By Anvitha Satheesh, Bhavishya Sundar and Rebecca Joby
A school in Kerala recently broke stereotypes by introducing gender-neutral uniforms for their students. When asked how the girls reacted to this change, C Raji, the principal of the primary school said that “they were most excited about the pockets in their shorts.”
One way to figure out if you are a feminist is whether or not you know the importance of pockets in a woman’s life. “Your course is over. You can go home now if you know about the significance of pockets” said Nisha Susan, co-founder of the feminist online magazine – The Ladies Finger.
The Ground Floor foyer of the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) was as crowded as it was spacey. Nisha Susan stood in a nook where a small library acted as an appropriate background. Behind her, slightly to her left was a white board with the words Who wants to know? I wants to know. As she spoke about feminist literature without a mic, the gathering inched closer, almost unconsciously, to hear her better.
Nisha Susan continued with the question of whom we tend to consider the heroine. From her reading of psychology books when she was younger, her main inference was that appearance was what mattered most and that if you were ugly, your story would end even before it started. There were certain boxes that needed to be checked for you to become a heroine: how she’d probably be better loved if she cried, was sad, had no change for auto and, was basically being your typical abla naari.
“Run away from someone who says you’re not special or makes you question yourself as to whether or not you’re special” says Nisha. Women, as people and characters are categorized into various clichés and types. They are even pitted against each other, because women are believed to be each others’ worst enemy.
When she spoke about Elena Ferrante’s brilliant decision to talk about a woman with equal love and contempt but more love, respect, admiration than jealousy, the crowd whooped with recognition. This was the recognition that finally someone understood that women aren’t women’s worst enemy, that if given the space we are all ready to be each other’s heroine, lover, sister and best friend without anger or much jealousy in the equation.
Women writing about women makes room for independent spaces where heroines can just breathe. They fight against the stereotypical woman who usually comes from the things we read about ourselves when men write about us. We are not feminists because we support the right to equality, we are feminists because we have made the decision to support an independent stand- up comedienne rather than a well known man’s over priced show. We are feminists because we make the conscious effort to unlearn patriarchal conditioning, to read more women literature, to include literature by women every year.
Post the talk, Nisha Susan spent time mingling with the enthusiastic crowd, tackling questions and offering suggestions to budding feminist writers. When asked how one can be more inclusive and aware in their writing, she casually advises, “I have to go to an audition tomorrow and I start thinking from today itself, ‘what if I become famous? Paparazzi will follow me, I won’t be able to go out, I will have to wear big sunglasses and so on’ and I don’t go to the audition. Just don’t think so far ahead. Read and write without thinking too much, read more books, write more.”
This year’s ‘Gender Bender’ is a multidisciplinary arts festival which showcased installations, marriage migration phone calls, menstrual-themed tarot deck, art work by various artists from all over the world and many other things. It was the fifth edition of ‘Gender Bender’ and the festival took place for four days from the 21st of August to the 24th of August, 2019 at the Bangalore International Centre, Domlur.
Featured Image Credits: Dexy Samuel
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