil Nadu, for a feature in The Week, she [...]
Finally, we have an Indian feminist colla-blog - Ultra Violet. I have been expecting such a blog for a long time and I am glad that it is here! I hope this site lasts long and carries out meaningful discussions on issues concerning women and feminism. One of the first posts is on how judges [...]
A new blog which urges women who love women to break the silence posts a poem by Wordsworth:
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love..
‘Kyunki saas bhi..’ empowers women
Published by August 28th, 2007 in Feminism, India, Media and Women. 0 CommentsChurumuri links to a study that says cable television helps the empowerment of women in rural India:
The authors followed women in 2,700 households in 180 villages in four states (Bihar, Goa, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu) and the capital, Delhi, from 2001 to 2003. In the places that didn’t get cable by 2003, and in the [...]
‘The world is their toilet’
Published by August 3rd, 2007 in Culture, Feminism, Humour, India, Patriarchy and Society. 0 CommentsDidn’t wish to link to another post by a fellow contributor here today, but I loved this post- it is very funny and serious at the same time. Shruthi makes a lot of sense to me:
Poor guy, no restroom. Sooooo sad. What do you think we females do when we are in that situation? We [...]
As a token, Apu thinks Pratibha Patil is an ‘average, middling sort of specimen’:
So Pratibha Patil is President. Yoo hoo for womenkind and all that. Or not? Considering that the role of the President in India is largely ceremonial, I don’t per se have an issue with making it a token of some kind. So [...]
Shubhaprada writes about what it is to be a feminist.
All feminists are not bra burners, nor are they marriage breakers neither do all of them indulge in pre-marital sex. Feminism for heavens sake is all about choice and letting the woman make her choice in life.
What are you looking at?
Published by July 2nd, 2007 in Feminism, India, Society and Women. 0 CommentsMangs on why “looking” is a problem.
And I will counter him, trying my best to avoid slipping into the nebulous and often weakening terrain of argument that rests on “personal experience”, by keeping this argument within the realm he has defined – one of rights. Are we denying someone a basic right when we say [...]
Aishwarya listens to a women only FM.
It seems that Meow’s “women only” theme has led to some people believing that it is “feminist”. The woman presenting the show hurried to correct this misconception, Meow is not like that. To prove that the women of Meow like and appreciate men* (because, you know, feminists don’t) she [...]
Hindu wisdom
Published by June 1st, 2007 in Feminism, India, Prejudice, Religion and Women. 0 CommentsDeepak searches for reasons why women are not allowed into the Sabarimala temple and finds some interesting things. I found this one particularly hilarious -
Women’s menstrual blood will attract animals in the wild and jeopardize fellow travelers;
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