Happenings, Aug '13 (update 2)
Pawan Dhall reports on SlutWalk Kolkata’s first seminar as
part of its gender literacy drive
Kolkata, August 17, 2013: It was an hour late to start, but
a worthwhile Saturday evening date. In a move to go beyond its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/groups/slutwalkkolkata)
and the two marches it has organized so far in the city since last year, SlutWalk
Kolkata organized a seminar titled ‘Examining Rape and Abuse’ at the Birla
Planetarium and launched its magazine SLUTKOTHA on the occasion. The speakers
were Niladri R. Chatterjee, lecturer in English Literature at University of
Kalyani; Arnab Saha, researcher on gender and sexuality; Madhuja Mukherjee, professor
of film studies at Jadavpur University; and Satin’s Love, fashion editor, gay activist
and avid blogger.
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| Speaker Arnab Saha making a point. To his right is Niladri R. Chatterjee, and to the left Madhuja Mukherjee and Satin's Love. Photo credit: Pratik@Shades of Passion |
SlutWalk Kolkata is part of a two-year old global movement
that originated in Toronto, Canada. It protests ‘rape culture’ that explains,
excuses or normalizes rape or other forms of sexual assault by blaming the
victims for what happened to them, often by referring to various aspects of
their appearance. “If you dress like that (read slut) and go out in the
evening, you’re asking for trouble” is a common word of advice to daughters, sisters
and girl friends. The victims can also be male-to-female transgender persons or
trans women. And if a married woman is to complain of her husband not respecting
a no to sex (marital rape), the legal and social response is often “But he’s
your husband”, if not “Uh, what’s that?”
SlutWalk Kolkata is, in effect, a counter response that
wants victim blaming to be stopped. It wants society to question itself and put
an end to an ostrich-like attitude that justifies or condones gender-based and sexual
violence, including marital rape and same-sex rape. The speakers at the seminar
elaborated on several of these issues. Niladri R. Chatterjee spoke about “a
certain look that many men in Kolkata or India seemed to have towards women, a
stare of sheer lust, especially towards women not dressed supposedly ‘appropriately’,
a knowing, judging look that seemed to say ‘so you’re available, you’re asking
for it, and if I have the opportunity, you’re going to get it’”.
Arnab Saha took the argument a step further, or rather back
in time. He said the ‘look’ that Niladri R. Chatterjee was talking about, at
least in the context of Bengal, had a certain history and contrary to what many
people thought, it was not a product of the deprived classes. It was an outcome
of the pre-independence middle class-lead revivalist, nationalist movements to
resist colonialism. All efforts to establish a certain purity of ‘Indian
identity’ came to be situated in the woman’s body. And so women had to be
chaste and their conduct in all spheres of life had to reflect this chastity.
If it did not, it was a matter of tremendous ‘shame’, the great marker of
Indian cultures (as against ‘guilt’ in Judeo-Christian ones). Even later
progressive social movements in Bengal, in an effort “to keep all sides happy”,
did not object to the shame culture or the ‘look’, and this gradually seemed to
absolve men of their share of the responsibility to uphold any values, while
giving them all kinds of control over women’s sexuality.
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| A SlutWalk Kolkata volunteer strikes a pose. Photo credit: SlutWalk Kolkata |
Madhuja Mukherjee felt it was important to realize that most
of the sexual abuse against women happened within the home, and such abuse had
been ‘normalized’ by society. This status quo had to be contested, even if
issues like marital rape were difficult to prove. She also raised the question
of “a woman’s pleasure”, ruing its neglect even in progressive discourses.
Satin’s Love (Rohan Noronha) enlivened the proceedings with
a frank sharing of a personal experience of rape and threats by an uncle, and
how he survived the torture. As coincidence would have it, the rape took place
during the years he was studying mass communication in St. Xavier’s College,
Kolkata and Madhuja Mukherjee was one of his teachers! Extending her argument
about pleasure, Satin’s Love said he was not ashamed about his sexual pleasure
needs and was vocal about them. Neither had the experience of rape broken him.
On his blog, he regularly advised other gay men who had been molested or raped
on how to deal with their “sense of loss of manhood”, another aspect of the
culture of shame that bred unhealthy silence.
Madhuja Mukherjee added that it was exactly this silence
that had to be broken: “We need to find a language to speak about these issues
in larger public – not just in seminars – words that everyone could use to talk
about issues like rape.” Niladri R. Chatterjee pitched in that “not only
‘inappropriate’ dressing up, but ‘inappropriate’ talk was also necessary – the
more we did this, the more we would learn to argue with illiberal voices”.
Satin’s Love and Madhuja Mukherjee also highlighted the
depiction of rape in Hindi and Bengali films. They questioned the use of camera
angles that presented rape as ‘sex’ (and therefore ‘normal’) and not a crime
that it was. It also mattered where the focus of the camera was – on the rapist
or the raped? Was there a need to show rape so graphically?
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| The launch of SLUTKOTHA. Photo credit: Pratik@Shades of Passion |
In an audience interaction, the need for SlutWalk Kolkata to
be class and gender inclusive was highlighted. A ‘gender just law’ addressing
different dimensions of rape and other forms of sexual assault was emphasized
as the need of the hour. For instance, it was important to consider not just
the nature of assault, but also the gender of the victim. Beyond framing laws
and policies, the challenge was in implementing them – undoubtedly a daunting
task that involved changing social attitudes, but nothing that could not be
attempted.
SLUTKOTHA, in its first issue, already seems to be on its
way. Shreya Sen in Everything’s in a Name says, “The word ‘slut’ has gained
so much power…that women are now afraid to speak out, speak up, fight, raise a
riot, identify [as] feminists, dress up, wear make-up, have alcohol, go to
parties, have male friends, dress down, have multiple partners, have sex for
fun, smoke, appear career-oriented, have multiple sexual or gender identities,
have an opinion, masturbate, breathe...for the fear of being labeled a ‘slut’...I
think, it’s about time, we stopped letting that word affect us so much...[and] no
one holds the right to reclaim a word and take back its power more than the
people who it has been used against.” So don’t be surprised if a SlutWalker
turns around and says, “So what if I’m a slut?” In much the same vein as gay
men, female sex workers, Blacks or Dalits are converting abusive terms into markers
of ‘social pride’.
At a personal level, the seminar took me back to 1994 – to
the memory of Park Street police station in Kolkata, the morning after I was
robbed off a watch and wallet at dagger point near Minto Park by four armed youth:
“It was my fault I had ventured into that lane at midnight on my way back from
meeting a friend on Theatre Road! What was I doing on Theatre Road at midnight
in the first place? Why was I now wasting the police’s time?” So as someone who
has experienced the anguish of victim blaming, albeit of a different sort,
here’s to the courage that is SlutWalk Kolkata!
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