Sania Mirza is planning to quit her career after she marries. And Priya questions this:
Why do Indian women even bother starting a career if it’s something they plan to do only until they get married? There are a million other ways women can spend their pre-marriage years—they could volunteer, learn music, start a home business, [...]
Archive for the 'Women' Category
After marriage, should you quit your career?
Published by January 21st, 2010 in Personal, Society and Women. 0 CommentsAshtanayika – eight kinds of female protagonists in dance
Published by December 19th, 2009 in Art, Literature and Women. 0 CommentsAnandita has a lovely compilation of the Ashtanayika or the eight different kinds of female protagonists and how they are depicted in dance forms:
Jai Deva’s Geet Govinda talks beautiful about the Ashtanaikas. I haven’t yet read it but i had a chance to attend a workshop on the Ashtanayikas conducted by my dear teacher. She [...]
How to make issue-based comic strips
Published by December 9th, 2009 in Activism, Art, Gender & Sexuality, Violence and Women. 2 CommentsThat was the title of the workshop organized by the Rights Advocates group in Lucknow. Read up more here:
The outcome of the workshop was an eye opener of sorts on questions like, “What are the most pertinent issues that affects the youth? How do they articulate the issues and what solutions do they suggest?
Three main [...]
Bant Singh’s struggle for justice
Published by December 8th, 2009 in Caste, Justice, Law and order, Violence and Women. 2 Comments“What would you do, if you were a lower caste Dalit farmer living in Punjab and your minor daughter was raped by a group of influential upper-caste men?”. Find out more about Bant Singh and the ‘retributions’ for his standing up for justice:
A phone call to “retrieve his body” actually found him barely alive but [...]
‘They’re human, just like anyone else.’
Published by November 3rd, 2009 in Media, Society and Women. 0 CommentsAditi objects to the media targeting size-zero models:
To me what’s more disturbing than the fact that so many women suffer from eating disorders is that the mainstream media have begun to treat them with scorn. There’s this strange binary created: ‘real’ women vs models.It’s true that models have a particular body type that isn’t quite [...]
Lean and unhealthy
Published by October 25th, 2009 in Bollywood, Business, Cinema, Culture and Women. 0 CommentsRum remembers the days when actors didn’t have to starve to look good on screen and blames Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone for starting an unhealthy trend:
I’m not gonna hate on all naturally skinny gals like Anushka Sharma, or others but its just that Kareena Kapoor is going all out to promote an unreal expectation [...]
Janabai, poet for all times
Published by October 17th, 2009 in Caste, Language, Literature, Poetry, Prejudice and Women. 2 CommentsJanabai shares dais with her contemporaries Sant Dynaeshwar and Sant Namdev – poet saints of Maharastra. Her 300 odd abhangs have become part of Namdev’s repertoire of devotional songs to Lord Vittal. Here is one where the Lord Vittal works alongside her. These are not household chores as is usually described for a housemaid. This [...]
Scandal in Kodambakkam
Published by October 16th, 2009 in Cinema, Media, Patriarchy, Television and Women. 0 CommentsMaami 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 [...]
The hurt within
Published by October 15th, 2009 in Feminism, Fiction, Human Rights, Society and Women. 0 CommentsRohini narrates what a woman might be thinking as she goes through her day after being a victim of abuse and harassment:
She stopped in front of the police station but found herself unable to go in and lodge a complaint. She knew that all those who were in there to ‘protect society’ were men. Men [...]
On Smiles and Interpretations
Published by October 1st, 2009 in Activism, Feminism, Society and Women. 0 CommentsBlank Noise conducted a small project on the busy city streets where their volunteers did nothing but Smile at the passers by. All you need is love, is it?
Neha Bhat:
Madam, kitna charge karega?” ( “how much will you charge?”)
This is was my first experience of being mistaken for a sex worker and being approached [...]
Deranged (or arranged) marriage ?
Published by September 13th, 2009 in Culture, India, Society and Women. 2 CommentsNamrata feels that arranged marriages are not the way to go :
If having children,going to movies on weekends and having dinner together is all that is required then our country is an example nation. Unfortunately for many women even this is not a reality. They are trapped in marriages where all they are required to [...]
Daughters 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 [...]
Music for Equality
Published by September 8th, 2009 in Activism, Music, Violence and Women. 0 CommentsMiss Malini has the details.
Digging up the past ….
Published by September 7th, 2009 in Culture, History, India and Women. 0 CommentsRukshana Nanji stumbled upon a female human skeleton as old as three thousand five hundred years, while digging a site in Navadatoli in Madhya Pradesh. Back in the early nineties this was a stunning discovery when historians believed the Harappen Culture to be existent around the Indus. A masters degree in Archeology and Ancient History [...]
Relationships are hard, but then we all seek explanations. Some, obviously explain better. Here’s Zubin’s take on the various permutations and combinations of interaction (ahem ahem) between girls and boys. Some wishful thinking and some hard facts, you’d still be in your own quadrant, perhaps with a clearer vision!?
This basically means that if a girl [...]
Rape convictions in India and Anand Jon
Published by September 4th, 2009 in India, Law and order and Women. 1 CommentNivedita empathises with Anand Jon’s wish to be tried in India.
A rape convict cleared the civil service exam earlier this year while serving his sentence, and was deemed by the Delhi High Court to have “redeemed himself in jail”, his incarceration of five years having met “the ends of justice”. His victim, who committed suicide, [...]
It’s an oft-repeated and much debated question; the root of much of those (mythical ?) SAHM vs. Working Mother debates. At I am, I exist A Muser writes about her decision to stay at home with her kids.
Sure there are hard days. It’s true that raising two doesn’t double but quadruples the workload. The laundry [...]
Unmana recently offered in-law advice for husbands. Now she has some for the wives :
Let him know if there’s any specific behaviour of theirs that hurts you. “I know Mamma means well, but when she asks me how often I make halwa and then looks at you like she’s sorry for you…”
That one had me nodding [...]
I don’t think I’ll ever have courage to travel solo like Scout.
What followed is hazy, but I remember a game of pool, I remember two of the boys stealing a ring and a bracelet for me from one of the unattended stalls and I definitely remember beer. After the match ended, we went to one [...]
Prof. Neera Desai – pioneer of Women’s Studies in India
Published by June 30th, 2009 in Feminism, India and Women. 2 CommentsFeministsIndia 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 [...]
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 [...]
“But the girls couldn’t have done it without a man, huh?”
Published by June 24th, 2009 in Cinema and Women. 0 CommentsVeracious finds some feminist glitches in Chak De India:
The thing is, I adore this film to bits. It’s refreshing, it’s gripping, it’s got a cast of absolutely terrific characters and some rare, fascinating female-female dynamics that are usually reserved for relations between the sexes or just between men in Indian cinema. And yes, it is [...]
Unveiling martyrs
Published by June 23rd, 2009 in Culture, Human Rights, Racism, Religion, Secularism, Women and World. 0 CommentsAlankrita doesn’t understand why a democratic nation would want to impose a dress code:
The veil , however confuses me. I find the basic idea of covering up to prevent others from getting tempted, unadulterated nonsense. But there are those who choose to. I might find that choice stupid, or ill-informed or even regressive. But then [...]
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 [...]
“Do Japa and Tapa To Get Better”
Published by June 16th, 2009 in Business, Corruption, Health, Violence and Women. 0 CommentsMad Momma posts the horrifying true story of a victim of neglect and a lot else at a corporate hospital:
The OT wasn’t on standby, wasn’t ready. I was numb with pain. They wanted me to get up and move to the operation table. I couldn’t move. They eventually slid something under my back and I [...]
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