- Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Womens Studies, Graduate Studentadd
- Gender, Postfeminism, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Women's Studies, New Media, and 20 moreDigital Media, Feminist Theory, Feminism, Selfies, Digital Culture, New media, Social Network Sites and Youth Practices, Youth Online sociability and Identity, Media and Digital Literacies, Participation and Civic Engagement, and Tensions between Public and Private, Pornification Culture, Sexualisation Culture, of Children and Young People, Porn Chic, Pornography, Photography, History of photography, Self Portraiture, Girlhood Studies, Girls' Studies, Femininity, Performativity, Images of Women in Popular Media, Feminist activism, Feminist Art, Feminist aesthetics, Constructions of femininity, and Carceral Geographyedit
This article attempts to understand how ideas of justice are conceptualized within social media discourses around gender and sexual violence in India through an intersectional analysis of two case studies: the case of the rape and murder... more
This article attempts to understand how ideas of justice are conceptualized within social media discourses around gender and sexual
violence in India through an intersectional analysis of two case studies:
the case of the rape and murder of a Hyderabad veterinarian
and the List of Sexual Harassers in Academia, or LoSHA, which generated
many conversations on sexual violence and justice on Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook. While a cursory reading of these two social
media responses might see both as a rejection of due process and
as seeking justice outside the structures of the judicial system, we
argue that a closer reading of both is necessary to understand the
different contours that these calls for justice have taken. In addition,
we study how these two different social media conversations on
sexual violence have centered the victim/survivor of sexual violence
differently to understand how they engage with carcerality and anticarceral
politics. We conclude by attempting a definition of transformative
justice based on anti-caste feminist interventions on social
media, specifically drawing on the work of Dalit feminists, including
those who created LoSHA.
violence in India through an intersectional analysis of two case studies:
the case of the rape and murder of a Hyderabad veterinarian
and the List of Sexual Harassers in Academia, or LoSHA, which generated
many conversations on sexual violence and justice on Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook. While a cursory reading of these two social
media responses might see both as a rejection of due process and
as seeking justice outside the structures of the judicial system, we
argue that a closer reading of both is necessary to understand the
different contours that these calls for justice have taken. In addition,
we study how these two different social media conversations on
sexual violence have centered the victim/survivor of sexual violence
differently to understand how they engage with carcerality and anticarceral
politics. We conclude by attempting a definition of transformative
justice based on anti-caste feminist interventions on social
media, specifically drawing on the work of Dalit feminists, including
those who created LoSHA.
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In this short essay, I look at how girls, particularly girls from Bahujan communities in India, use TikTok for the creation and proliferation of anti-caste content. I highlight how, in their use of TikTok for the creation of anti-caste... more
In this short essay, I look at how girls, particularly girls from Bahujan communities in India, use TikTok for the creation and proliferation of anti-caste content. I highlight how, in their use of TikTok for the creation of anti-caste content, Bahujan girls use the very genre of media content that is central to the moral panics around TikTok- that of Bollywood songs.
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This chapter, based on research conducted with Indian girls in the age group of 13–19, looks at how girls attempt to stake claims to online spaces by sharing their selfies. In most narratives around the dangers of selfies, there has been... more
This chapter, based on research conducted with Indian girls in the age group of 13–19, looks at how girls attempt to stake claims to online spaces by sharing their selfies. In most narratives around the dangers of selfies, there has been a jarring exclusion of the voices and perspectives of the young women who are the central subject of discussion, leading to an erasure of the complexity of their negotiations with processes of self-representation and of the social relations of power in which girls from different sections of Indian society are situated. This chapter undoes this erasure of girls’ voices by exploring how girls participate in the act of taking and sharing selfies, negotiating with discourses of honour and respectability that attempt to discipline their sexualities. The chapter argues that in making the selfie a site of expression of their sexual subjectivities, girls foreground the need for pleasure rather than protection in both online and offline spaces.
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In the discourse produced by the social media accounts of the Bharatiya Janata Party, its leaders, and the Prime Minister, Hindutva masculinity incorporates ideas of technological progress, military might, and physical strength, all... more
In the discourse produced by the social media accounts of the Bharatiya Janata Party, its leaders, and the Prime Minister, Hindutva masculinity incorporates ideas of technological progress, military might, and physical strength, all deployed towards the protection and progress of the nation. Through such use of social media, technology becomes a site of and tool for producing violence against those considered as the other of the Hindu male, particularly women and Muslims.
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In order to attempt to close the digital divide, we must recognize not only the economic factors but also address the social and cultural barriers that discourage women from meaningfully using the internet.
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Most mainstream media discourses frame discussions around selfies of young women in ways that see selfies as promoting narcissism, self-obsession and as damaging self-esteem. In most of these discourses, there has been a jarring exclusion... more
Most mainstream media discourses frame discussions around selfies of young women in ways that see selfies as promoting narcissism, self-obsession and as damaging self-esteem. In most of these discourses, there has been a jarring exclusion of the voices of young women who are the central subject of discussion. In response to such an exclusion, this paper presents ethnographic research conducted with twenty young women in the age group of 13-19 years, exploring their engagement with selfies. The paper argues that selfies need to be read as sites where, through the act of self-representation, young women explore the specific experiences of their bodies, including their negotiations with social constructions of gender and sexuality. The paper also explores the contradictions that are present within the narratives of young women and how these might complicate our ideas of agency, resistance and empowerment.
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Does social media enable forming networks of solidarity between different marginalised groups? Is there a space for non-normative discourses such as the discourse on pleasure? Does digital technology aid in the construction of feminist... more
Does social media enable forming networks of solidarity between different marginalised groups? Is there a space for non-normative discourses such as the discourse on pleasure? Does digital technology aid in the construction of feminist counter-publics? These are some of the questions explored in this paper. Power relations that operate through social media, including forms of gendered and sexualised violence, are also discussed.
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This paper looks at the postfeminist politics of the film The Dirty Picture (2011)
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By keeping the children of the poor in school and making learning relevant to their circumstances, these municipal school teachers endeavour to give their students a chance to dream. This article was first published in Footnotes, 2012.... more
By keeping the children of the poor in school and making learning relevant to their circumstances, these municipal school teachers endeavour to give their students a chance to dream. This article was first published in Footnotes, 2012. Read at http://footnotes.tiss.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Footnotes-Final-PDF-low-res.pdf
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Selfing the City: Single Women
Migrants and Their Lives in Kolkata
Migrants and Their Lives in Kolkata