Intersectional Feminism—Desi Style!

In this episode of our podcast, we are talking about something that we have all engaged with but are often stopping ourselves from talking about it. Porn as we know it is possibly the most consumed form of media out there. However, the vulgarisation of porn happens with this whole treatment of the form only for a titillating objectifying purpose. Most porn that is readily available is also made from an extreme white-cis-het male gaze, where female pleasure seems to be completely sidelined. However with the advent of ethical porn and feminist creators that landscape is slowly changing. Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in the final episode of this season is Kali Sudhra. Kali is a sex worker, writer, and educator. Kali has been dedicated to dismantling structures of white supremacy within feminism and challenging the gatekeeping of feminist spaces. The main focus of her work is exploring and presenting dissident sexuality, directly challenging white heteronormativity by using porn and various forms of sex work as a medium. Kali has performed in a number of XConfessions indie adult short films & is one of the most-watched performers on the site. In 2021 she co-directed XConfessions' first South Asian-themed movie 'The Saree Shop'. Tune in as we discuss what it is like to be a person of colour, a queer South Asian performer in an industry that is very strictly catering to a white-cis-het male audience. Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha  Producer: Shriya Roy  Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy  Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

Throughout the course of the episode this season, we have been talking about how gender is stereotyped in different work industries. When we speak about work, we generally think of someone working for someone else. Now, if you think about an entrepreneur it sounds very exciting because you are your own boss. But that also comes with a lot more responsibilities. You are responsible for generating revenue, maintaining your staff, ensuring there is a good working environment, and so on. Into this mix, if you put a woman at the core of this business a platform that speaks about gender, it becomes way more complicated. What is it like be a woman entrepreneur speaking about gender issues in this country? Is it profitable? Is it lonely? Is it exciting? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is journalist, author, and entrepreneur Shaili Chopra. Shaili is the founder of SheThePeople TV which was founded in 2015 and is one of India’s largest platforms that talks about gender. She has also recently started a new-age digital health clinic, Gytree.com that aims to reimagine the standard of female care in India. Tune in as we discuss what is it like to be a woman entrepreneur, the challenges that come with it and a lot more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha  Producer: Shriya Roy  Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy  Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

When we imagine a woman at work, what do we think? Or rather, what are we taught to think of? There are certain professions that our society assigns to women - workspaces that reflect values like nurture and caregiving. Imagining dynamic workspaces with women who ace the ladder through their skills is still slightly alien to us. Through the course of this season of our podcast, we have been steadily debunking such workplace gender stereotypes. In this episode, we are going to speak to someone who works in the field of science. Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is research scientist Dr. A Mani. Dr. Mani is a scientist in algebra, logic, and rough sets at ISI Kolkata, and a senior member of the International Rough Set Society. She has formerly been with HBCSE, TIFR, and Calcutta University. She is also a prolific feminist and a lesbian rights activist. Tune in as we discuss what it is like to be a woman in STEM in India, what kind of experiences women and queer people in this field have, and a lot more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha  Producer: Shriya Roy  Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy  Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

On the 21st of February, Seattle became the first city in the United States to explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of caste after the ordinance was passed by the City council. The ordinance was introduced by council member Kshama Sawant. Kshama grew up in Mumbai moved to the US and completed a Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina State University. She is a member of the Socialist Alternative, the first, and the only member of the party to be elected into public office. She has been a council member since 2014. She has been crucial in the historic change in minimum wage law in the city. Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is Kshama Sawant as she speaks about women in politics, being a woman of colour in a white majority country, her fight against caste discrimination, and a lot more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha  Producer: Shriya Roy  Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy  Cover Art by Shreya Tingal FII thanks Ambedkar International Center and Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans for their effort in helping us throughout the podcast interview process.

We have discussed how gender reflects in various fields of work, in the previous episodes of this podcast. We all have different kinds of work environments. In some workplaces, we can afford to keep our persona, views, and opinions private. In other professions, that is not an option. Journalism is one such area of work where there is a lot of public gaze on the journalist, especially with the advent of digital and multimedia journalism. One often has to put their face, voice, opinions, and political views out there. They are scrutinised, correlated, juxtaposed, and many  kinds of consequences ensue, sometimes. Women journalists especially become vulnerable to cyberbullying, harassment, and personal attack. Our imagination of a woman in journalism is that of someone always ready, on their toes, chasing after the news. But how do we, as a society, make them feel deep within on a daily basis? What is it like to be a woman in journalism in today’s context? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is journalist, news anchor, and the current Director of the Reuters Institute’s Journalist Programmes, Mitali Mukherjee. Mitali is a business journalist writer and TEDx speaker and has covered and reported on a wide range of topics from political, global & local to economic. She has worked with CNBC TV18, BBC, Doordarshan, The Wire Mint, the World Bank, and The Indian Express. Mitali was also a Raisina Young Fellow and has been vocal about leading the conversation on financial equality for women and including them in conversations that impact their health, opportunities, and lives. Tune in as we discuss about discrimination faced by women journalists, the #MeToo movement in media, representation in newsrooms, and a lot more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha   Producer: Shriya Roy   Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy   Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

The development sector is among the many fields where critical investigations in social engineering, policy pushing, social audit, and accountability initiatives, happen, among other projects. Often, with women who work in this sector, there is a stereotypical representation attached - the NGO woman - geeky, always serious, somewhat rigid - and these are all the images we have seen in popular culture and narratives that are largely male and far from the truth. So what is it to be a woman working in the development sector in India? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is human rights and animal rights activist and founder and executive director of The Naz Foundation Trust, Anjali Gopalan. Anjali set up Naz, dedicated to the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India mainly focused on women and children. Anjali has also been a strong campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights in the country and played a huge role in decriminalisation of homosexuality by the Supreme Court in the Section 377 judgment in 2018. Tune in as we discuss gender bias in the development sector, the discrimination she faced while doing her work, the pay gap, and much more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha   Producer: Shriya Roy   Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy   Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

While most of us are fans of cinema, for the majority of the population what comes through when they watch a movie, is the people they see on the screen. We are molded in a way to perceive what is on screen rather than what is off it. But there is so much more to movies than what we watch on screen. It's a long-drawn process and so many people are involved in it. And the key people in that list are cinematographers. Being a technical field the obvious gender bias prevails and sort of overshadows a lot of the work being done. Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is cinematographer and director Fowzia Fathima. Fowzia is an alumnus of the Film and Telivision Institute of India, she started her career as an assistant to P.C. Sreeram. She made her debut as an independent camera person with the film Mitr, My Friend, directed by Revathi, along with an all-female technical crew. She is also the first ever independent woman cinematographer in Malayalam cinema as well as the force behind the Indian Women Cinematographers' collective. Tune in as we discuss gender bias, cinema, and a lot more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha   Producer: Shriya Roy   Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy   Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

When we talk about the role of gender in art or the relationship between gender and art, we cannot discount the fact that gender presentation and representation in art is not just in the hand of the artist but an outcome of the sociocultural process that defines sexual and social identity. With this in mind, we also need to talk about what art/artists include and what it excludes. How hierarchies and marginalisations and disparity can also showcase itself in art. And how art itself can become a way to push back on the same.  Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is visual artist, Indu Antony. Indu is a trans-disciplinary artist, based in Bangalore. In the pursual of her work, she had to face various social barriers, and she has been relentlessly working with individuals from marginalised sections of society. She is known to explore tonalities of inward discussions which later on burst out into the communal spaces. Her work comprises of understanding feministic stands which gives way to performances and installations. Tune in as we discuss gender, art, marginalisation, and a lot more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha   Producer: Shriya Roy   Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy   Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

Academia is a space that we all engage with for the longest part of our lives. From school to professional education spaces, universities, career milestones, and the like, we keep learning and keep interacting with some kind of mentorship/training. If we look at the people who work in academia, especially in research and teaching, there are a lot of stereotypes that become visible. Right from people generally saying that ‘teaching is a woman’s natural instinct’, to the glaring gap in the number of women holding decisive positions in academia, there seem to be quite many glass ceilings in the sector that women encounter. In our country, what does it mean to be in academia? To be a qualified, efficient, driven, and passionate,  woman who aspires to teach, research and thrive? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode distinguished scholar and academic in the field of economics, gender, and women’s studies, Dr. Vibhuti Patel. Dr. Patel was previously a professor and head of the department at SNDT University in Mumbai and retired from the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, TISS, Deonar. She is known for her extensive research and expertise in the issues concerned with women’s rights and has played a critical part in the women’s movement in the 70s and 80s being a pivotal part in archiving the movement. Tune in as we discuss about the early stages of the women’s movement in academia, the biases within, the #MeToo movement, and much more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha   Producer: Shriya Roy   Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy   Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

The whole idea of how a sportsperson should be is constructed from a very masculine perspective, where even men are required to perform hypermasculinity to be taken seriously. Sports is also a career choice that a lot more individuals are pursuing today, compared to older times. We are also witnessing the entry of numerous female and queer athletes into various sports, where they thrive and shine. In this background, it is quite intriguing to understand what it means to be a woman in sports. Does she also have to embrace the hypermasculine construct of how a sportsperson should seem? Does she get paid fair wages? What does she do if a crisis arises in the workplace, who does she take this up with? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is the pioneer and champion India para-badminton athlete, Manasi Joshi! Manasi is the current World No. 1 in women's singles and she has also been listed as the Next Generation Leader 2020 by TIME Magazine in October 2020 and she appeared on their Asia cover, making her the first para-athlete in the world and the first Indian athlete to be featured on the magazine's cover for being an advocate of rights for people with disabilities. She also recently received the Arjuna Award for her exceptional contribution to sports. Tune in as we discuss women in sports, her challenges as a para-athlete, understanding disability, and sports, and much more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha   Producer: Shriya Roy   Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy   Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

Sex or anything around the topic is more often than not seen and depicted and talked about in a titillating fashion. When we talk about sex education, it is still looked at as something wrong, something that needs to be stopped. Many would rather have the wrong information about sex instead of actually sitting down with a sex educator. There is a need to de-stigmatise sex and sexuality and look at it from a more comprehensive, inclusive, and pleasure-positive outlook. Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is the amazing and talented Leeza Mangaldas! Leeza has built a career in sex-positive content creation and sexuality education. She established her Youtube and Instagram platforms in 2017, and since then, she has attempted to debunk and normalise discourse on sexuality, sexual health, gender, and body image with a particular focus on women and the pursuit of pleasure. Today, her work is breaking new ground, and she is one of the most popular and followed sex-positive content creators out there on social media. Tune in as we discuss all things sex, sexuality, and more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha Producer: Shriya Roy Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

All of us like to laugh, don't we? Humour keeps us going and adds that layer of lightness to our lives. When we look at comedy as a genre, there are various forms of it. There are political jokes, satire, sarcasm, there is sketch comedy, improvisation, imitation, and so on and so forth. But very often, we notice that jokes are gendered, in the sense that most of them are made at the expense of women or gender minorities, and contain sexist, racist, casteist underpinnings. Comedy is an arena where dominant narratives can be re-negotiated, spoofed, questioned, and critiqued. But do we do that? Is our humour convenient and lazy for the most part?  And as for comedy as a career, how does this affect women stand-up comics, and what does it mean to be a female comic in today's context in India? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is the charismatic, quirky, and charming Radhika Vaz! Radhika is a comic, writer, and feminist. Over the years, through her performances, Radhika has openly talked about sexism and misogyny prevalent in society. She is also the co-creator of the web series 'Shugs & Fats' which won a Gotham Award. Tune in to this episode as the trio discusses women in comedy, the patriarchal society, re-negotiating dominant gender narratives through creative performances, and much more! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha Producer: Shriya Roy Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

We know the wait was long, but we're back with Season 3 of Intersectional Feminism—Desi Style! Last season, we spoke about everything pop culture and feminism, and now, in Season 3, we are back with brand new, exciting guests and conversations. This season looks to explore the nuances of gender in the workplace and will feature women/trans and queer individuals from different fields like journalism, politics, social work, sports, business and so much more. Join our hosts Sukanya and Shriya as they talk about un-stereotyping gender at the workplace with a stellar lineup of guests! Concept and communications: Japleen Pasricha Producer: Shriya Roy Hosts: Sukanya Shaji and Shriya Roy Cover Art by Shreya Tingal

Through this entire season we’ve had the great fortune of speaking with women who cover the length and breadth of everything that comes to mind when we think of pop culture! A recurring theme that we saw this entire season was the way in which we look at women who take up space in pop culture, whether they’re fictional characters or women just daring to live their life on their own terms. Today we thought there was truly no better way to wrap up this season but to celebrate these offbeat women both and off screen. We’re so honoured and excited to have joining our hosts this season an actor who has lived so many feminist lives on screen! Joining us today as we wrap up this season of our show is none other than Vidya Balan! Tune in to this episode to know more about her journey in films, her favourite feminist characters, the lessons she’s learn along the way and much much more!

This week India saw history being created. For the first time ever an Indian documentary was nominated for an Academy Award in the feature length category. Writing With Fire has been breaking a world of barriers and we are so honoured and excited to have one of the film's makers, Rintu Thomas with us on the podcast today. Tune in to this episode to hear at length about the journey of documenting an institution like Khabar Lehariya as well as the hurdles and triumphs of bringing such a glorious story on the big screen. We also deep dive into the evocative powers of non-fiction narratives, the hunger to tell stories, the western gaze towards our films and much much more! 

When we think of pop culture, and commercial cinema with mainstream stars, we can see that women are almost always portrayed in certain pre-constructed ways - they look a certain way, belong to a certain age bracket or social location. Very rarely do we see women both in terms or actors as well as characters who are removed from these moulds. Slowly but surely however, some filmmakers are paving the way for far more realistic portrayals of women on screen - joining our hosts in this episode of our podcast is one such filmmaker - Alankrita Srivastava. Tune in to this episode to hear more about the difference women telling their own stories makes to the narrative of a film, how we need to stop judging women on screen and much more!

When the lockdowns started last year, and we had to spend a lot of time with ourselves, staying within, physically and emotionally, a lot of us found solace in fictional escape and imaginary worlds. We turned to literature for relief, relatability and reference. In todays episode, we will be discussing the importance of reading and books and why it is imperative for more women to tell stories and how stories always sustain us because we are all our stories in the end! Joining us in this episode is Urvashi Butalia, a feminist writer, publisher and activist. She is known for her work in the women's movement of India, as well as for authoring books such as The Other Side of Silence: Voices from and the Partition of India and Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir. She co-founded Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house, in 1984. In 2003, she founded Zubaan Books. In 2011, she was awarded the Padma Shri, for her work in Literature and Education.

The  change in news becoming digital, and the world moving online also means that the main source of information has become the internet. When we talk about journalists, their lives too have slowly become a topic of public discussion. But news sometimes tends to be hypermasculine and we hope there was a more gendered lens to it. So in today’s episode we hope to look at news consumptions and reportage from a feminist lens. Joining us in this week's episode is journalist Dhanya Rajendran. Dhanya is an Indian journalist and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The News Minute. She previously worked with Times Now and The New Indian Express. Tune in to this episode where she talks about running a digital media organisation, harassment online and why journalism really is a fun job!

There are a lot of great ways in which we are getting entertained on the internet - the idea of consuming someones life and jokes as a form of entertainment may have begun with the advent of reality television but has now percolated to our phones through influencers and content creators. Social media stardom is huge in our country - but as with everything, this cannot escape the grip of personal politics either. So today we take a look at the rise of influencer culture in our country! Joining us this week on our podcast is a writer, and content creator who dons many onscreen hats alternating between humour, social commentary, social media interactions, and much more. She started out as a writer, before moving to multimedia production and content creation. She has recently also forayed into acting with the Malayalam film 'Janeman'. We are extremely excited to have with us the witty, sharp, and lovely Prapti Elizabeth!

One of the first thing that comes to mind when we think of pop culture with a critical lens is sexist tropes and item numbers. Most of our mainstream entertainment rides on the objectification of women, and item numbers are the most glamourised, sexed up tropes used in films to further this gaze. Now, the problem is not essentially about a woman who owns her sensuality and takes the screen by storm with her presence, but rather the purpose of fitting in something like that in a film, with completely offensive lyrics and gaze. So lets unpack the layers of male gaze, sexism and talk about item numbers and ask ourselves, who badnammed Munni afterall?! Joining us in this episode of the podcast is Smriti Kiran who is the Artistic Director of the Mumbai film Festival. She’s a  journalist, creative producer and author with over two decades of experience in the television and film industry. For the last 4 years, she has been the Creative Director of MAMI, the Academy that organises the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.