Have you been a bad girl?

Welcome to The Hindu’s newsletter that puts gender front and centre. Here, we’ll reflect on the world, cleaning up our glasses smudged from cultural conditioning. Through words, visuals, and voices we will see clearly how gender discrimination reinforces social hierarchies and worsens economic inequality. In the best tradition of sisterhood, three of us will share the ‘work’, one every week, each from a different generation of women. So, from one of us who describes herself as “existentially tired”, another as “unnecessarily enthusiastic”, and the third as “cautiously optimistic”, happy exploring, through our rainbow-rimmed glasses. Tell us what you think.

Have you been a bad girl?

Well, yes, I have. Many times. But so have Vetrimaaran, Pa. Ranjith and Anurag Kashyap, looks like. 

The teaser of a new Tamil film titled Bad Girl by debutant director Varsha Bharath has sent Tamil right-wing groups and nationalists in a tizzy over its release. The groups have called for a boycott of the film. All it does though, is show a woman, trying to discover herself. That is obviously disallowed in this India. How dare she!

In the teaser, we see Ramya going through different phases of self-discovery. In school, her need for a boyfriend causes her to earn the tag ‘despo’ from female friends and ‘loose’ from her male classmates. She is caught making out and this causes several restrictions in a repressed household. How she chooses to navigate her life after this incident seems to form the crux of the film. This is all one can gather from the teaser, but it is enough to have fuelled conversation on Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube over the last week. 

From the looks of it, the groups have two problems. 

First, they are upset about the protagonist, Ramya (essayed by Anjali Sivaraman) being a Tamil Brahmin in the film. Director Mohan G, who is well-known for speaking of caste pride and bringing forth an anti-Dalit sentiment in his films Draupathi and Bakasuran said in a tweet that “Portraying a brahmin girl’s personal life is always a bold and refreshing film for this clan. What more can be expected from vetrimaran, Anurag kasyap & Co.. Bashing Brahmin father and mother is old and not trendy.. Try with your own caste girls and showcase it to your own family first.” (sic).

Second, they are upset that the film speaks about a woman’s exploration of sexuality. She also drinks and smokes. Gasp. 

“Let the girls in your house proudly talk about how many guys they had fun with during their school days at this film launch event and be an example of your wonderful lifestyle. This film is a conspiracy to make women from other communities lustful and taste their flesh,” says Paarai Salan in a 45-minute YouTube video. 

Varsha, the director, who is at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam for the world premiere, has said in interviews that she set the film in a milieu that she was most familiar with. “It may seem like [the film] has a lot to do with a [particular] community, but it’s not. You could tell the story in any milieu; it’s just that I’ve chosen a space that I’m most familiar with.”

Tamil cinema has glamorised grotesque and vulgar takes of women. In the runaway hit film Trisha Illana Nayanthara, the protagonist can be seen squeezing milk packets when he sees the heroine driving over a speed bump. Women have been asked to accept Arjun Reddy and Animal as flawed heroes while men have worshipped them. When actor Vijay smokes on screen, there are whistles. Dhanush in Thulluvadho Ilamai seems to do what Ramya in Bad Girl does — run away from the house in the face of repression. 

But double standards are the name of the game. 

No Ladybird, Fleabag and The Worst Person In The World will be allowed to come out of this country without jostling, revolting, fighting, and struggling. 

Toolkit 

On January 28, 1813, the first edition of Pride and Prejudice made its way to the bookshelves in England for 18 shillings. Two hundred and twelve years later the same week, the book continues to be regarded as one of the foremost feminist texts describing English society in detail. In its very famous first line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” the book throws light on social, economic and educational hierarchies in that day and age. 

Elizabeth Bennett embodies an early sense of defiant feminism. Her romance with Mr. Darcy is but a consequence of her personality. She strives to choose — what she’d like to study, what she’d read, who she would like to marry. 

There are arguments imposing a 21st century lens towards Bennett’s feminism. While there is criticism over her need to establish superiority over other women in the tale, she still embodies a sense of early 19th century feminism by choosing to view her world through an analytical lens. 

Wordsworth 

Anti-Romeo Squad: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Nowhere in India apparently. 

Yogi Adityanath who was elected to the post of Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister in 2017 in his first term, promised to create an Anti-Romeo Squad, to protect the honour of women and prevent sexual harassment. Police persons in uniforms can pull up anyone who they think is ‘disturbing’ women. But who is a Romeo?

The UP Police seems to think that this is a group of young men with a few shirt buttons open, groups of men in the vicinity of a girls’ school or college, or just a man with a woman, qualifies. An article in The Hindu notes that many women say this robs them of their choice to meet partners and friends of another gender. Young men fear stepping out to enjoy themselves because they may be branded ‘Romeos’. Reports have also noted that the squad often unfairly targets young Muslim men, using it to slap cases.

Why is it national news today? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now promised the creation of an Anti-Romeo Squad in Delhi if they win the upcoming elections. 

Somewhere someone said something stupid 

I think the world would be a better place if more men divorced their fat bitchy nagging wives.

Hannah Pearl David, Cultural Commentator and prominent red-piller.

Women we meet

There is a stereotype attached to women in fitness and those who seek fitness, says founder, Ladies Club and co-founder, Strength Systems. 

This Chennai-based coach who believes that everyone, particularly women, should lift, says that some of these expectations plague the industry. “As a female coach, I’ve always been told that I must live a certain lifestyle — eat salads and protein with every meal, and my social media has me in sports bras (not that I have anything against it),” she says. She adds that a fat-loss perspective is also one of the key approaches for women seeking fitness — eat less and move more — end up becoming dictat. 

It is what she hopes to dismantle with her coaching. “Strength training is for everyone. It doesn’t need to be taken so seriously. It can be a small part of your life. You can benefit from it even if it is not your entire identity,” she says.