From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: Women in Popular Tamil Magazines
Date: 11 Jan 1993 21:11:18 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
Summary: Reply to some views in an essay by Gita Wolf on popular magazines.


Sankarapandi (ssankara@magnus.acs.ohi-state.edu ) writes:


> Popular Tamil magazines and construction of gender identity
> ===========================================================
>
> {Gita Wolf, Economic and Political Weekly, Oct 26 (1991)

> [ some deleted ]
>
>    The narratives work at two levels: firstly they gratify, in a crude and
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>often perverse fashion, male fantasies and projections of female sexuality; and
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> secondly, they also project, on their large female readership, continually
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> limiting traditional versions of women's notions of themselves and their
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> possibilities.
 --------------
> ........................................................

      I will write a reply to the points made in this good essay by Gita 
 Wolf once Sankarapandi finishes posting all the parts of this essay. But
 I like to comment on this particular paragraph in the essay posted.

     I agree with the author in the above two points. While on one hand, 
 the magazines gratify male fantasies in a perverse manner with perverse
 illustrations, on the other hand they project traditional versions of
 women's notions of themselves and the possibilites.

      The latter view is especially true in the like of Laxmi ( who bagged
 a Sahitya Academy award a few years ago ) and Rajam Krishnan. These writers
 present women in the traditional outlook in the male chauvinistic Tamil
 society and write about their family issues in an artless manner. Rajam
 Krishnan was so against the works of Janakiraman, who broke the traditional
 image of women with his Tamil novel `ammaa vandhaaL', resigned from the
 award selecting committee of Sahitya Academy award to protest the award
 of that year given to a book by T.Janakiraman. This is just an instance.
 I have read many of their novels and I see their clinging to traditional
 outlook and they or their characters don't question the traditions in the 
 male chauvinistic society.

     Recently, I read a story by Shyamala Parameshwaran and she described 
 it as a real story about a woman. It was an artless story with no reflections
 of the feelings or the emotions of the woman, the story revolves around. The
 writer's standpoint was from the traditions set by this society and after
 reading this story, I felt very sad. Not that the story was very moving,
 I felt very sad about the real life character. The writer was more cruel to
 her than her sociey..      

     The former view is also true. I see it in S.C.T. often, in the postings
 on Kushbu last month or in some articles on eve teasing this month. Here is
 a recent sample:

> ----------------------------------------------------
> From: kanth@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Meenakshi Srikanth)
> Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
> Subject: minnal varigaL - 63
> Date: 7 Jan 93 02:10:16 GMT

>	"Aanip pon kattil undu!
>	kattil mEl meththai  undu!
>	meththai mEl viththai undu!
>	viththaik Or thaththai undu!
>	thaththaik Or muththam undu!
>	muththangal niththam undu!!"
>	
>	From "kiNNathil thEn vadithu kaihalil Endhukiren..."
>
>	Contributed by Senthil.
>
>	Posted by Srikanth Meenakshisundaram.
>--------------------------------------------------------
>Contributions Welcome. Please send YOUR minnal varigaL to
>kanth@cse.ogi.edu. 
>----------------------------------------------------------

     I am sure that there are more such `minnal varikaL' to come. 
 Kannadasan, who is venerated by some readers, has often gratified male
 fantasies in a crude manner in his movie songs [ His song `sorkkam
 madhuvilE' is one of the many to mention ] and Kannadasan's fellow
 prolific movie poet Vaali had his own part in gratifying male fantasies
 in movie songs. This list goes on.. Vairamuthu, Gangai Amaran...

  More later,
  - SP

 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian