[Reader-list] [announcements] PUKAR Gender & Space event: March 29

[PUKAR]

PUKAR Gender & Space Project invites you to a discussion on the complex issues of lesbian women's access to public space
 

Date:                Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Time:                6:00 PM

Venue:              PUKAR Office, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Opp. Strand Book Stall, Sir. P M Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001 

Tel: 5574-8152

 

In a general sense it is true that in relation to men, women have relatively lower access to public space. However, such access is also mediated through class, caste, religious community and the appearance of conforming to societal norms. This is true even of spaces that appear to enhance women's access to public space like the local trains. Many paeans have been sung to the camaraderie of the ladies compartment in Mumbai's local trains. Our research at the Gender & Space project has also shown that public transport in Mumbai, particularly, local trains, greatly add to women's mobility and capacity to access public space. However, the space of the ladies compartment is far from being a space of pure camaraderie or freedom. 

 

Fisherwomen or other women vendors who try and use the ladies' compartment at times when the vendors' compartment is over crowded with men vendors are met with angry demands that they leave. Commuters in the first class compartment often aggressively bar the entry of others whom they view as 'not appearing like first class pass or ticket holders'. Hijras are met with annoyance mixed with anxiety (and unless they receive a great deal of support from each other women will not actively demonstrate their hostility towards hijras whom they also fear). Women who dress or appear non normative or unfeminine are also greeted with suspicion and many women who choose a more assertive demeanour or favour a style of dressing perceived to be masculine are also often the target of women commuters' hostility and disdain. Transgender people and others who dress ambiguously are seen as a threat to the clear definition of both people and space. The ladies' compartment then comes to stand for a space that can only house women who obviously look and behave like 'women'! Access for those who refuse to conform to established gender norms is thus very contested. 

 

Also we need to distinguish between simple access to public space - that is the capacity to be in a public space and use it and a more complex claim to public space - that is the capacity to use one's identity to articulate a right to be in public space. We have discovered that the first might be sought to some extent through anonymity - that is, for women to slip into the city and occupy space without drawing undue attention if we appear to conform. The latter implies the staking of a political claim to space. 

 

For women who love women, any political claim to space is complicated by the fact that technically and legally Section 377 of the IPC renders all non peno-vaginal sex illegal in private and in public. Living an illegal love and life implies hiding and thus most public claims to space beget constant harassment. Same sex love in public might be tolerated in some up-market spaces if it's not too overt, not too loud and if you follow the US army rule not to ask or tell. Or if you don't mind seeking refuge in the sanctioned homo-sociality of being just good friends. Large cities like Mumbai do offer a certain kind of space that comes with anonymity but this may often bring the loss of mobilising on the basis of a political identity. 

 

What does Mumbai mean to lesbian women? What are the spaces that lesbian women can seek without fear? How does the city enhance space for articulation and how does it reduce the capacity to claim a political identity? These are only some of the questions we hope to raise at a discussion on lesbian women's access to public space in Mumbai. We hope the audience brings their own questions and queries to make this a lively and challenging space. 

 

Members of the group Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action will introduce the discussion. 

 

Please do come and also forward this invitation to interested friends and colleagues. 

 

Date:                Wednesday, March 29,  2006

Time:                6 PM

Venue:              PUKAR Office, Fort, Mumbai



PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research)
 
Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001
Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 
Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561
Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in
Website:: www.pukar.org.in
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