Nickeled & Dimed

Penny for your thoughts?

We are accepting articles on our new email: cnes.ju@gmail.com

Category: Gender and Society

Covered Up: The Favourite Dress Code

By — Siddarth Pool Abstract Modesty is often presented as a personal virtue, a cultural value, or at worst, a mildly inconvenient dress code enforced by relatives at weddings. The article states that Modesty has greater political utility to society than one would think. From a sociological standpoint modesty has been used throughout history and…
Read more: Covered Up: The Favourite Dress Code
The Paradox of Religious Women and Women as Religious Leaders: The Presence of Practice and the Absence of Power

By: Manushree Mahat Abstract Research has found that globally, women are more religious than men. In an unsurprising paradox, however, there is a higher percentage of religious leaders who are men, in comparison to women. In my research essay, I’d like to analyze how this paradox is essentially the result of patriarchy deeply rooted in…
Read more: The Paradox of Religious Women and Women as Religious Leaders: The Presence of Practice and the Absence of Power
Revisiting the Divine: Gender and the Politics of Interpretation

By – Anisha Jyotirmayee Abstract This article explores the role of reinterpretation of religious texts in resolving the issue of gender inequality. Although religious texts have been the guiding force for centuries, gender inequality has been justified through the interpretations of religious texts. It contends that religious text interpretations are a product of a particular…
Read more: Revisiting the Divine: Gender and the Politics of Interpretation
From Belief to Institutions: Feudalism and Patriarchy and the Restructuring of Religious Authority

By – Kadambari Chand Abstract This article explores the prevalent feminist understanding of religion being inherently patriarchal by moving away from religious beliefs and focusing on religious institutions. It argues that many patriarchal features associated with religion actually emerged alongside the consolidation of land, property and political power under the dominant ruling groups, after the…
Read more: From Belief to Institutions: Feudalism and Patriarchy and the Restructuring of Religious Authority
Gendered Borders: Feminizing Vulnerability & Masculizing Threat

By – Anisha Jyotirmyayee Abstract This article conceptualises borders as gendered social institutions regulating mobility through narratives of protection. It theorises borders as gendered metaphors themselves and characterizes this in the reality of gendered borders of feminizing vulnerability and masculinizing danger. Drawing on the theory of bio politics of Michel Foucault, it argues that the…
Read more: Gendered Borders: Feminizing Vulnerability & Masculizing Threat
The Two Genders and Other Administrative Fairy Tales

By -Siddarth Poola Abstract The modern state insists that it is neutral committed to equality. It also insists, with remarkable confidence, that humanity comes in two neatly packaged options. This article examines how the gender binary functions as a foundational administrative technology of the state, structuring law, policy, data in ways that systematically erase identities…
Read more: The Two Genders and Other Administrative Fairy Tales
Gendered State and Parochial laws: The Rape that a State Commits

By – Manushree Mahat Abstract The gendered state spills over into law and policymaking when it comes to gendered-based violence(GBV)- which is predominantly observed in the language of sexual violence and rape laws. While the scope of definition of rape, and the severity of its consequential punishment has expanded over the years–it still remains largely…
Read more: Gendered State and Parochial laws: The Rape that a State Commits
Protecting Women, Preserving Hierarchies: Paternalism and the Gendered Indian State

By – Kadambari Chand Abstract This article conceptualises the idea that while the modern state’s policies are cloaked in the rhetoric of protecting women, in reality, they undermine their bodily and sexual autonomy, relegating them to the status of subordinate subjects of the state. This subordination is brought by using both formal legal systems and…
Read more: Protecting Women, Preserving Hierarchies: Paternalism and the Gendered Indian State
Artificial Images, Real Harm: How Deepfakes Enable Gendered Violence

By – Anisha Jyotirmayee Abstract: The rapid expansion of deepfake technology has introduced new forms of digital harm that disproportionately affect women. While deepfakes are commonly framed as a problem of misinformation, their most prevalent use recently has been the creation of different kinds of non-consensual sexual content, depicting a form of gendered digital violence.…
Read more: Artificial Images, Real Harm: How Deepfakes Enable Gendered Violence
Dignity Beyond Law : Haq- Critique of Secular Compromise

By – Akshara Gupta Abstract Haq is a courtroom drama based on the real-life case of Shah Bano (1985), which aims to examine the gap between law and gender within religious communities in the country. The film, through its female protagonist, tries to present the current lacunae in the social institutions as well as formal…
Read more: Dignity Beyond Law : Haq- Critique of Secular Compromise
The Algorithm Has a Gender, and It’s Judging You

By – Siddarth Poola Abstract Artificial intelligence is routinely framed as a neutral decision-making tool that merely reflects the data it is trained on. This framing collapses under scrutiny when AI systems are examined through the lens of gender expression and power. Drawing on research by UN Women, UNDP, Nature, Stanford, ORF, and investigative journalism.…
Read more: The Algorithm Has a Gender, and It’s Judging You
Marital Rape and Primitive Accumulation in India: Part 1

By – K.S. Prathignya Abstract: This article applies a Marxist-Feminist framework to understand how marital rape unveils the reality of what bodily autonomy is regarded as in India, displaying how it inherently shapes the discourse around women’s personal sovereignty. It will argue that marital rape is used as a tool to continue the primitive accumulation…
Read more: Marital Rape and Primitive Accumulation in India: Part 1