Seeing Like a Feminist

132 Pages·2012·9.27 MB·English

by  Menon Nivedita

ZUBAAN
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Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario,
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Desire 91
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Sexual Violence 111
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Feminists and 'Women' 147
First published by Zubaan and Penguin Books India 2012
Victims or Agents? 173
Copyright © Nivedita Menon 2012
All rights reserved Conclusion 213
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Notes 225
The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author's own and the facts are Bibliography 231
as reported by her which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers
are not in any way liable for the same. Acknowledgements 243
ISBN 9780143067429 Index 245
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INTRODUCTION
Have you heard of'nude make-up'?
This is what it is:
'Nude make-up looks are all about your skin looking
fresh and dewy, without looking like you're even wearing any
make-up. All you need is eyeliner, mascara, nude lipstick,
and a highlighting blush that will give your skin a natural­
looking glow.']
The whole point of nude make-up, clearly, is to spend
hours painting your face in order to make it look like you
had not touched it at all.
The maintaining of social order is rather like that. It
requires the faithful performance of prescribed rituals over
and over again throughout one's lifetime. Complex networks
of cultural reproduction are dedicated to this sole purpose.
But the ultimate goal of all this unceasing activity is to
produce the effect of untouched naturalness.
When one 'sees' the world like a feminist though, with
the gaze of a feminist, it's rather like activating the 'Reveal
Formatting' function in Microsoft Word. It reveals the
strenuous, complex formatting that goes on below the
surface of what looked smooth and complete.
vii
11
viii INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION ix
What do I mean by feminism? A feminist perspective is invested with enormous power, because when it 'sees'
recognizes that the hierarchical organizing of the world an identity, it is making that identity 'real', its 'seeing' is
around gender is key to maintaining social order; that to live simultaneously ordering society. On the contrary, when a
lives marked 'male' and 'female' is to live different realities. feminist 'sees' from the position ofmarginality he or she has
But simultaneously, to be a feminist is to imagine occupying deliberately chosen to occupy, it is a gesture of subversion
the marginal, relatively powerless position with reference towards power; it disorganizes and disorders the settled field,
to every dominant framework that swallows up the space at resists homogenization, and opens up multiple possibilities
the centre. For instance, any possible female reader of this rather than close them off.
book would be in a relatively powerful position with regard To be a feminist is to understand that different identities­
to the working-class men she interacts with daily-the auto located hierarchically as dominant or subordinate-are
rickshaw driver, the janitor, the domestic servant; and if produced at different times and in different spaces, but also
she is an upper-caste Hindu in India, or a white American to be aware particularly of the processes of gendering. By
anywhere, with regard to men who are not. At the same 'gendering', I mean the ways in which people are produced
time, she would experience her relative powerlessness as as 'proper' men and women through rules and regulations
awomaniffacedbya man inapositionto attackhersexually, ofdifferent sorts; some ofwhich we internalize, some which
regardless of his class or caste; or when she compares her have to be violently enforced. To be a feminist is to recognize
life choices and autonomy with those of a man of her class. that, apart from gender-based injustice, there are multiple
Needless to say, it is not only 'women' who can adopt structural inequalities that underlie the social order, and to
feminism as a political stance and way oflife, but men who believe that change is possible, and to work for it at whichever
choose to do this have to take a stand against the privileges level possible. Feminism is not an organization that one
that they could otherwise take for granted. formally joins, and it can never be the isolated achievement of
Feminism is thus not about individual men and women, individualwomen. To be afeminist is to feel partofthe history
but about understanding the ways in which 'men' and that has produced us; it is to insert oneselfinto two centuries
'women' are produced and inserted into patriarchies that of thick, textured narratives of struggles and celebrations
differ according to time and place. My title is inspired that transcend national boundaries; to hear the strains of
by James Scott's Seeing like a State, but there is a crucial songsofanger andsorrowandmilitancyin manytongues; to
difference in the way 'seeing' operates in the two instances. remember our heroines, our foremothers; and, above all, to
Scott uses the metaphor of seeing to indicate the ways in feel an enormous sense ofcontinuing responsibility.
which a modern state makes heterogeneous practices legible Is this book 'about India'? I think not. When we
to itself in order to control them. Thus, the State's 'seeing' read Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch or Simone
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x INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION xi
de Beauvoir's The Second Sex or bell hooks' Feminism is Dalit leader of one of the most powerful organizations of
for Everybody (I mention these iconic feminist texts in Dalits in India, the Bahujan Samaj Party-to name but three.
conjunction with mine in all humility, only because they On the other hand, there is active participation by women in
would be familiar to many readers), we do not assume Hindu right-wing and upper-caste anti-reservation politics,
that they are writing 'about' Australia or France or the US. ecological movements and land struggles, as well as in armed
Rather, we see them as theorizing from their own location Maoist movements. All these can be (and have been) studied
to make arguments about women and patriarchy in general, from a feminist point ofview, but that is not my project here
and while some oftheir arguments work in plural contexts, because here, I limit myself to engaging only with ideas and
others do not. In this book, I draw on feminist scholarship activism that themselves directly address gendered modes
and feminist politics in my part of the world to set up of power today.
conversations with feminist debates and experiences globally. I would like to place here a contrary opinion to complicate
The key difference may be that, when we in the non-West the distinction I make between 'feminism' and 'women
theorize on the basis of our experiences, we rarely assume in movements'. Nalini Nayak, who works with fisher
that these are generalizable everywhere. But we do believe people's movements on issues of livelihood and ecological
that comparisons and engagements with other feminisms sustainability, terms ecological movements the 'resource
are not only possible, but unavoidable. Which is why, in this base ofour feminism'. She is suggesting that the two cannot
book, I often assume and address the lively global feminist be so neatly separated. Clearly, as feminists, we must engage
voices that surround us. And when I say 'we', I generally politically with such movements, but only for the purposes
mean feminists. of this one small book, I will maintain the conceptual
Let me reiterate, then, that my focus in this book is distinction.
feminist politics and feminist ways of seeing the operation For the same reasons ofspace and clarity of argument, I
of gendered modes of power. So it is not about women in do not go into the history of feminism in India, which goes
politics. In India today, the political scene is marked by fiery, back to the nineteenth century, and about which there is a
independent, militant women-Medha Patkar in the struggle large body of scholarship, to some of which you will find
against ecologically unsustainable and unjust capitalist references at different points in the book. I have largely
development; lrom Sharmila, force-fed under arrest for over focused on the contemporary moment, addressing history
eleven years by the Indian State, as she continues her fast for only in order to show the process of emergence of features
the repeal ofthe Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the law we see in the present.
that enablesherstate ofManipurand the North-East ofIndia My overall understanding of Indian politics is always
in general to be treated as occupied territory; Mayawati, the part of the background, and has been more fully outlined
xii INTRODUCTION
in an earlier work co-written with Aditya Nigam, Power and
Contestation (2007). There, we see the twin projects of the
Indian elite, that of Nation and Capital, being militantly
challengedandsubvertedbyavariety ofcontestations, some
ofwhich are also in direct confrontation with one another.
While that book, too, adopted a feminist lens to look at
Indian politics, this book focuses directly on questions
arising from the gendered nature of power.
This book is divided into six chapters that tackle what
I see as key, interrelated themes. A quick note for the FAMILY
reader fortunate enough to have escaped stodgy academic
training: the text is scattered with references to other books 'Ifmarriage is the end oflife,

and articles, but these names and dates in brackets and the how can it also be the goal oflife?'

notes at the end may be skipped completely. They are there
because I want to make it clear that my own argument
emerges in conversation with feminist politics everywhere,
and because some readers may want to follow up; but you
can also let your eye filter them out, and you would still be
fine. The details ofall references in brackets in the text and
in the endnotes are given at the end in an alphabetical list,
and I have added five books as general references right at the
beginning ofthat list.
In the end, I hope to have put in place, not answers, but
new questions and new objects we had not seen before. To
see like a feminist is not to stabilize, it is to destabilize. The
more we understand, the more our horizons shift.
l .
THE STORY OF MONI
There is zero tolerance for those who breach the carefully
produced 'natural' order of society by refusing to conform
to norms oflooks and behaviour. In a village in West Bengal,
a few years ago, a young girl Moni was beaten, tonsured
and stripped naked for dressing and 'behaving like a boy'.
This outburst of violence reveals the effort that goes into
maintaining the social order. It is all too easy to understand
this incident as the action of uncivilized villagers, but how
different would the response be in the very opposite of
a remote village-say, in the head office of a multinational
I
corporation-to a male employee who insisted on wearing
I' a sari and bindi to work?
Thus, while the horror that Moni had to live through
may be at the more extreme end of a spectrum, the point
is precisely that social order displays-not the absolute
presence or absence of intolerance to difference-but a
spectrum of intolerance. Each of us bears responsibility to
some degree for maintaining these protocols ofintolerance,
which could not be kept in place ifevery single one of us did
not play our part. From bringing up children 'appropriately',
to lovingly correcting or punishing their inappropriate
behaviour, to making sure we never breach the protocols
ourselves, to staring or sniggering at people who look
different, to coercive psychiatric and medical intervention,
3
l.
4 NIVEDITA MENON SEEING LIKE A FEMINIST 5
to emotional blackmail, to physical violence-it's a range of but she was so small and thin that she 'looks about twelve',
slippages all the way that we seldom recognize. according to a reporter who visited the village. How did she
But the violence Moni faced was not only about gender­ escape the binding force of those protocols that most of us
appropriate looks and behaviour. It had another equally seem to have internalized so unquestioningly? Evidently, the
significant dimension-the anxiety around maintaining and structure built by those protocols, which appears to be so
protecting the institution of marriage. That is, of 'actually 'natural', unquestionable and immutable, is shakier than it
existing' marriage-the patriarchal, heterosexual kind. For seems. There are fissures, there are leakages; its borders are
the young girl was tortured not only because she behaved porous and vulnerable. There are many, many more Monis,
like a boy, but because she refused to give up her friendship perhaps even inside ourselves. It is precisely because the
with a newly-married woman of the village. structure is so fragile that such enormous force had to be
The question of gender-appropriate behaviour is thus mobilized against the recalcitrance of one thin little girl.
inextricably linked to legitimate procreative sexuality.
That is, sexuality strictly policed to ensure the purity and
WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
continuation of crucial identities, such as caste, race and
religion. Non-heterosexual desire threatens the continuation What is a family? A group of people who love and support
of these identities since it is not biologically directly one another over good times and bad? But just any group
procreative; and if non-heterosexual people have children of people who do this are not recognized as a 'family'-for
by other means, such as technological interventions or example, a group of friends, a homosexual couple with
adoption, then the purity ofthese identities is under threat. adopted children, unmarried mothers, women living with
Ofcourse, even heterosexual, potentially procreative desire their siblings, and so on. 'Family' is an institution with
is seen as threatening when it refuses to flow in legitimate a legal identity, and the State recognizes as a family, only a
directions-hence the violence unleashed on those who fall specific set of people related in a specific way. It is not only
in love with people of the wrong caste or religion. the law that defines 'family'-extra-legally too, you are forced
The institution that manages this policing ofsexuality is into being part of a family which is strictly defined in this
the patriarchal heterosexual family. The family as it exists is narrow way. Many housing societies, for instance, have an
the core that sustains the social order. informal understanding that they will allow only married
Thissocialordercorrectlyrecognizesthat non-heterosexual heterosexual couples as tenants. A 'family' can only be a
desireanddefiance ofgenderedappearanceare,infact, signals patriarchal, heterosexual family: a man, his wife, 'his' children.
ofarefusal to participateinthebusiness ofreproducingsociety In 1984, a judgment of the Delhi High Court said that
with all its given identities intact. Moni was said to be sixteen, the Fundamental Rights ensured to every Indian citizen
6 NIVEDITA MENON SEEING LIKE A FEMINIST 7
by the Constitution, were not applicable in the family: Shabana answers simply, 'Mera'. (Mine). I remember the
these rights have to stop at the door of the home. Letting hushed buzz at this reply among the audience in the theatre,
Fundamental Rights into the family, said the judge, would some giggles. Some anxiety?
be 'like letting a bull into a china shop.'l The judge was, in The fact is, no man can ever know whether a child is his.
fact, absolutely right. Ifyou bring Fundamental Rights into A woman knows a child is hers, but a man can never know
.'
a family, and if every individual in the family is treated as whether it is his, not even with a DNA test. A DNA test
a free and equal citizen, that family will collapse. Because can only tell you if the child is not yours, but if your DNA
the family, as it exists, is based on clearly-established matches, it only indicates 'a high statistical probability' that
hierarchies of gender and age, with gender trumping age; it is your child. As they say, 'Motherhood is a biological fact,
fatherhood is a sociological fiction.' It is this knowledge that
that is, an adult male is generally more powerful than an
older female. creates permanent anxiety for patriarchy, an anxiety that
Thus the family, as an institution, is based on inequality; requires women's sexuality to be strictly policed.
The furore around Valentine's Day is revealing of the
its function is to perpetuate particular forms of private
property ownership and lineage-that is, patrilineal forms of perceived threats inherent in undisciplined 'love'. In India,
property and descent, where property and the family 'name' Valentine's Day has come to be increasingly popular since
flow from father to sons. the 1990s. As feminists, we didn't particularly approve of
I remember this lovely moment in the Hindi film Valentine's Day, because we have a critique ofthis narrative
Mrityudand in which the characters played by the actors about 'romance', where only one kind oflove story is a real
Shabana Azmi and Madhuri Dixit are married to two love story. Of course, it must be a man-woman story, and
brothers. Shabana's husband is impotent and everyone in ofcourse, even when you 'fall in love', more often than not,
the village knows it. She goes away for a while and has an you end up 'falling for' an appropriate person-the man
affair; when she comes back home, she is visibly pregnant. at least a few months older than the woman, at least two
Her sister-in-law Madhuri Dixit asks her in shock, 'Didi, yeh inches taller and earning at least a little more than her! The
kiska bachha hai?' (Whose child is this?) Now, this question whole point about 'romance' is that the woman is somehow
is absurd and unnecessary because clearly, the baby is inside always smaller, more diminutive in a cute sort ofway, while
her body, it is hers; but the absurd question makes absolute the man is adult. So, we feminists have long had a critique
of'romance' which is supposed to be so uncontrollable, but
sense in a patriarchal society (and only in a patriarchal
I society)-who is the father of this child, is the question. which ends up being so appropriate to patriarchy.
I'
Whose caste does this child bear, to whose property can he We also have a critique of Valentine's Day because it is
lay claim? less about 'love' and more about buying and selling and
.,
8 NIVEDITA MENON SEEING LIKE A FEMINIST 9
the market-because, on Valentine's Day, it is not enough marriage as a binding force becomes a matter of urgent
to love someone, you have to buy something to prove it­ necessity. The real remedyfor breakingcaste is inter-marriage.
cards, flowers, teddy bears. When the phenomenon began Nothing else will serve as the solvent of caste' (Ambedkar
to manifest itself in the liberalizing 1990s, we were critical 1936: 67).
ofit because it seemed to be the perfect example of the new Evidently, Ambedkar's recognition of inter-caste
consumensm. marriage as being potentially disruptive of caste identities
Butverysoon, the Hindu Right began to attackValentine's is one that continues to be shared-and feared-by caste
Day as dangerous to 'Indian values'; not just verbally, but also panchayats seventy-five years later. As feminists, though,
carrying out physical attacks on couples courting in public. we might like to discount the healing power of marriage as
This attack on Valentine's Day coincided with increasing a 'binding force' in this process, for reasons that will be made
instances all over the country-including big cities-of clear as we go along.
families violently separating couples who chose to marry In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the
outside their caste or religious community, often killing one term 'honour killings' has come to be routinely used in the
: i
or both of them. Such murders have come to be dubbed context of the traditional multi-clan village councils of the
'honour killings' by the English media, but a starker, more Jat community in Haryana, the khap panchayats, which
revealing term is suggested by Pratiksha Baxi-'custodial have ordered and carried out murders of couples who
deaths', since the young people killed in such cases are in choose 'inappropriate' marriage partners. These distinguish
the custody, much likeprisoners, oftheir own families.2We themselves from the sarkari panchayats instituted under
saw the link too, to increasing instances of'lesbian suicides', the State umbrella, and claim greater legitimacy with the
that is, women who committed suicide, leaving letters saying community, which may well be true. The khap panchayats
that they loved particular women without whom they could have been demanding amendments to the Hindu Marriage
not live, but from whom they were being separated by their Act to ban marriages that are sagotra (within the same
families. Each such instance ofviolence that reaches public patrilineal clan or gotra) and bhaichara (within the same
attention makes visible the growing challenge to the caste circle of villages). Along with social pressures against inter­
and community norms of sexual propriety. caste marriage, these combined restrictions would effectively
B.R. Ambedkar had seen the potential of inter-caste ensure that almost everybody in the immediate vicinity of
marriage for what he called 'the annihilation of caste'. In young people growing into adulthood would be taboo for
a famous passage first published in 1936, he said: 'Where romance-those of the same caste too closely related and
society is already well-knit by other ties, marriage is an thosenot related, ofthewrong caste-thusleavingmarriage
ordinary incident of life. But where society is cut asunder, decisions firmly in the hands of the family.