Welcome to the Gender Agenda newsletter from The Hindu, where we look at gender discrimination as an outcome of a cultural conditioning that often reproduces social hierarchies and exacerbates economic inequalities.
Gender Agenda
Welcome to The Hindu’s newsletter that puts gender front and centre. Here, we’ll reflect on the world, cleaning up our glasses smudged from cultural conditioning. Through words, visuals, and voices we will see clearly how gender discrimination reinforces social hierarchies and worsens economic inequality. In the best tradition of sisterhood, three of us will share the ‘work’, one every week, each from a different generation of women. So, from one of us who describes herself as “existentially tired”, another as “unnecessarily enthusiastic”, and the third as “cautiously optimistic”, happy exploring, through our rainbow-rimmed glasses. Tell us what you think?
This week in gender news
The plan was to begin this week’s newsletter with a take on how cities in the South (like Bengaluru and Chennai) continue to rank as?India’s top cities for women. This is based on social and industrial inclusion, according to the third edition of ‘Top Cities for Women in India 2024’ (TCWI) report released by The Avtar Group, a workplace culture consulting firm. The South has?historically shown better indicators?in health, education and safety for women; and a hot take will lead to a mere North vs South debate.
This does not make for news anymore.
Recently though, a?caste atrocity complaint?made by Dalit trans activist, Yashika against Uttar Pradesh’s Transgender Welfare Board Member Devika Devendra S. Manglamukhi made for a talking point within the transgender community. Yashika, like several trans activists in the South, has been demanding horizontal reservation. Manglamukhi seems satisfied about trans people being categorised in the OBC (Other Backward Caste) category.
Based on a 2014 Supreme Court judgment, Manglamukhi insisted that a person could not continue with their socio-economic category’s caste identity after identifying as a transgender person. She apparently even threatened those who were supporters of horizontal reservation.
Dalit trans activist Grace Banu from Chennai who has been fighting for horizontal reservation, however, rebuts her succinctly: “This reading denies the reality that there are transgender people in all caste categories. How is bunching them up as OBCs serving the purpose of equality?” Ms. Banu says.
Horizontal reservations cut across vertical groups and provide for accommodations to members of disadvantaged communities. Transgender welfare boards across the country must attempt to unify their stance on the same, creating a clear sense of approach towards health and education: primary parameters that help an exploited community.
Toolkit
Published in 1942,?Penn Yen Adimaiyanal??or?Why Were Women Enslaved??is an all-encompassing booklet capturing Periyar’s acerbic witticisms on patriarchy. Over 10 chapters, the iconoclast and rationalist thinker expounds on radical sexual freedom for women, while also advocating for social and economic equality between men and women. He is a staunch supporter of birth control. He even touches upon women’s need for pleasure besides calling for widow remarriage and the right to property. Despite having been written 83 years ago, the text continues to be essential reading while discussing the status of women in India today. “Unless women destroy the concept of ‘masculinity’, it is certain that they will not attain liberation,” he writes.
Wordsworth
Incel: A portmanteau, incel expands to ‘involuntarily celibate’. Originally used in the world of gaming, this niche slang made its way into common parlance while discussing misogyny and gender. Incel is used to describe someone who is usually a man, frustrated by the lack of sexual experiences. The extrapolation is that sexlessness leads to extreme resentment and hostility toward those who are sexually active with anger particularly directed at women. Alana, a queer Canadian, is said to have created the word in 1997. It was earlier called ‘invcel’ but the term changed to accommodate easier pronunciation. Today, they are the founder of the?Love Not Anger project. An incel, will however, forever remain a rage-filled man abusing women on the internet.
Somewhere someone said something stupid
“Only men should be firefighters. We all know this. It’s a job that men are uniquely qualified to perform. There are few women on the face of the Earth who can carry a full grown man to safety. LA set out to deliberately reduce the number of male firefighters. A suicidal policy.”
Writer Geeta Ilangovan’s books at the 2025 edition of the Chennai Book Fair have been flying off the shelf because of her catchy titles, two of which include?Dupatta Podunga Thozhi?(Wear a Dupatta, sister) and?No Aani Please?(No nails please). Geeta declares that she is intentional about naming her books after catchphrases in Tamil pop culture because it reaches audiences who are unassuming. It is her way of tricking people into reading what she calls everyday feminism. “My publishers first asked me if we were perpetuating the notion of having to wear a dupatta to cover our chests by calling the book so. I was clear though. If those who truly wanted their sisters, mothers and wives to wear dupattas, gifted the book to their relatives, then they would truly be in for a shock. A revolt is likely to have begun at home,” she declares with a diabolical laugh.
Courtesy: The Hindu
Note: This news is originally published on thehindu.com and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially for human rights.
