[Reader-list] Re: Response to Lehar from Saheli, Delhi

[Lehar ..]

thanks for the bouquest and brickbats
and the sobriquet of'conservatism'..:)

i do not have much to add to this.. except that I
clearly see the forces of globalisation/
mcdoanaldisation at play here..on top of a regressive
caste, patriarchy ridden society..

having spent the last 6 years in the US and Uk one of
the reasons I gave up living there was the 
sexual violence which loomed in the air.. esp in the
UK.
the constant threat of sexual vioelnce as a single
woman, incidnets of being waylaid on tube stations,
accostation by the drunk men outside the dense network
of pubs across the city of London and the midlands..
and the constant refrain.. to 'dont go out alone.'
asian women are mkore vulnerable.. blew my lil
feminist bubble of the West as a haven for women..
it is no more or no less safe for women..probably
better than India in some ways..but the idealisation
of the feminist movements making perfect strides
deflated there..
the widespread incorporation/ backlash by the westrn
media- a la TOi.. and the impact it has on young womne
is horrendous to as to speak.
I work in the areas of sexuality and reproductive
health..the last thing I can be accused of is
conservatism..however i would like to add that I
recently presented aan article on Sexual vioelnce-
which also referred to the book; 'Reviving Ophelia:
saving the selves of adolescent girls in the US..
a shcking book by a a well known acitvist and
psychotherapsit..Mary Pipher..
the book contains hundreds of case studies and cites
the media represenation of women has THE manin factor
which exarberates the emergency level situation..
having looked at the issue of adolscent
pregancies,teenage rapes, drug abuse etc. and 
responbile sexual behaviour,I can see the signs.
and there is nothing conservative about it.
Its fine to sit in Dlehi and read greer and
Faludi..the shock hits you hard when u land in the
west and weep at how the feminist movement has been
appropiated by the britney Spears culture.. which
simply refuses to abte..dont you think the feminist
there are conecnred abot it? its now increasing its
market size..ask me.. in my golden days in the
corporate sector, I came across reports on increasing
the mkt penetration for hair colours/ dyes..Miss world
happned a few months after..
L'Oreal has one of its biggest peroxide markets in
India? the onset of menstruation has reduced to 10
years in India..one of the reasons being the early
sexualisation of chldren..
so we ban child marriage but it makes no difference..

The commodification of sexuality is what concerns me.
I am currently working on script on indegenous
sexuality and healing in the subcontinent - looking at
tantra and baul sects and how they provide
marginalised women across the borders, a space to
express their sexuality and spiritualty..which I
belive are fundamentally connected..
the repression of sexuality( by caste and patriachy)
and its consequent commodification are the real
issues. protesting its commericialisation is only one
end..the roots lie elsewhere..


What's anti femnist about not wanting to dye my
hairlike a wanna be blonde?
is the girl on the DTC special with bealched hair and
chooras in her hand really 'free'? c'mon..

Peronsally even if they werent, there is no reason why
we here cannot evolve an independent feminist view of
our own..whether the other feminists endorse it first
or nor..
unfortunately the problem with the progressives is
that we agree to disagree.. which the right wing makes
its forays into TV and the print media.. selling saas
bahus and pujas on hand ..and bars and strip joints on
the other..
if you criticise any one of them.. you are accused of
being a 'pseudo' secularist or a conservative.
Which is the real tragedy.




--- Laxmi Murthy <l_murthy at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Friends,
> 
> Although there have been several timely and
> well-argued responses to Lehar’s ‘Public Interest
> Alert’ we at Saheli would like to respond to some
> points. We were surprised to find our name at the
> end of the mail which suggests that we endorse her
> rather strong viewpoints. Checking with our views
> and experience before doing so would have clarified
> this. 
> 
> Lehar has raised very important concerns relating to
> violence against women, but unfortunately, the
> conflating of sex work with trafficking, consuming
> alcohol with alcoholism, sexually explicit material
> with pornography is problematic and tends to confuse
> issues. Such conservatism being projected under the
> banner of women’s rights can be dangerous,
> particularly in the present context of ascendant
> right wing orthodoxy. 
> 
> Certainly, the continuous projection of women's
> bodies along with all that caters to male constructs
> of sex appeal is disturbing as is its impact on
> women in general. Yet moralistic positions,
> endorsements or indeed exhortations of censorship
> and arming the government with more powers to
> ‘censor and ban’ are more than likely to backfire on
> us. Women’s groups have more often found legal
> interventions to be inadequate, and in fact
> promoting a retrogressive image of women, rather
> than enhancing women’s rights. Lehar’s faith in The
> Indecent Representation of Women Act is at best
> misplaced (The nomenclature of the Act itself should
> be telling, rooted as it is in notions of
> ‘decency’/’indecency’). 
> 
> Current debates about prostitution –
> decriminalization, licensing, zoning etc, among
> prostitutes' collectives and unions, as well as
> human rights' and women’s organizations are
> well-nuanced, demanding far more complex
> interventions than those suggested by Lehar. 
> 
> Clearly, the issues compel more informed engagement,
> and constant challenging of our own understandings
> responses and strategies. 
> 
> In general, many media representations -- of women,
> war, patriotism, community, religion and  ‘normalcy’
> are worrisome. These, and deteriorating standards of
> journalism, the decline of media ethics, the selling
> of news space in leading dailies, flying journalists
> to Paris for the launch of a drug which finds
> ‘mention’ in the op-ed of TOI – are most certainly
> concerns that face a newspaper reading public. Yet,
> pleading for more heavy handedness can only lead to
> more authoritarianism. 
> 
> The ease with which the blame for all evils is laid
> on "the West" is also disturbing. Perhaps we need to
> critically examine such depiction of women from a
> feminist lens, rather than parade the convenient and
> tired scapegoat of the "foreign hand". Only then can
> we even consider how/whether an alternative feminist
> culture can be promoted by institutions like the
> media.
> 
> In solidarity,
> 
> Saheli, Delhi
> 
>  
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------
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