Malayalee Sexuality
Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) once again keep up their tradition of never ending discussions (of course, intellectual) and debates. This time the lot has fallen in favour of Malayali Community to discuss about the first principles of sexual arousal, feminity and the unavoidable, ever-haunting issue of male gaze. The irony is that the topic, 'sexuality,' is discussed by a community which is not sexually active in the campus. If one can take a survey of sexual activity in the campus (I don't mean masturbation or any other similar sexual activity which Lacan might imagine to be the same as sexual intercourse), the position of Malayalee will be down below the rank-list. Malayalees in JNU are in reality a frustated lot spread along Sutlej Hostel in the North to Brahmaputra in the East. 'Mallus,' the nick name for the community, is a faithful representation of their attitude and behaviour, others say. And only for this reason are there Mallus in the campus who deliberately avoid being part of Mallu groups in the campus. Anyone who knows Malayalees would have noticed their peculiar understanding of sex and sexuality. Knowing about the recent Onam Poster issue, I asked myself just one question: "are Mallus eligible to talk about sexuality at least in the context of JNU?" For better or for worse, for a Malayalee sex means 'discursive sex', a topic for his brain and not for his body. Before going into the intricacies of Onam Poster issue here is my advice to any Malayalee in the campus - go and have sex instead of wasting your time on posters and pornographic material.
Now the Onam Poster issue:
It started with unwarranted discussions about the picture of a woman shown in the poster that announced the schedule for Onam celebrations. For some, the woman in the poster carries heavy loaded breasts which they argued to be more than the normal size. The Onam Celebrations Committee, which is alleged to have some feminist and other political back up, resigned protesting against the incident. The Committtee has also filed a complaint to GSCASH (Gender Sensitive Committee Against Sexual Harassment) in the campus. A new Onam committe was constituted later.
In the words of a JNUite "some sees vulgarity in the picture and others not. If a male does not see vulgarity in the picture, they discriminate him by calling him a gay. If a female says that the picture is perfectly fine, they discriminate her by saying that she might have had some special sexual experineces in her life!"
Reports say that some political activists were also members of the erstwhile Onam Committe and when the issue broke out the arguments within the committe became contradictory and finally they had to resign. Of course the real artists intervened. The artists and art critiques opined that the allegation questions the expression of an artist. They say that in their text book there is no normal size set as standard for a woman's breast (all sizes are acceptable and depictable). Others argue that this picture has no connection with Onam, ie. Onam or no Onam sizes remain the same.
There were pure literary critiques too. These people, as we know, are visually illeterate and letters arouse them than anything else. For them even the caption of the poster, "What Onam would it be without you", can be interpreted in different ways. The 'you' in this caption refers to no one other than a woman. "But what is the connection between Onam and woman?" they debated. Others say that there is no vulgarity in the picture, vulgarity lies in the eyes of the perceiver; indeed an old fashioned argument. Another argument which has less buyers is the 'Theory of Commodification'. JNUites were also able to brush up their advanced theoretical concepts thanks to this issue: concepts like subjectve and objective truth, plurality of truth, the possibility of an incident for being analysed phenomenologically or existentially keeping it within the context etc. This incident witnessed the emergence of a new theory by a famous male feminist: he says that from this incident he has learned that even a feminist can at times become a male chavunist.
But Malayalee humour does not have limits. Like the mimicry artists in Kerala commedians of JNU campus say that behind this incident one can see the hands of biologically frustrated woman in the campus. These women, they say, have small breasts and they are envious even towards those who have b**bs with normal size. Does the poster ridicule big breasted women or does it appreciate their features? One cannot get a direct answer. But pure mallus say that the poster is a fine positve depiction of "malayali manga" or typical malayalee women because it simply shows motherhood. Malayalee's concept of a woman is different from that of others. For him/her woman is Mother Goddess who cannot be a slim lady. There are some realists as well. They argue that the original is more vulgar than the representation.
Interestingly, the day when the poster was published, everyone, along with the Onam Committee, appreciated the poster and the artist. It was only when somebody noticed that other residents in Brahmaputra hostel (Indo-Gangetic Barbarians or Biharis, they say, are the main culprits) are really trying to suck the b**bs in the poster, rendering it torn at the crucial area, that everything turned up into a controversy. (Later on a confidential committee was constituted to investigate on 'damaging of posters' and it found out that in almost all the boys' hostels, the posters were torn exactly at the same crucial part of the picture. The committee hesitated to table the report and resigned midway.)
Another socially committed JNUite says: "GSCASH has become a dreadful dream for all the male students in JNU now. Male students are over-conscious about their words. 'How can one express this issue in the public with the right terminology?' is the main hurdle before them. Language has become a curse in this situation. How can the males speak about breast without using the ugly word "breast" which is a 'discriminating word' for women."
And the debate goes on reinforcing the Malayalee to be in the dark and to be sexually hypocritical for ever.
Now the Onam Poster issue:
It started with unwarranted discussions about the picture of a woman shown in the poster that announced the schedule for Onam celebrations. For some, the woman in the poster carries heavy loaded breasts which they argued to be more than the normal size. The Onam Celebrations Committee, which is alleged to have some feminist and other political back up, resigned protesting against the incident. The Committtee has also filed a complaint to GSCASH (Gender Sensitive Committee Against Sexual Harassment) in the campus. A new Onam committe was constituted later.
In the words of a JNUite "some sees vulgarity in the picture and others not. If a male does not see vulgarity in the picture, they discriminate him by calling him a gay. If a female says that the picture is perfectly fine, they discriminate her by saying that she might have had some special sexual experineces in her life!"
Reports say that some political activists were also members of the erstwhile Onam Committe and when the issue broke out the arguments within the committe became contradictory and finally they had to resign. Of course the real artists intervened. The artists and art critiques opined that the allegation questions the expression of an artist. They say that in their text book there is no normal size set as standard for a woman's breast (all sizes are acceptable and depictable). Others argue that this picture has no connection with Onam, ie. Onam or no Onam sizes remain the same.
There were pure literary critiques too. These people, as we know, are visually illeterate and letters arouse them than anything else. For them even the caption of the poster, "What Onam would it be without you", can be interpreted in different ways. The 'you' in this caption refers to no one other than a woman. "But what is the connection between Onam and woman?" they debated. Others say that there is no vulgarity in the picture, vulgarity lies in the eyes of the perceiver; indeed an old fashioned argument. Another argument which has less buyers is the 'Theory of Commodification'. JNUites were also able to brush up their advanced theoretical concepts thanks to this issue: concepts like subjectve and objective truth, plurality of truth, the possibility of an incident for being analysed phenomenologically or existentially keeping it within the context etc. This incident witnessed the emergence of a new theory by a famous male feminist: he says that from this incident he has learned that even a feminist can at times become a male chavunist.
But Malayalee humour does not have limits. Like the mimicry artists in Kerala commedians of JNU campus say that behind this incident one can see the hands of biologically frustrated woman in the campus. These women, they say, have small breasts and they are envious even towards those who have b**bs with normal size. Does the poster ridicule big breasted women or does it appreciate their features? One cannot get a direct answer. But pure mallus say that the poster is a fine positve depiction of "malayali manga" or typical malayalee women because it simply shows motherhood. Malayalee's concept of a woman is different from that of others. For him/her woman is Mother Goddess who cannot be a slim lady. There are some realists as well. They argue that the original is more vulgar than the representation.
Interestingly, the day when the poster was published, everyone, along with the Onam Committee, appreciated the poster and the artist. It was only when somebody noticed that other residents in Brahmaputra hostel (Indo-Gangetic Barbarians or Biharis, they say, are the main culprits) are really trying to suck the b**bs in the poster, rendering it torn at the crucial area, that everything turned up into a controversy. (Later on a confidential committee was constituted to investigate on 'damaging of posters' and it found out that in almost all the boys' hostels, the posters were torn exactly at the same crucial part of the picture. The committee hesitated to table the report and resigned midway.)
Another socially committed JNUite says: "GSCASH has become a dreadful dream for all the male students in JNU now. Male students are over-conscious about their words. 'How can one express this issue in the public with the right terminology?' is the main hurdle before them. Language has become a curse in this situation. How can the males speak about breast without using the ugly word "breast" which is a 'discriminating word' for women."
And the debate goes on reinforcing the Malayalee to be in the dark and to be sexually hypocritical for ever.
posted by Ground Zero at
12:48 AM
|
7 comments
links to this post
