women – NICKELED AND DIMED

Choice or Tyranny: Body Hair Removal Through the Lens of Bollywood’s Iconic Unibrow

This article aims to map out the trajectory of the perception of body hair removal and how, over the years, a hairless woman has become the feminine ideal. This paper isn’t restricted to what has been but also brings to light the changing conversation around body hair, body freedom and femininity. One of the major goals of this paper is to unpack and analyse the implications of the word “choice”, a word often casually used in discussions on body hair removal.
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How Prohibition led to one of the First Feminist Movements in the United States of America

How does alcohol relate to feminist movements in America. The article talks about how alcohol led to social mobilisation amongst the women and helped champion other rights too eventually such as the right to franchise. Prohibition was historic not just because of it being a state being the morality police but also because of the involvement of women in bringing it about.
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EXPLORING INTIMACY, SEX & FEMININITY IN DAS’S “AN INTRODUCTION”

Kamala Das’ “An Introduction” tackles a lot of coming-of-age themes such as intimacy, sex and femininity. This article tries to find a connection between these themes and explores how they link together in the context of the poem and generally. Here there are 3 viewpoints that are being used to explore this link; the what, the why and the how.
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Patriarchy, Capitalism and the Systematic Oppression of Women

The oppression of women is ancient and it predates any other form of oppression. Women of the world have since time immemorial borne the brunt of patriarchy which, due to its dynamism, has gradually and incrementally overlapped with newer and more universal forms of oppression i.e capitalism. Patriarchy and capitalism have together sustained and perpetuated a male-dominated society in the 21st century and have resisted any transformation of its core assertion of male supremacy.
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Nudging Patriarchy into the Grave of Stereotypes

This article aims to analyse how the application of Nudge Theory can turn the failure of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative into a success by adding a few ‘new nudges’ recommended by me.
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Gender, Partition and Time through the Lens of Literature

Partition brings about memories of colonial rule, violence and migration. However, during such memories, the images of women are absent. The role of women was not shown in Partition history which left women invisible when we talk about this traumatic incident. This article highlights some of the literary works from the Partition era and investigates the lives of women who exist between these pages. The role of women is examined by their participation in public spaces which shows a contrast between Masculine and Feminine times.
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The Decline and Disregard of the Tawaifs of India

Tawaifs usually have a negative connotation associated with them. They are seen as shameless, vile, and corrupt women who pollute society. But this wasn’t the case in the Mughal era. People appreciated their talents in music and dance and yearned to see their performances. They were respected and held in high esteem. They were differentiated from prostitutes and were seen completely from an artistic lens. But all of this changed with the arrival of Britishers and Christian missionaries who systematically broke the institution down. To protect Victorian morals, they started to blur the differences between tawaifs and prostitutes. As a result, tawaifs lost their identity and livelihoods forever.
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The Role of Technology in the Emancipation of Women

Technology has always been at the heart of human development. From agriculture to manufacturing, its constant innovation has enabled the emancipation of countless lives. On this front, these technologies have played a crucial role in emancipating women in modern society. By focussing on four main categories – transportation, information and communication, home technologies, and medicine and hygiene – this article tries to provide a comprehensive understanding on how specific technologies have contributed to the emancipation of women in various areas.
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When Humour is Misogyny

The recent internet fad being pushed from everywhere is the defamation trial of the actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. This article explores what this case tells us about how the internet culture gets influenced by algorithms. It further explores how feminism evolves, falls behind and reacts to these circumstances.
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Book Review: Gendering Caste through a feminist lens by Uma Chakravarti

Caste has been made to be this ambiguous concept, painted by mainstream media and society to be almost holographic in nature. Thus a privileged individual grows up questioning if caste still exists or is it just an excuse for reservation and a term used to discredit merit? But what is caste and what does caste mean to a feminist? Uma Chakravarti in this book breaks down the internalised casteist notions and practices hidden behind the garb of tradition and ritual.
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Overturning Roe vs. Wade: The Bigger Picture

The overruling of Roe vs. Wade by SCOTUS was shocking – not only for the citizens of the United States but also for the people across the globe. Gender Rights activists have put this as – “robbing women of their basic rights and bodily autonomy”. In this article, the authors looked at the effects of the overruling and analyzed whom this decision is going to affect the most, and what will be the global impact of the same.
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Hijab Ban and the Political Apathy of the Indian Middle-class

There was no popular, long-drawn public outrage, protests or even discussion among the common middle classes, otherwise known as the backbone of all political protests and dissent against the State. Is this political apathy of the middle classes just an unconscious act of self-preservation and general lethargy or an active set of practices based on the ideology of exclusion and alienation of certain groups?
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