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The Fabulous Feminist: A Suniti Namjoshi Reader introduces us to this wonderful writer’s works and is a must-read for any Indian feminist.
The Fabulous Feminist: A Suniti Namjoshi Reader
Review by Unmana Datta
I feel my education has been incomplete all these years, because I had never heard of Suniti Namjoshi. A feminist with Indian roots, she has explored issues of gender and sexual orientation in her writing, and The Fabulous Feminist presents excerpts from her many works.
Namjoshi has dabbled in various literary forms: this book contains fables, poems, short stories, and excerpts from novels. This might be a strange combination – for most writers, such an assortment of works would be sure to disappoint the reader. But not this one; it succeeded in satisfying my palate and whetting my appetite at the same time, leaving me determined to seek out more complete versions of her work.
The book begins with selections from Namjoshi’s Feminist Fables, and this was, for me, the most enjoyable section of the book. It entertains and shocks and thoroughly succeeds in using popular fairy tales and fables to convey subversive, feminist messages. I especially loved the retelling of The Monkey and the Crocodiles, and Broadcast Live, an account of a woman superhero, reproduced here in its entirety:
The Incredible Woman raged through the skies, lassoed a planet, set it in orbit, rescued a starship, flattened a mountain, straightened a building, smiled at a child, caught a few thieves, all in one morning, and then, took a long time off to visit her psychiatrist, since she is at heart a really womanly woman and all she wants is a normal life.
Most of her creations contain a similar mix of ironic, poignant humour. Apart from the fables, I was especially intrigued by The Mothers of Maya Diip, a novel about a matriarchal society. The three chapters here provided a narrow glimpse of how such a country might work, how men are oppressed in such a society, and how little it takes to upset the peace.
Namjoshi wrestles not only with issues of gender but also with class and race, all with a wonderfully light touch that balances social justice with the self-deprecation of a brown lesbian feminist (thrice-oppressed, as a less-oppressed white woman once informed her). Fabulous feminist, she definitely is.
Publishers: Zubaan Books
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Unmana is interested in gender, literature and relationships, and writes about everything she's interested in. She lives in, and loves, Bombay. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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