Maami on the vulnerability of the ‘beautiful women’, moviegoers ‘fantasise on screen as goddesses’:
A cacophony involving a small- time actress, has allegedly accused many senior actresses of Tamil cinema of running brothels has erupted in Chennai. This “confession” was published in the newspaper carrying photographs of the actresses without verifying or seeking their opinion. Afterall actresses are [...]
Archive for the 'Patriarchy' Category
Scandal in Kodambakkam
Published by October 16th, 2009 in Cinema, Media, Patriarchy, Television and Women. 0 CommentsDaughters of India
Published by September 11th, 2009 in Patriarchy, Photography and Women. 0 CommentsA collection of truly brilliant photographs by Fazal Shaikh, a photographer and an artist posted by May :
Abandoned widows of India who have been driven to the safety of ashrams in a holy city where they exchanged prayers for food and unwanted girls and women in Indian culture, this time showing the faces and bits [...]
Silence 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 [...]
The biggest problem of a woman entrepreneur is the social attitude and the constraints in which she has to live and work. Despite constitutional equality; there is discrimination against women. In a tradition-bound society, women suffer from male reservations about a woman’s role and capacity. In rural areas, women face resistance not only from males [...]
Women and their place
Published by June 11th, 2009 in Culture, Development, Patriarchy, Society, South Asia and Women. 0 CommentsSarah Sanyahumbi meets some self-help groups in Nepal and is witness to an incident which really underlined again for her ‘the position that many women have in society’:
And then something happened which has really stuck in my mind: I asked about safety, as the Terai can be a very dangerous place with criminal gangs controlling [...]
Different perspectives on the quota
Published by June 8th, 2009 in Dalit, Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Policy, Politics, Prejudice and Women. 1 CommentAbantika Ghosh on the proposed quota for women: Let’s at least have the good sense to feel ashamed of it.
Because in the end the need for women’s reservation arises in the mindset and after all the promises of universal education and compulsory primary education, somehow women, as young girls, always seem to miss out on [...]
Women’s reservations bill
Published by June 7th, 2009 in Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Policy, Politics, Prejudice and Women. 3 CommentsRaghav Parthasarathy thinks this is the right time for the bill:
We recently heard Sharad Yadav saying that he would kill himself if the bill was passed. The BJP has indicated that it is willing to support the bill. Its leader , Shri Advani has clearly indicated that the 15th Lok Sabha will see a new [...]
Quota for women
Published by June 5th, 2009 in Caste, Democracy, Patriarchy, Policy, Politics and Women. 0 CommentsThe debate has just started, and I hope it picks up.
Sunny likes the idea of reservations for women in parliament. Churumuri offers a nice picture of poison to Sharad Yadav. The blogger seems, like Mr.Yadav, ‘unwilling to concede, comprehend or come to terms’ with what those who hold opposing points of view are talking about. [...]
Sacred threads and knots
Published by June 4th, 2009 in Caste, Patriarchy, Religion and Women. 4 CommentsVidya revisits the the rights of women in ‘the golden sanatana scheme of things’:
While it is very convenient to blame invading cultures and encounters with them as possible reasons for denial of education in Medieval India this does not tell the complete story. The fact remains is that the exceptions were far and few and [...]
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.
Kamala Das, RIP
Published by May 31st, 2009 in Books, Culture, Literature, Patriarchy, Poetry, Society and Women. 1 CommentGift him all,
Gift him what makes you woman,
The scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between
The breasts.
The warm shock of menstrual blood
And all your
Endless female hungers. Oh, yes,
Getting a man to love is easy but living
Without him afterwards may have to be faced.
Don Suseelan remembers Kamala Das:
Madhavikutty, Kamala Das, Amy, Kamala Suarayya. Each equally hated [...]
Women’s representation in parliament
Published by May 26th, 2009 in Caste, Democracy, Gender & Sexuality, General Elections 2009, Human Rights, Justice, Patriarchy, Policy, Politics, Prejudice, Society and Women. 0 CommentsDeepali Gaur Singh writes on the unfinished business of women’s representation in parliament:
India ranks 115th of 162 countries in terms of gender development. Lack of representation directly translates into a de-sensitized political leadership that is completely cut-off from the issues facing half the population of the country. It also results in disproportionately less legislation empowering [...]
arey aaj kal to dhobi, rikshey valley bhi lete hain ek dhed lakh dahez mein
Published by March 31st, 2009 in Caste, Culture, Dalit, Education, Gender & Sexuality, India, Patriarchy, Society and Women. 0 CommentsAmrita, a Dalit Buddhist girl who worked hard to build a career for herself as a businesswoman, talks about how tough it is to escape the hold of institutions such as dowry and arranged marriage in India and how most of the times a girl loses her identity in the process of marriage and dowry. [...]
The Hindutva agenda
Published by March 4th, 2009 in India, Patriarchy, Violence and Women. 3 CommentsAccording to Apu,
All of these of course have implications for women, especially for urban, affluent women who are in some ways what the Hindutva brigade would most like to control. Attacks on such women are more visible in the media, giving the attackers more publicity. You rarely catch the fundamentalist groups lecturing women in slums [...]
Preserving Indian culture at the Mangalore pubs
Published by January 29th, 2009 in Culture, Democracy, Government, Human Rights, India, Law and order, Media, Patriarchy, Politics, Prejudice and Women. 8 CommentsA fanatic, they say, is someone who does what he thinks God would have done, if He had the details of the case. In this case, only if everyone knew how the civilization and culture accumulated over 5,000 years was being destroyed through “obscene dancing” in pubs.
Vishita titles her post “Shame on me and shame [...]
Emma doesn’t like the Tata Sky ad because it reinforces gender stereotypes:
It doesn’t end there – Aamir comes back from work, arms filled with grocery bags and all ready to make tea. And then the truth is revealed – why has Aamir been so “nice” to Gul throughout the day? So that Gul would allow [...]
Lehman Brothers to the rescue
Published by November 18th, 2008 in Humour, Patriarchy and Women. 0 CommentsIndian Home Maker on how the American economy intervened to save an Indian daughter-in-law:
“Money isn’t everything. My son says, he misses the way hot food waited on the table when he got home from school, I was so well read, but I was content to just look after them … ”
“LOL I am sure your [...]
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 [...]
I feel ashamed to be an Indian
Published by November 2nd, 2008 in Government, Human Rights, Indiaspora, Law and order, Patriarchy, Prejudice, Society and Women. 0 CommentsSK quotes on his blog:
India being my mother nation it is with heavy heart I’m saying that I wish to change my citizenship to a country where men are not considered to be criminals and rapists by birth! I feel ashamed to be the citizen of a country where its administration and judiciary do not [...]
Patriarchy commits another horrific crime
Published by October 29th, 2008 in Human Rights, Patriarchy, South Asia and Women. 0 CommentsAmna Gilani shares the story of an honour killing.
There is more to the bone-chilling account of the 17-year-old Taslim Solangi of Khairpur who was thrown to dogs ?she was 8-month pregnant and was forced to give birth to her baby prematurely.
The baby was immediately thrown into the nearby Ubhal Wah canal after her killer father-in-law [...]
Emera wants to go home:
I REALLY want to walk down a street and have everyone ignore me. I want to be able to sit on a park bench eating a roast beef sandwich and not have one single person stop to stare. I want to be a place where I don’t have to answer questions [...]
Pragmatic suggests the armed services need to do more to deal with unequal treatment of women in the services:
Many service officers and veterans contend that the sexual harassment is an unfair tool, like the Dowry law, that can be misused by women officers to get even with senior officers. However they forget that similar situations [...]
Divorce and happiness
Published by September 21st, 2008 in Patriarchy, Society and Women. 0 CommentsMost experts on the subject matter attribute the change to the newly seen financial independence amongst Indian women, a fact that allows them to make life decisions without the worry of financial ruins. That means not having to stay in troubled relationships, not having to tolerate abusive spouses, and not having to endure years insults, [...]
Morality around the womb
Published by September 21st, 2008 in Culture, Patriarchy and Women. 0 CommentsIn the marriage market, Rachel Chitra observes, everything comes down to fertility and the women’s womb:
I am always surprised about how religious fanatics are extremely concerned about the morality of women. The menfolk’s morality or immorality is not their concern and neither do you find it preached about in our churches’ pulpits.
Every culture has [...]
‘When will Bhairavi stop bringing her dowry home?’
Published by September 17th, 2008 in Culture, Patriarchy and Women. 3 CommentsShweta Krishnan shows you how dowry links everyone, in an unending chain of tragedy:
It may not affect the strata of the society where fathers can afford to give continuously. But it is because Bhairavi brings generously, that Kalpana gets no food, Rani is beaten, Annapoorna is tortured until she opts for suicide, Mangai is sent [...]
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