K.M.Venugopalan says the institution of the hetero-sexual family plays a pivotal role in ’selectively sanctifying certain kinds of economic, social and cultural activities of people‘:
The politics of claiming autonomy over bodies cannot perhaps wait, until all the fears associated with morals and culture are settled forever. It is imperative to talk about how deeply [...]
Archive for the 'sexuality' Category
‘Gendered’ majority
Published by May 11th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Society, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsFemale sexuality through a woman’s eyes
Published by May 4th, 2008 in Feminism, Literature, Patriarchy, Society, Women and sexuality. 2 Comments‘Is it risky for a woman writer to deal with female sexuality in India’? Sarojini Sahoo, feminist writer in Oriya, tries to answer that question:
”Yes, it is risky for a woman writer to deal with these themes in an Eastern country, and for that I face much criticism? But still I believe someone has to [...]
When I learnt that Davis was getting married, I asked him whether he was doing that out of compulsion from his mother. He was not. The truth is, he had enough of all the unstable relationships and was wishing for some stability in his life. So here is a guy who knows his ways with [...]
What destiny a daughter fulfilled
Published by April 28th, 2008 in Development, Feminism, Fiction, Prejudice, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsDr. Motion pens a beautiful story that ends thus:
You are lucky that times have changed, your mother was not fortunate enough to follow her heart.
Don’t worry, I haven’t really given the ending away. Please read it.
Who cares if its a girl?
Published by April 21st, 2008 in India, Patriarchy, Prejudice, Society, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsIn a really heartbreaking account, Roop Rai chronicles the unfortunate state at the RSRM hospital at Royapuram, Chennai where two families who have had children born the day before laying claim to male child, while nobody wants the female one.
“We paid them money at every stage. A ward boy took Rs 300 saying it was [...]
MAC Attack
Published by April 16th, 2008 in Appeal, Community, Feminism, Personal, Prejudice, Society, Women, sexual harrassment and sexuality. 0 CommentsEllie posted about her encounter with one creep on her blog:
Only last week, the Sunday evening was beautiful and at around 6:30 in the evening, in broad daylight, I decided to walk down to Dodo’s place, less than a km away from my flat. I put my really wasted jeans and a very un-flattering kurta [...]
“(Yo)nifying with the self”
Published by March 28th, 2008 in Culture, Feminism, Personal, Society, South Asia, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsAfter much debate with her inner voices, Sunshine finally submits her scripts for “Yoni ki baat” a play inspired by Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues”. Some of her scripts were accepted and she’s now rehearsing for the play.
More than reaching out to the South Asian community, I have reached out to myself, in some of the [...]
The Shaming of Scarlett Keeling
Published by March 26th, 2008 in Feminism, Government, Human Rights, Justice, Media, Patriarchy, Women, public space and sexuality. 17 CommentsIf the killing was brutal, the reactions that followed haven’t been kind either- Sharanya condemns those who are condemning the victim:
In other words, the condemning of the murdered girl, her family, her friends, their lifestyles and their choices is a typical misogynist response – the wicked woman gets her dues. And this time, there are [...]
Man’s pleasure over woman’s need
Published by March 21st, 2008 in Feminism, Patriarchy, Theory, Women and sexuality. 1 CommentAvishek has a theory- he suggests that women ‘themselves have contributed to their sufferings because of their non-confrontational attitude‘:
The movie also briefly mentioned an egregious incident from India. It referred to an incident where five government-run mental institutions sought hysterectomy for 330 mentally retarded girls and women (In 1994, hysterectomies were performed on 17 girls [...]
Gender and other identities
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsAt Ultra Violet, Usha BN eplains why ‘gender does not function in isolation’:
In the 70s and 80s, the women’s movement in India focused on mobilising women across caste, class and ethnic background against violence and discrimination. Women were seen as a single political category. So there was a universalising approach which held that all women [...]
What Bangles Mean
Published by March 16th, 2008 in Culture, Feminism, Humour, Media, Patriarchy, Politics, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsA women’s day news report about Renuka Chowdhury’s “empowerment bangles” has Rimi B Chatterjee musing on bangles and their cultural significance.
If women are socialised to see certain kinds of jewelry in certain ways, so are men. Indian dance and drama have turned the business of a woman putting on her jewelry into an art form: shringar. Men [...]
‘It’s The Tourists Who Are At Fault’
Published by March 6th, 2008 in Government, Media, Society, Women, sexual harrassment and sexuality. 0 CommentsPen Pricks write about an editorial of Gomantak Times, a Goan daily, regarding the alleged rape of a foreigner in Goa at the beginning of the year.
Sanjay, are you in your senses? Do you realise what you are writing here? You are absolving the State of its most important responsibility? Foreigners attend these rave parties [...]
Blank Noise
Published by February 18th, 2008 in Activism, Cinema, Community, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, India, Justice, Patriarchy, Prejudice, Society, Spotlight Series, Women, public space and sexuality. 8 Comments[ This is Essay # !6 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Blank Noise
————-
Jasmeen Patheja
How have you felt every time you ignored a stranger’s eyes stripping you naked?
How often have you been a mute witness or spectator to street sexual violence?
How often have you whistled, passed remarks, leched, intimidated a female stranger, just [...]
Demand for the establishment of Sexual Harassment committees
Published by February 9th, 2008 in Activism, Announcement, Appeal, Caste, Feminism, Human Rights, Justice, Prejudice, South Asia, White Ribbon Campaign, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsThe blogosphere has been largely silent on the Patan Gang-rape incident except for Atrocity News which covers incidents on Caste atrocities.
From news reports,
“The victim said she was gang-raped at least 14 times during the last six months in the college laboratory and computer room, where she was summoned under a threat that her career would [...]
Watered down
Published by February 4th, 2008 in Cinema, Culture, Patriarchy, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsPadmaja Thakore feels Deepa Mehta’s Water does not do justice to its subject:
The women in ‘Water’ have no desires (except Bua’s hunger for laddoos and Chuhiya’s desire to go home). The only woman (Kalyani) who has any sexual experience is a victim, forced into prostitution. The only man-woman relationship that is not forced (between Kalyani [...]
Swatie revisits her review of Abha Dawesar’s Babyji:
So, one way among many in which the text works:
In those few crucial moments of decision in the novel, Anamika (the 16 year old protagonist) attributes her attraction towards women to something genetic, something natural. This works because it dislodges what the socio-cultural order dictates: being compulsorily [...]
On the Mumbai molestation incident
Published by January 3rd, 2008 in Feminism, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Society, Women and sexuality. 10 CommentsBlogger reactions on the molestation of two women by a crowd outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai after a New Years party at the hotel.
Gauri sees a familiar pattern
Women’s associations will cry hoarse.
Women will have to think twice before going on a night out.
The papers and the news channels will hash the issue [...]
Secrets, secrets are no fun?
Published by December 30th, 2007 in India, Spotlight Series and sexuality. 2 Comments[This is essay #9 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for archives.]
While Bollywood is usually not the place to go for thought-provoking material, watching “Life in a… Metro” has provided me with just enough to get me going for this post. Admittedly, I am new to the field of torrid adultery as I do not [...]
No means no
Published by December 14th, 2007 in Cinema, Culture, Feminism, Media, Patriarchy, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsDesigirl is incensed by the message about rape given by the Tamil film Varalaru.
The cherry on top of this sick icing happens a few scenes later, when the girl’s mum pleads his case to her now pregnant daughter, with the standard “He is a good man, sweetheart” line. Of course he is, if you discount [...]
… masturbation. Hush…! It is one of the many things about sex that we do not openly talk/discuss about and eventually end up gathering wrong information. Dr. Namrata writes about everything that we ever wanted to know about masturbation and analyzes the myths and facts about it.
MYTH:
Only losers masturbate.
FACT:
Losers are guys who go and get [...]
Land rights for sex workers
Published by November 24th, 2007 in Activism, Community, Feminism, Government, Human Rights, Justice, Politics, Society, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsSonia draws attention to the Janakeeya Samithi’s attempts to oust sex workers from Bangladesh Colony in Kozhikode.
Most of the sex workers had built houses there with their savings and their children are studying in the nearby schools. Usually they come to the town to do sex work and return home early in the morning. Now [...]
On Kamala Das
Published by October 30th, 2007 in Feminism, India, Literature, Poetry, Women and sexuality. 2 CommentsRajesh discusses the way women writers are seen in India, focusing on the works of Kamala Das.
That her private life being debated threadbare even after she had turned seventy three should give us enough insight into the iron cast template for an Indian writer who happens to be a woman. However if you stick to [...]
The weak sex
Published by October 29th, 2007 in Feminism, Human Rights, Prejudice, Society and sexuality. 0 CommentsIn response to a DNA news article, Ideasmithy explores the dangers a guy might face in the world. She writes,
What’s most chilling is the thought that these dangers exist without a comparable level of support. If a guy broke up with his girlfriend, citing ‘too much of pressure for sex’ as a reason, how many [...]
An academic in America
Published by October 25th, 2007 in Culture, Theory, Travel and sexuality. 0 CommentsAniruddh Vasudevan is visiting the US and has an interesting account of his experiences as “the quintessentially exotic Other: dancer, Indian, queer”
What I am saying is that, I begin to feel that even when one travels for the first time somewhere, that romantic sense of “happy anonymity” that I used to believe in, is not [...]
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