Ultra Violet is a place for Indian feminists. It’s a place for sharing stories and views and questions. It’s a place for exploration, opinion and information. It’s a place where we can come together to understand what other feminists around the country–or around the world–are saying. If you want to write for UV, please read this. More about UV here.

We’re Talking About…

November 19, 2009

Thoughts on Eve Ensler’s “I am an Emotional Creature”

THE AUDIENCE WAS FLUSH WITH estrogen, but had a heartening dose of the Y chromosome. I wondered if the cocktail reception that preceded the event was a marketing ploy or a genuine attempt to fortify our spirits for what was to come. I found out soon enough.
The world premiere of Eve Ensler’s ‘I Am An [...]

October 16, 2009

Two poems by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

To Get Myself Some Water
~Translated from Ellen Lai’s ‘Grassland’, written in Chinese

Our love toils about one period.
On the bloody and lusty grassland
You transform me into your self-pitied crippled rabbit.
When you finally discard everything you have
That is inside your permanently bulging equipment,
You turn your back
And ride towards the flat horizon
On a white horse
Whose tail is momentarily [...]

September 08, 2009

Dev.D through the Gender Prism

By Aditi Srivastava

“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic [...]

August 13, 2009

What is it that offends you?

RECENTLY, OVER AT at Feministe, guest blogger Ren did some frank speak about being a sex worker:
Well, personally, I am fond of the money and the way it allows me to set my own hours.  I generally like most of my coworkers.  I do dig my work attire way more than business casual (except the [...]

July 21, 2009

Hair

By Priyanka Joseph

That girl at twenty-

her black hair ripples
through the comb
in the pride of spring –
such beauty!
(sono ko hatachi kushini nagaruru kurokami no
ogori no haru no utsukushiki kana)
- Yosano Akiko, Midaregami: The Poetry of Yosano Akiko, 1952.
2005. THE L’OREAL SALON in Chennai. I was at the eye of a storm, all because Susan (one of [...]

July 14, 2009

How to Conduct A Wedding

WITHOUT BEING hyperbolic, let me just say that this nearly made me upchuck my morning tea. The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh subjected 151 women to ‘virginity tests’. The women were to be part of a mass marriage scheme in Shadol near Bhopal. To avoid ‘complications’, the state government saw it fit to conduct physical [...]

July 03, 2009

One Step Forward…

…AND ANOTHER ONE BACK. While the decriminalization of consensual gay sex is indeed a victory for those rooting for orientation-equality (refer to this news item), constricted notions of propriety continue to be imposed on basic choices deemed even remotely threatening to social fabric. A case in point being denim. I kid you not. Jeans, according [...]

July 02, 2009

Pride

“We shall disallow travel and the mingling of songs”—this line from Jeet Thayil’s poem ‘Rules for Citizens’ makes me think about the Gay Pride Parade. Because travel is of so many kinds, much of it disallowed. At this year’s Bangalore Pride on Sunday, there was much mingling of songs as well.
Travel. There was a boy [...]

August 18, 2008

Same-Sex Love: In Conversation with Dr Ruth Vanita

DR RUTH VANITA (b.1955), is a renowned academic and author specializing in lesbian and gay studies. Some of her acclaimed books include Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society (2002), Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West (2005), and Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and [...]

May 21, 2008

Matters of Maal

a.k.a. The Day Feminism Crawled Out The Back Door
“Sahi maal hai” they said,
as they walked down the street,
breezing by me
waiting patiently for a dear friend.