A Struggle for Dignity: The Kalavanteens of Maharashtra

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-206
Author(s):  
Sushmita Gonsalves Mondal

Thrice alienated, Dalit women face a triple burden of caste, class and gender. The subaltern women belonging to Dalit communities in Kolhapur, Maharashtra is the focus of my paper. I have conducted in-depth interviews of the women I have met; and carefully documented their lives over a period of years. In due course of time, I realized that there are kalavanteen women (artistes of various folk-art forms) who are struggling to leave behind a tainted life and seize the opportunity to live a life of dignity. These are women who are involved in the performing arts, including singing, dancing and acting; Lavani, Tamasha and Jalsas. Such women who performed and entertained were available for sexual pleasures, but rarely married. They were rarely considered honourable women. Now when the image is that of a performing woman, she too will be consumed with greedy/hungry eyes. Her body parts too, are exposed to male glances, she has to attract them, as such, she cannot be expected to be chaste. However, in Kolhapur today, these kalavanteen, women have challenged their Dalitness; contested their being downtrodden; and finally derived a sense of agency from their being Dalit, their being downtrodden. I felt that it is highly significant to trace the manner in which they have attacked the systemic degradation that has eroded their lives for decades and tried to bring a sense of dignity.

Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852110083
Author(s):  
Mark McCormack ◽  
Liam Wignall

Drag performance has entered mainstream British culture and is gaining unprecedented appreciation and recognition, yet no sociological accounts of this transformation exist. Using an inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with 25 drag performers, alongside netnography of media and other public data, this article develops a sociological understanding of the mainstreaming of drag. There are two clear reasons for the success of drag. First, there is a pull towards drag: it is now seen as a viable career opportunity where performers receive fame rather than social stigma in a more inclusive social zeitgeist, even though the reality is more complex. Second, there is a push away from other creative and performing arts because heteronormative perspectives persist through typecasting and a continued professional stigma associated with drag. In calling for a sociology of drag, future avenues for research on contemporary drag are discussed, alongside the need for the sociology of cultural and creative industries to incorporate sexuality as both a subject and analytic lens.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199469
Author(s):  
Gowoon Jung

Scholarship on marriage migrants has examined the impact of class and gender ideology of receiving countries on their marital satisfaction. However, little is known about the role of transnational background in explaining women’s feelings of gratitude for husbands. Drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews with marriage migrant women residing in the eastern side of Seoul, Korea, this article explores the micro-level cognitive processes in understanding women’s gratitude for their husbands. Categorizing marriage migrants into two groups, ‘gratified’ and ‘ungratified’ wives, the author demonstrates how the gratified wives’ feelings of contentment is mediated by their active comparison of Korean husbands with local men in their homelands, and how these viewpoints conversely affect their aspirations for return. Bringing the sociology of emotion into an explanation of marriage migrants’ marital satisfaction, this study aims to develop a transnational frame of reference as an underlying dynamic for comprehending marriage migrants’ (in)gratitude.


1996 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Krasner

Although Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914) belonged to the same generation of turn-of-the-century African American performers as did Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, Bert Williams, and George Walker, she had a rather different view of how best to represent her race and gender in the performing arts. Walker taught white society in New York City how to do the Cakewalk, a celebratory dance with links to West African festival dance. In Walker's choreography of it, it was reconfigured with some ingenuity to accommodate race, gender, and class identities in an era in which all three were in flux. Her strategy depended on being flexible, on being able to make the transition from one cultural milieu to another, and on adjusting to new patterns of thinking. Walker had to elaborate her choreography as hybrid, merging her interpretation of cakewalking with the preconceptions of a white culture that became captivated by its form. To complicate matters, Walker's choreography developed during a particularly unstable and volatile period. As Anna Julia Cooper remarked in 1892.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Townsend ◽  
Catherine L Backman ◽  
Paul Adam ◽  
Linda C Li

Background As interest in gender and health grows, the notion that women are more likely than men to consult doctors is increasingly undermined as more complex understandings of help seeking and gender emerge. While men’s reluctance to seek help is associated with practices of masculinities, there has been less consideration of women’s help-seeking practices. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease that predominantly affects women and requires prompt treatment but considerable patient-based delays persist along the care pathway. This paper examines women’s accounts of help seeking in early RA from symptom onset to diagnosis. Methods We conducted in-depth interviews with 37 women with RA <12 months in Canada. Analysis was based on a constant comparison, thematic approach informed by narrative analysis. Results The women’s accounts featured masculine practices associated with men’s help-seeking. The women presented such behaviours as relational, e.g. rooted in family socialisation and a determination to maintain roles and ‘normal’ life. Discussion Our findings raise questions about how far notions of gender operate to differentiate men and women’s help seeking and may indicate more similarities than differences. Recognising this has implications for policy and practice initiatives for both men and women.


2001 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lindberg

The main concern of this paper is the issue of women workers' identity and class consciousness. This investigation is principally based on in-depth interviews with three generations of female factory workers. Extremely unequal power relations between capital and labour is insufficient to explain the more pronounced exploitation of female workers over males. In spite of these women having the potential for collective power, their factory lives have been characterized by treatment in constant violation of labour laws. Low-caste female workers have gone through a process of effeminization which has acted to curb their class identity and limit their scope of action. In the process of caste and class emancipation, the question of gender has been neglected by trade union leaders and politicians. The radicalism of males is built upon women's maintaining of the families – a reality which strongly contradicts hegemonic gender discourses and confuses gender identities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Poonam Singh

The paper attempts to project Bhim Rao Ambedkar as one of the foremost liberal feminists who advocated for Hindu women’s legal rights through the constitutional provisions listed in the Hindu Code Bill. He proposed four major stipulations, “one change is that, the widow, the daughter, the widow of predeceased-son. All are given the same rank as the son in the matter of inheritance. In addition to that, the daughter is also given a share in her father’s property: her share is prescribed as half of that of the son.”[1] To contemplate the predicament and marginalized position of Indian women, Ambedkar posited that caste and gender are intertwined. The imposition of endogamy was made compulsory by Brahaminical hierarchy which eulogized by Hindu religious scriptures to ensure sustained subjectivity of women, which eventually depreciated the egalitarian position of women. The focal point of the research paper remains a close textual analysis of Ambedkarite canon with archival study and genealogical examination contouring the discourse. The paper also encompasses potent reasons to establish the differences between the marginalization of upper-caste women and Dalit women. Difference between them is maintained by the ‘graded inequality.’ After having observed such differences, the paper intends to extend the idea that Ambedkar worked as a socio-political champion for Dalit women and Indian women concomitantly. To guarantee the freedom, equality, and individuality of Indian women, Ambedkar resorted to legalized mechanism and constitutional provisions. Key Words: Ambedkar, Hindu Code Bill, Manusmriti, Indian Women, Dalit Women, Indian Feminism, Caste, Patriarchy


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
Deepa Saravanan N
Keyword(s):  

'Paavaikkuutthu in Performing arts’ Kuutthu one among the various folk arts. ‘Thol paavaikkuutthu’ is one, which is at the verge of extinction in the modern era of development. People who did not have any other outlet for entertainment, along with nurturing the ancient Tamil tradition gave life to many new art forms. ‘Thol paavaikkuutthu’, which was popular in Tamilnadu and other States as well is highlighted in this article.


Although women’s participation in the workforce has increased remarkably in recent times but women are still lagging behind because of the traditional thinking and attitudes of their families in the context of Bangladesh. The purpose of the current study was to explore the role of the family in shaping women’s career development. The study was conducted in a qualitative approach and it was exploratory in nature. The study was conducted during November-December, 2019 in Khulna division, Bangladesh. The purposive sampling procedure was used to select the 25 respondents of the study. The respondents constituted of working women from different professions. Primary data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews extending from 35 to 45 minutes. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis method and nine themes emerged from the transcripts. The emerged themes were acceptance and aspiration from family, spousal support, being a mother, grown-up children as helping hands, family and work balance, family as a social network, family as a barrier, family as a lever, and gender inequality. This research highlighted the fact that women’s career practices and its development depended highly on familial roles. The family possesses the ability to affect women’s career success both positively and negatively. The study revealed that women who received positive support from their families were more motivated and achieved greater success in their professional life. Family can serve both as a lever as well as a barrier in shaping a woman’s career.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arit Nggadas ◽  
M Idham ◽  
Lolyta Sisillia

The Dayak Ribun Tribe Society has natural resources that can be developed as a source of community income. Interaction with nature still exists today so there is a need for research on the types of plants that are used, the art forms that are made and the parts of the plants that are used by the Dayak Ribun Tribe of Gunam Village, Parindu District, Sanggau District as art crafts. The method used in this study is a survey method with interview techniques for taking respondents to snowball sampling. Retrieval of data or information is carried out directly by researchers on selected respondents, prospective respondents are determined by respondents who have been interviewed beforehand and continue to the next respondent. Respondents were obtained as many as 32 people. Data collection is done by observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation using a camera. The number of plant species used in Gunam Village as raw material for crafts and raw materials for musical instruments as many as 14 species from 9 families includes Areaceae, Gleicheniaceae, Poaceae, Thymelaeaceae, Apocynaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Simaroubaceae, Fagaceae and Moraceae. The part of the plant that was used by the community in Gunam Village was found as many as 9 types of stems, 2 types of leaves, 2 types of seeds, 1 root, 1 type of fruit and 1 bark. There were two types of plants that were used by more than one plant organs namely Kemenyan or Aquilaria sp and keraci or Lithocarpus sp. Art forms that are used in the form of crafts and musical instruments. Crafts include key chains, clothes racks, chairs, rings, bracelets, takin, mats, hats, necklaces, drinking glasses, plates, clothes, bags, ropes, while musical instruments are sapeKeywords: Dayak Ribun, Ethnobotany, Utilization of plant


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