<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Ultra Violet</title>
	<atom:link href="http://ultraviolet.in/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://ultraviolet.in</link>
	<description>a site for Indian feminists</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:08:37 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<item>
		<title>Marriage and Feminism</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/03/01/marriage-and-feminism/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/03/01/marriage-and-feminism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:07:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest Contributor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marriage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work Life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women scientists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1253</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Sreeparna Chattopadhyay
OVER THE LAST FEW decades, sociologists and economists have been exploring the consequences of marriage for men and for women. Many of the studies indicate that married people are happier, healthier and richer than single or divorced people. Sometimes this masks the fact that marriage has more advantages for men than for women [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong>By Sreeparna Chattopadhyay</strong></em></p>
<p><strong><img class="alignabsbottom size-full wp-image-1254" style="margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px;" title="Sreeparna" src="http://ultraviolet.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Sreeparna.jpg" alt="Sreeparna" width="62" height="80" />O</strong><strong>VER THE LAST FEW </strong>decades, sociologists and economists have been exploring the consequences of marriage for men and for women. Many of the studies indicate that married people are happier, healthier and richer than single or divorced people. Sometimes this masks the fact that marriage has more advantages for men than for women especially when we examine the financial portfolios of married women in developed countries compared to never married or widowed women. Married women appear to have smaller pensions and investments as well as savings. In the UK where I live, many more women work part-time than men, particularly after childbirth; there are more men than women in senior professional and managerial positions; and finally, more women care for elderly relatives (including parents and in-laws) than men and do so either by working part-time or by quitting their jobs. Given these exits from the labour market at various points in their lives, it is not surprising that when they are close to retirement women have smaller pensions and greater economic insecurity compared to men.<span id="more-1253"></span></p>
<p>As an anthropologist married to a scientist, I&#8217;m interested in the career trajectories of women in the sciences. I&#8217;ve noticed that most successful scientists, especially those tenured at research-intensive universities, tend to have wives who initially had a promising career but 15-20 years later, they&#8217;re working in occupations for which they are overqualified. These range from temporary lectureships to teaching below university level or sometimes focusing only on teaching and not doing any research. Teaching is poorly paid and less prestigious than research.</p>
<p>Part of this imbalance is a function of the highly rarefied academic job market but this is not the full picture. Through informal conversation, I&#8217;ve discovered that a combination of circumstances and personal choices have resulted in one partner having a more conventionally successful career than the other. Some wives graduated after their husbands and followed their husbands’ jobs. If the husband procured employment in a remote area with few industries, it presented great obstacles to the wife. For others, the arrival of children tipped the balance of priorities.</p>
<p>I do not intend to present these women as victims of their circumstances; they are probably privileged and in a position to forgo work because they don&#8217;t need the money. Also most of the wives say they have very fulfilling lives, even if they are not doing exactly what they were trained to do. From a strictly economic perspective, it might make more sense for couples to focus their energies on the career of one partner especially when that partner is already doing well. But it&#8217;s hard to miss the fact that these women&#8217;s choices subsidize their husbands’ success to some extent. Without the reliability of a wife who chooses to stay at home or not be engaged in an extremely demanding career, some male scientists would probably not reach the pinnacles they do.</p>
<p>In defense of the male scientists I&#8217;ve met, most contribute considerably towards household chores each day. But unmistakably, marriage does tend to have better outcomes for men than for women. Worst is the penalty that women must endure if the marriage does not work out. Not only is she at a disadvantage in the labour market because she has not worked for a long period of time but the initial premise for compromise i.e. family stability has turned out to be false. I am not making a case against marriage, just pointing out that it is not without its risks and costs.</p>
<p>Of course, not all decisions are taken using cold-hearted economic models! Our decisions are often based on our individual definitions of happiness. From my own personal experiences, I&#8217;ve realised that a happy marriage is one where the woman does not feel that she is making too many sacrifices. It&#8217;s important for women is to be fully aware of the of the risks and costs of their choices, some of which may indeed leave them worse off in the long run as individuals. Feminism allows us a choice of several different life trajectories as long as we&#8217;re willing to abide by the consequences of our decisions. It should not dictate one way of life over another because this would not reflect the values at the core of the movement.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>Sreeparna Chattopadhyay grew up in Bombay, has lived in the US and currently lives in Norwich, UK. She splits her time between working as a social researcher for the government of the UK in London and spending time with her husband and friends in Norwich. She enjoys cooking, reading, writing and taking long walks in the countryside.</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/03/01/marriage-and-feminism/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Two Poems</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/02/18/two-poems-2/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/02/18/two-poems-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:23:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest Contributor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Celebrating Women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feminist poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women's poetry]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1238</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By June Nandy



Woman Made
always the same shop of decency
from where my books and dresses are bought.
my nationality is decided by the
identity i hold between my legs.
i have no Pandora’s Box
in whose depth, i can store my fantasies.
it comes swimming to me, his battle ground;
bringing me currencies, carnal, banal.
other times, my timidity decides
how not to find [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><em>By June Nandy<br />
</em></strong></p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-1239 alignnone" title="June Nandy" src="http://ultraviolet.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/June-Nandy.jpg" alt="June Nandy" width="62" height="80" /></p>
<p><strong><br />
Woman Made</strong></p>
<p>always the same shop of decency<br />
from where my books and dresses are bought.</p>
<p>my nationality is decided by the<br />
identity i hold between my legs.</p>
<p>i have no Pandora’s Box<br />
in whose depth, i can store my fantasies.</p>
<p>it comes swimming to me, his battle ground;<br />
bringing me currencies, carnal, banal.</p>
<p>other times, my timidity decides<br />
how not to find me left, mid-way.</p>
<p>i flick my pages; a constitution i’ve become,<br />
placed at the highest pedestal; to be violated<br />
again and again.</p>
<p>*<em>Previously published by Gloom Cupboard, USA</em></p>
<p><em><span id="more-1238"></span><br />
</em></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Taking Account</strong></p>
<p>I’ve seen female elders<br />
stocking dead cowries in the God’s throne.</p>
<p>I fill the cereal bowl with it&#8230;makes you smile;<br />
the child calls it&#8211;fish&#8230;sometimes<br />
the food even; she will learn.</p>
<p>I don’t know, how your red diary<br />
travels to me often, with outstretched arms;<br />
it was important though, to know</p>
<p>the void left by the moneta pies—to make our home,<br />
was filled with sighs. I thought<br />
they were to be tossed out.<br />
It is an eternal sojourn—<br />
to jostle space with them.</p>
<p>Cretin that I am—<br />
figure out: the frugality does not help.<br />
It is the scrawled sub-formulas—in the air<br />
that I must learn, to read.</p>
<p>***<br />
<em><br />
June Nandy&#8217;s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various literary journals such as </em>Taj Mahal Review, Sein Und Werden, Poetry Super Highway (featured), Kota Press, Up the Staircase Lit Review (featured), Gloom Cupboard, Decanto Magazine, Clockwise Cat, Malaysian Poetic Chronicles, Kritya, Femina, and Heavy Bear<em>. She was the third prize winner in the Poetry with Prakriti contest, 2009. Her works can be accessed <a href="http://publishedworksofjunenandy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. </em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/02/18/two-poems-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>It&#8217;s Not PMS, It&#8217;s Your Mother</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/28/its-not-pms-its-your-mother/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/28/its-not-pms-its-your-mother/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dilnavaz Bamboat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gender]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our Bodies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1225</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[THAT&#8217;S NOT THE TITLE of a sitcom. (Though it could be –think I should sell the idea?) I once said that to someone. Meant it too. And I’m so proud of the way I restrained myself from going for his jugular when the oh-so-patronizing “Honey, it’s PMS” (hand pat included) was tossed my way, like [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img style="margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px;" src="../wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Dilnavaz_profile4-1.jpg" alt="Dilnavaz_profile4-1" width="60" height="82" /><strong>THAT&#8217;S NOT THE TITLE</strong> of a sitcom. (Though it could be –think I should sell the idea?) I once said that to someone. Meant it too. And I’m so proud of the way I restrained myself from going for his jugular when the oh-so-patronizing “Honey, it’s PMS” (hand pat included) was tossed my way, like a puppy receiving a biscuit.</p>
<p>Even as I write this, I am NOT, repeat NOT PMSing. I understand there are some women who experience physical and emotional fluctuations in the days preceding Leak Week. I, fortunately, am not one of them. I do not cramp, I do not moan and I certainly don’t have my menstrual cycle whirring my tear ducts into overdrive. Tell me I’m PMSing, though, and I’ll ask you how you’d like your eyeballs for breakfast.  (And yes, I vaguely get the self-fulfilling prophecy here.)<span id="more-1225"></span></p>
<p>When exactly did it become kosher to fling PMS in a woman’s face? In my experience, the worse the man’s behavior has been, the more likely he is to resort to the PMS argument, probably in the fervent hope that the woman in question will fall prey to the crazed hormones theory and let him off the hook. And in that case, not only have you offended my estrogen, but also my IQ.</p>
<p>The man-rational/woman-irrational stereotype has been done to death and Ballistic Betsy is so 1980s, so what’s next? Whatever happened to disappearing behind the newspaper? Can we have escapism back, please? It’s less messy, for one thing. And everybody goes to Hell with their eyeballs intact.</p>
<p>What about you folks? Have any of you been at the receiving end of pseudo PMSympathy and how do you typically respond?</p>
<p>Oh, and while we’re talking about our bodies, here’s <a href="http://www.go-girl.com/" target="_blank">Go Girl</a> that tells us not to take life sitting down.<em> Now</em> can we finally scrap penis envy from those textbooks?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/28/its-not-pms-its-your-mother/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Two Poems</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/19/two-poems/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/19/two-poems/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:11:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest Contributor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Celebrating Women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marriage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bertha mason]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[janice pariat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sylvia plath]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Janice Pariat

Bertha &#38; I
Tonight I feel like Bertha Mason
with a fire and sadness in my soul.
I pace my room – this attic of madness –
it keeps me sane. I think it keeps me
whole, somehow. There’s no breeze
through the window, just an empty
vastness of night and shadow and
half-lights. And the knock on my door,
well, it [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong>By Janice Pariat</strong></em></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1215" title="Janice" src="http://ultraviolet.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Janice.jpg" alt="Janice" width="62" height="80" /></p>
<p><strong>Bertha &amp; I</strong></p>
<p>Tonight I feel like Bertha Mason<br />
with a fire and sadness in my soul.<br />
I pace my room – this attic of madness –<br />
it keeps me sane. I think it keeps me<br />
whole, somehow. There’s no breeze<br />
through the window, just an empty<br />
vastness of night and shadow and<br />
half-lights. And the knock on my door,<br />
well, it came before – today, tomorrow,<br />
or never, who knows. Tonight I am<br />
Bertha Mason. I see her in the mirror,<br />
lifting her hand to strike the match,<br />
to knock the lantern over. I wait for<br />
the crackle and hiss of wood, the empty<br />
kiss of lapping flames. Yet all around<br />
me is darkness, darkness. What burns<br />
is a fury for what’s come before<br />
and will again.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><span id="more-1213"></span></p>
<p><strong>To Sylvia</strong></p>
<p>When I put away Ariel<br />
I cannot sleep, though<br />
the night is as you describe<br />
it – black, blue. With the moon,<br />
a white knuckle and terribly<br />
upset. Do you still brood<br />
like a rook in winter,<br />
somewhere behind flowering,<br />
mystical clouds? Or walk<br />
a dark landscape beneath<br />
gothic yew trees? Has the<br />
terror come to life in death?<br />
If so, you could not<br />
have escaped, except for<br />
the aged face in the mirror<br />
that now lies forever youthful;<br />
in the back of your poetry books.<br />
I wonder if you still drag your<br />
marble-heavy bag full of god.<br />
If you still hate as much as you<br />
used to. Or has it all magically<br />
faded and made you pure as<br />
a pane of ice? A gift to the stars.<br />
In the distance, I think I see Ariel<br />
– the hurl of mud from hooves,<br />
the brown arc of neck – and you<br />
alongside, running towards morning.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>Janice Pariat is a freelance writer now based in her hometown Shillong after many years of being away in Delhi and elsewhere. She studied English Literature in St Stephen&#8217;s College and Communications at Westminster, London. At the moment Janice is working on several projects – a graphic novel set in Shillong, a first novel as well as a collection of poems based on women literary characters and writers.</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/19/two-poems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Queer Film Fest: Call for submissions</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/13/queer-film-fest-call-for-submissions/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/13/queer-film-fest-call-for-submissions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:36:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anindita Sengupta</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gender]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bqff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call for submissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[queer film fest]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1209</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[THE BANGALORE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL (BQFF 2010) is calling for submissions. The deadline is 30 January 2010. Details here.
The festival will be held at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore on 26, 27 and 28 February 2010.
The BQFF 2010 is a non-ticketed free event aimed at providing a venue to screen films based on themes related [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>THE BANGALORE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL </strong>(BQFF 2010) is calling for submissions. The deadline is 30 January 2010. Details <a href="http://mike-higher.livejournal.com/168398.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p>The festival will be held at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore on 26, 27 and 28 February 2010.</p>
<p>The BQFF 2010 is a non-ticketed free event aimed at providing a venue to screen films based on themes related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBT or Queer) communities across the world. This is the second edition of the Bangalore Queer Film Festival.</p>
<p>The event is presented by Good As You (a support group for LGBT people, est. 1994), SWABHAVA (a non-profit organisation working with LGBT issues in Bangalore, est. 1999) and WHaQ! (a support group for queer women, est. 2009).</p>
<p>While sincerely apologising for this short notice, the organisers request you to send in films for consideration/preview as early as possible. For more information please contact the organisers at blrqueerfilm fest[at]gmail.com. <a href="mailto:blrqueerfilmfest@gmail.com"></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/13/queer-film-fest-call-for-submissions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Two poems by Susan Kiguli</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/01/two-poems-by-susan-kiguli/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/01/two-poems-by-susan-kiguli/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:26:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest Contributor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity and Destination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poem about mothers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rwandan genocide poem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Susan Kiguli]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uganda]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1200</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Susan Kiguli

Mothers Sing a Lullaby
(after the 1994 Rwandan genocide) 
Mothers sing a lullaby
As the dark descends on trees
Shutting out shadows.
The sensuous voices swish and swirl
Around shrubs and overgrown grass
Hiding mountains of decapitated dead
And the glint of machetes
That slashed shrieking throats.
In these camps without happiness
Mothers maintain the melody of life
Capturing wistful wind
To sing strength into [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong>By Susan Kiguli</strong></em></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1201" title="Susan" src="http://ultraviolet.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/susan2.jpg" alt="Susan" width="62" height="80" /></p>
<p><strong>Mothers Sing a Lullaby<br />
<em>(after the 1994 Rwandan genocide) </em></strong></p>
<p>Mothers sing a lullaby<br />
As the dark descends on trees<br />
Shutting out shadows.<br />
The sensuous voices swish and swirl<br />
Around shrubs and overgrown grass<br />
Hiding mountains of decapitated dead<br />
And the glint of machetes<br />
That slashed shrieking throats.</p>
<p>In these camps without happiness<br />
Mothers maintain the melody of life<br />
Capturing wistful wind<br />
To sing strength into the souls of children<br />
Who have never known<br />
The taste of morning porridge<br />
Or heard the chirrup of crickets in the evenings.</p>
<p>Mothers sing a lullaby<br />
For the staring faces<br />
Who cringe at the sound of footsteps<br />
Whose playmates are grinning skeletons.</p>
<p>Mothers become a lullaby<br />
Silencing the sirens of sorrow<br />
Restoring compassion to the nation.</p>
<p><span id="more-1200"></span>***</p>
<p><strong>My Mother in Three Photographs</strong></p>
<p>Her face looks out<br />
flawless<br />
her sexuality electric<br />
in a mini dress and sheer satin stockings<br />
the girls of the 1960s<br />
beautiful beyond belief.<br />
She is looking through the camera<br />
like her space is here and beyond<br />
enchanting and enchanted<br />
by the times when dreams of freedom were young<br />
the fortunes of Uganda<br />
hot and sizzling.</p>
<p>My mother in the 1970s<br />
More sombre but her skin<br />
Still flawless<br />
The abrasive years gentle on her youth.<br />
Her body wrapped in a long nylon dress<br />
stopping her ankles and<br />
full sleeves touching her wrists<br />
hooded sorrow in her posture<br />
the flowing dress<br />
is not because<br />
she is a widow (which is by government action)<br />
but it is a government decree.<br />
Her magnificence and elegance<br />
Seem to support the given name of the dress<br />
Amin nvaako.</p>
<p>My mother in the 1990s<br />
neat short hair<br />
luring in its intricate curls.<br />
She wears a busuuti<br />
a sign of the times<br />
a return home, a finding of<br />
uncertain peace<br />
a maturing of a woman and nation<br />
an endorsement of a recognition of the troubles<br />
she has weathered<br />
a sitting down to count her losses and blessings<br />
and a hand over of the future.</p>
<p><em>P.S. Amin Nvaako means Amin let me be or Amin leave me alone</em></p>
<p>***<br />
<em>Susan Nalugwa Kiguli is a Ugandan poet and academic. She holds a PhD in English from The University of Leeds sponsored by the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Makerere University, Uganda, and has served as the chairperson of FEMRITE, Uganda Women Writers’ Association. She is published widely in national and international anthologies and journals.</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2010/01/01/two-poems-by-susan-kiguli/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Crime Non-Fiction</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/17/crime-non-fiction/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/17/crime-non-fiction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:42:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest Contributor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Institutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our Bodies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rape]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Violence Against women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopian CBI report]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopian rape case]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopian truth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[steig larsson]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1184</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Sridala Swami

IF YOU HAVEN&#8217;T ALREADY devoured every one of the three books in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, you have at least heard of it: the story of the girl with the dragon tattoo who plays with fire or kicks the hornet’s nest. She is Lisbeth Salander, abused child, accused adult and unlikely crusader along [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong>By Sridala Swami<br />
</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>IF YOU HAVEN&#8217;T ALREADY </strong>devoured every one of the three books in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, you have at least heard of it: the story of the girl with the dragon tattoo who plays with fire or kicks the hornet’s nest. She is Lisbeth Salander, abused child, accused adult and unlikely crusader along with Mikael Blomkvist of the magazine, Millennium.</p>
<p>Over three books, the story is one of a giant cover-up to protect a secret organisation within Swedish intelligence. It is about the blind eye that is turned upon a mafia dealing in, among other things, human trafficking; the involvement of those in power and the denial of a woman’s human rights just so that a long-forgotten secret can remain buried. The sub-text of the series – made clear through telling epigraphs to each section – is of violent crimes committed against women in the name of national security or in the interests of keeping up appearances. It is a tale in which the silence surrounding the crimes makes society complicit in them.</p>
<p>The Millennium Trilogy is fiction. There are protagonists whose lives align with the investigations they conduct with varying degrees of commitment and interest. They can stand against the State because it is in their interest to have the truth brought out into the light and written about. And because it is fiction, people will listen and are capable of examining their society afresh in light of the new facts they are shown. Justice is possible in crime fiction as it is often not in real life.</p>
<p><span id="more-1184"></span></p>
<p>Consider now a story closer to home: Two women leave one morning and do not return. The older of the two is marr</p>
<p>ied to the brother of the younger. Because they live in a place where it is not safe to be out after dark, the man – husband of one and brother of another – calls up a search party to look for them. With the police, they search every place theyknow to until well after midnight but they don’t find the two women. The police promise to resume early in the morning. At 5.30 the family begins to search again and, an hour later, are joined by the police. Almost immediately,a policeman finds the bodies of the two women in a shallow naala – one woman’s body has drifted further downstream</p>
<p>, but they are both there. The naala is in a well-guarded area, surrounded by manned and alert checkposts of various kinds. Nobody saw these women pass the previous day, and yet there their bodies are this morning, in a place the search party had checked earlier.</p>
<p>The police do what they do well: ruin the scene of crime by fishing the bodies out before photographing them as found, without cordoning the place off or collecting evidence from the surrounding area. The bodies are sent for two kinds of post-mortem: in one, a lung flotation test shows that death was not caused by drowning; the other post-mortem shows injuries and contusions to the faces; it also includes vaginal swabs that could have shown that the women had been raped.</p>
<p>Why the doubt? Either they had been raped or they had not. Surely forensic science has advanced even in India to prove rape without the shadow of a doubt?</p>
<p>In the days and months that follow, the doctors who did the post-mortem are either discredited or go back on their earlier testimonies; witnesses who say they heard women shouting from inside an army vehicle retract their statements. The family and elders of the place form an association to protest the course of the investigation.</p>
<p>Policemen are suspended; there are commissions and investigating teams; bails are applied for and granted; the bodies of the women are buried, exhumed months later and buried again. There is a lot of press, a lot of uproar. There are bandhs. Finally the investigation is handed over to the CBI.</p>
<p>Yes, this is Shopian. On the 14th of December the CBI filed its report in the J&amp;K High Court, and not surprisingly, it said the women drowned to death in the naala they were found in. If their report contains answers to all the questions that people have been asking since May this year, we do not know it.</p>
<p>Independently of the CBI, in the knowledge that its report will say what it does, a group of women called the Independent Women’s Initiative for Justice went to Shopian to talk to the people concerned and came back with their own report, which they released days before the CBI report came out. <a href="http://www.box.net/shared/cmanekhmxj" target="_blank">Download the full report from here</a>.</p>
<p>I was sent the report by a friend, with whom I was discussing this a few days ago, after reading <a href="http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/11/stories/2009121158931200.htm" target="_blank">a news report in the <em>Hindu</em></a>. He said, “There was a word used to sum it up: impunity. It’s not in the article.”</p>
<p>No, it’s not a word newspapers use, but it is one we are getting used to inferring in the context of any conflict.</p>
<p>In the first book of the Millennium Trilogy, <em>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em>, Blomkvist explains to Salander why Harriet Vanger ran away to Australia. Salander is angry and says, “If she had done something in 1966, Martin Vanger couldn’t have kept killing and raping for thirty-seven years.”</p>
<p>Among all the other troubles that have beset Kashmir for the last two decades, the ones that are least spoken about are the ones that the women have to bear: a proxy war that is fought through them and their bodies and the consequent loss of their liberty, their right to education, work and free movement when and where they please; their right, in fact, to a life lived without fear.</p>
<p>Inaction allows criminals to continue committing crimes with impunity: we know this; but we accept it more readily in fiction than in real life. This could be because in fiction we know someone else will take up the mantle of crusader on our behalf and justice will be done. Outside the pages of a book, it is never clear how an individual is to proceed and what, if anything, the outcome of any action will be.</p>
<p>Shopian is not Mangalore – we can achieve nothing, especially not ridicule, by sending anyone pink chaddis. What it could be is a test of our empathy and imagination, our ability to see ourselves in the women of Shopian and take action upon it because to remain silent would be to allow more such crimes to take place.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>Sridala Swami’s poetry has appeared in various journals including </em>Chandrabhaga, The Little Magazine, New Quest, Wasafiri, Asian Cha <em>and the </em>Creative Writing Issue of The South Asian Review (28:3, 2007)<em>. Her work also features in </em>The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets <em>(ed. Jeet Thayil, UK: Bloodaxe, 2008</em><em>) </em><em>and in </em>Not A Muse Anthology <em>(ed. Katie Rogers and Viki Holmes, Hong Kong: Haven Books, 2009). Her first collection of poems, </em>A Reluctant Survivor<em>, published by The Sahitya Akademi in June 2007 and reprinted in 2008, was short-listed for The Shakti Bhatt First Book Award in 2008. She has written three books for very young children, which were published by Pratham in 2009. Swami’s photographs, </em>Posting the Light: Dispatches from Hamburg<em>, was exhibited at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, in November 2009. She lives in Hyderabad,  India. She blogs at </em><a href="http://spaniardintheworks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Spaniard in the Works</a><em>.<br />
</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/17/crime-non-fiction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>&#8216;Staying Alive&#8217;: An Audit of the Law against Domestic Violence</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/10/staying-alive-an-audit-of-the-law-against-domestic-violence/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/10/staying-alive-an-audit-of-the-law-against-domestic-violence/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:23:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest Contributor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Domestic Violence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Violence Against women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[act]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[domestic violence law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[domestiv violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1155</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Sonal Makhija
EARLIER THIS MONTH, the ‘Staying Alive: Third Monitoring and Evaluation Report 09’ on the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) was released in Delhi. The report tracks the implementation of the Act for the third year in a row and has become a way to document jurisprudential development of the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong>By Sonal Makhija</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>EARLIER THIS MONTH, </strong>the ‘Staying Alive: Third Monitoring and Evaluation Report 09’ on the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) was released in Delhi. The report tracks the implementation of the Act for the third year in a row and has become a way to document jurisprudential development of the law and create a monitoring system. Findings are shared at a national conference annually at which civil society organisations can question state officials and examine progress. This has inadvertently come to operate as a social audit. The naming and shaming as well as applauding and deriding of state departments in a public forum fosters accountability and drives state governments to take necessary action. For example, this year, Minister for Law and Justice M. Veerappa Moily recognised the need for fast-track courts to deal with cases of violence against women, easy availability of free legal aid and prioritisation of women’s cases in courts.</p>
<p><span id="more-1155"></span></p>
<p>This annual report is authored by Lawyers Collective &#8211; Women’s Rights Initiative (LWCRI) and the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) in collaboration with the National Commission for Women (NCW) and supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. Three states were studied this year: Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. A survey conducted in Delhi and Rajasthan with police and protection officers (POs)  assessed their knowledge of the law, the practices they followed and attitudes towards the PWDVA and women. Data was gathered from the judiciary and women who had used the law were contacted to understand their experiences and expectations.</p>
<p>Questions centered around some of the key provisions of the PWDVA such as: categories of women the law protects (i.e. the applicant), who can the woman file the case against (i.e. the respondent), what acts qualify as domestic violence, what is the objective of counseling under the PWDVA, and the right to residence. For attitudinal assessment, several questions and statements were posed to gauge their attitude and gender bias, such as “Domestic Violence is a family affair”; “Women before filing a complaint of domestic violence should consider how that would affect their children”; “Women deserve to be beaten in certain situations”.</p>
<p>This assessment police exposed possible barriers or facilitators in women’s access to the law. It also tried to evaluate if the law is serving its normative function by transforming societal norms and internalising the unacceptability of violence against women in the private sphere.</p>
<p>The PWDVA in many ways is a path-breaking law, not merely because it is an independent civil law that identifies violence against women in the shared household as ‘domestic violence’, but also because it provides women the right to reside in the shared household and protects women in non-matrimonial relationships. The right to reside in the shared household irrespective of any right, title or interest in the property safeguards women from dispossession. It also challenges the moral assumptions  infused in other Indian laws by protecting women in non-marital relationships. The law provides protection, maintenance, residence, compensation and custody orders to the woman who has so far been relegated to the status of a ‘mistress’ with little or no rights, without passing judgment or denying her merely because she falls outside the ‘morally acceptable’ institution of marriage. The PWDVA also goes beyond marital relationships. It protects mothers, sisters, daughters, widows and women who are in relationships in the nature of marriage. The objective of recognising relationships in the nature of marriage was to offer protection to women whose ‘marriages’ are not valid in law or fail to meet the requirements of a legally valid marriage.</p>
<p>The study captured the knowledge and acceptability of some of these key provisions. For instance, a certain percentage of POs in Delhi and Rajasthan felt that women in live-in-relationships, bigamous and fraudulent marriages should not be provided protection under the Act. When their knowledge on what acts come under the definition of domestic violence was tested, they recognised most acts of physical, verbal, emotional and economic violence but there was ambiguity surrounding forced sex in marital relationships.</p>
<p>The report also examined how well participants understand the objective and spirit of the legislation by asking questions about the motive of counseling. The purpose of counseling under the Act is to build the confidence of the woman and counsel the man to stop violence, as opposed to the common, incorrect perception of ‘saving families’.  It was found that some percentage of the police in Delhi and Rajasthan saw counseling as a way of striking a compromise between couples. This perception trivialises the severity of domestic violence and reestablishes the need for training and sensitisation of key contact agencies such as the POs and the police. The orders from Gujarat show that in many cases, parties have reached a ‘compromise’ or ‘settled the matter’. Whether this settling happened with the consent of the woman or because she was pressurised ‘to save the family’ is not known.</p>
<p>Similarly, the recognition of sexual abuse as domestic violence in relationships, especially in marriages, still needs to gain acceptance. Sex as a conjugal right of the man is a widely accepted patriarchal view. The study revealed that knowledge on the subject was low among participants and sexual abuse was alleged in few orders. The inclusion of sexual abuse in the Act which includes sex without consent is a breakthrough in Indian law. (Indian law did not recognise marital rape.)</p>
<p>This study will hopefully become an effective model to ensure implementation of the law and determine what areas need attention in sensitisation programs. Regular audit of the law and state functionaries influence states to adopt novel methods for better implementation and promote transparency and accountability through public forums.</p>
<p>Please refer to the <a href="http://www.unifem.org.in/violenceagainstwomen.html" target="_blank">report</a> for a detailed discussion on the data gathered this year.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>Sonal Makhija is a Bangalore-based lawyer and legal consultant. Her areas of interest are gender, human rights and anthropology of law. </em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/10/staying-alive-an-audit-of-the-law-against-domestic-violence/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Of fatigue and forgetting</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/01/of-fatigue-and-forgetting/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/01/of-fatigue-and-forgetting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:04:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anindita Sengupta</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gender]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity and Destination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feminist fatigue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[futility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[India gender gap]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WEF report]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1157</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[YESTERDAY, I WAS LOOKING at this report released by the World Economic Forum last month, and I started drafting a post with some excerpts. Just to make it easier for people who don&#8217;t want to read the whole thing. It was1 am, I was tired and suddenly I felt overcome with this sense of futility, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1159" style="margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px;" title="UV profile copy" src="http://ultraviolet.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/UV-profile-copy.jpg" alt="Anindita Sengupta" width="62" height="80" />YESTERDAY, I WAS LOOKING </strong>at <a href="http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/TheIndiaGenderGapReview/index.htm" target="_blank">this report</a> released by the World Economic Forum last month, and I started drafting a post with some excerpts. Just to make it easier for people who don&#8217;t want to read the whole thing. It was1 am, I was tired and suddenly I felt overcome with this sense of futility, &#8216;what&#8217;s-the-point&#8217; in neon capitals, fatigue. Will it really help to know the figures on maternal health (dismal), or female foeticide (frightening)? What can you or I &#8212; the non-activist, the home-maker, the writer or blogger or journalist &#8212; really do about any of this? It&#8217;s like looking up a ladder whose last rungs you can&#8217;t even see, or some hideous version of Jack&#8217;s beanstalk.</p>
<p>It reminded me of this time I was talking to someone about writing for UV. She&#8217;s a quiet, dark-eyed girl who rarely gets emotional. On this occasion, she did. &#8216;What&#8217;s the point of all this talk?&#8217; she said suddenly. &#8216;We just become more and more aware of our rage. And don&#8217;t know what to do with it.&#8217;</p>
<p><span id="more-1157"></span></p>
<p>This sense of inchoate rage twinned with helplessness &#8212; I&#8217;ve often heard feminists talk about it. I suspect it&#8217;s why more women don&#8217;t write for UV (but maybe they just hate the super, dynamic masthead). God knows there&#8217;s hardly a dearth of issues to talk about in this country.</p>
<p>The feeling intensifies, I think, when the problem is at a remove. Not only is there a sense of &#8216;what can I do?&#8217; but there&#8217;s also the fear that one doesn&#8217;t know enough or <em>really</em> understand. It can make one feel like a tourist in someone else&#8217;s battlefield. A bystander who&#8217;ll tell the story, then brush its dust off and walk away unscathed. This adds guilt to the dense mix. Robert Hass has <a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/haas/prosepoems.htm" target="_blank">talked </a>about this problem of feeling like a voyeur or a tourist in relation to writing political poetry but it can be applied to any writing. Especially for a site such as this which <em>does </em>have an express political purpose. It affects what some of us choose to write about. It certainly affects me. How to talk about problems that have never touched my life, and most likely never will?</p>
<p>It&#8217;s easier to stay silent, stick to a few safe issues. Easier to talk about the personal.  Easier to remain within the margins of one&#8217;s limited knowledge and even more limited control. Yet this can lead to a baffling silence about other things, a disturbing silence. A silence which at its heart may just be careful, but in its effects may end up being plain wrong. As a blogger, I&#8217;m constantly conflicted by this. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m likely to find any answers soon but I wanted to put it on the table, a live thing for us to look at.</p>
<p>At any rate, I do believe in this: even when there are problems that we can do nothing about, it&#8217;s important to know. To note. To remember. Because forgetting would be the last nail in the coffin, the final bone burned to cinders.</p>
<p>So here are the excerpts:</p>
<ul>
<li>India holds the last position (134th) in the health and survival subindex. A huge factor contributing to this is poor maternal health, with <strong>only 42% </strong>of births in the country supervised by health professionals. Close to <strong>300 </strong>Indian women die every day during childbirth or of pregnancy-related causes.</li>
<li>India also has among <strong>the worst sex ratios at birth</strong> in the world. The strong preference for sons and the disproportionate sex ratio at birth make India one of the few countries where males significantly outnumber females and the imbalance is getting worse.</li>
<li>Close to <strong>245 million </strong>Indian women lack the basic capability to read and write. Almost <strong>twice as many</strong> girls as boys are pulled out of school or never sent to school.</li>
<li>Women’s labour force participation, is at 36%, <strong>less than half </strong>of the labour force participation rate of men (85%). Women’s estimated earned annual income is <strong>less than a third </strong>of men’s income. Women make up only <strong>3% </strong>of legislator, senior official and managerial positions.</li>
<li>Over time, we&#8217;re closing the education gap but the health gap is getting worse.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can download the full report <a href="http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/IGGR09.pdf" target="_blank">here (pdf)</a>. There&#8217;s lots more info there including some cheerier stuff like the high level of political participation. <a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49374" target="_blank">Here&#8217;s</a> an interesting related report at IPS. And <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-northup/an-open-letter-to-secreta_b_369956.html" target="_blank">she&#8217;s</a> hoping Clinton will help change things.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/12/01/of-fatigue-and-forgetting/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Thoughts on Eve Ensler&#8217;s &#8220;I am an Emotional Creature&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/11/19/thoughts-on-eve-enslers-i-am-an-emotional-creature/</link>
		<comments>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/11/19/thoughts-on-eve-enslers-i-am-an-emotional-creature/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:38:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dilnavaz Bamboat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Celebrating Women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desipundit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Domestic Violence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exploitation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gender]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity and Destination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our Bodies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Popular Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prostitution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rape]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sex and Sexuality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Violence Against women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Lives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ultraviolet.in/?p=1115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="align=absbottom size-full wp-image-1117" style="margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px;" src="http://ultraviolet.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Dilnavaz_profile4-1.jpg" alt="Dilnavaz_profile4-1" width="60" height="82" /><strong>THE AUDIENCE WAS FLUSH WITH</strong> 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.</p>
<p>The world premiere of Eve Ensler’s ‘I Am An Emotional Creature’ was some things expected and many not. It began regularly enough, with the usual spine-tingling statistics on female abuse, neglect and violations. Essayed as a relentless spiral of separate pieces without an intermission, the portrayals of women from around the world shifted from mediocre to spectacular as the play progressed. Moments of intense pain in “Free Barbie” were interspersed with a more defiant stance in “The Refusers” and stories of prostitution in Eastern Europe, military sex slaves in Ghana, bulimia in North America, child labor in China and forced cosmetic surgery in Iran tumbled out unapologetically, amidst joyous expressions of dance and womanhood. Woman cried, laughed, screamed, spoke, vented, explained, twirled and chanted their right to be emotional creatures and engage in the feminine act of dance as a form of expression.</p>
<p><span id="more-1115"></span></p>
<p>Which left me wondering if this wasn’t stereotyping my gender just as much as any other descriptor. Are all women truly emotional creatures? More than men? Do we feel more intensely? Need to express more urgently? Or are we as much victim to this erroneous belief as to the acts perpetrated on us worldwide? Do all women desire to dance? Is feminine expression primarily manifested through physical acts? I, for one, certainly feel no need to plunge into a waltz each time I absolutely must say what I feel.  I am born of a mother who clicks her tongue at being “too emotional” and believes it clouds practicality and better judgement. My friends are women who rarely cry, even when they have much reason to. Are performance and feeling necessarily the domain of the XX? Could we not be harming ourselves by tarring all women across the world with the same brush and insinuating that a woman’s natural response to a situation is based on her feelings first and intellect later, if at all?</p>
<p>I could empathize with individual tales but not with the premise. And while I wish women power to overcome their tormentors, human and situational, I also hope that they strive to stand apart from the cluster of characteristics that haphazardly—and often thoughtlessly—define their gender.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>To view a short clip about the play, go <a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/105043/eve-ensler-on-her-new-play-i-am-an-emotional-creature.html">here</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://ultraviolet.in/2009/11/19/thoughts-on-eve-enslers-i-am-an-emotional-creature/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
