Between aunties: sexual futures and queer South Asian aunty porn

ABSTRACT

The aunty appears as a common vernacular figure in South Asian film, television, memes, novels, and porn. ‘Aunty porn’ names a large body of pornography that features fat, older, South Asian women; this genre is unique in that it features aunties as protagonists. In other media, aunties are only afforded minor roles as difficult, stubborn, and traditional, and this archetype positions them as an antagonist to queer sexual futures. This article scavenges a selection of queer aunty porn from South Asian diasporic novels to demonstrate aunties’ capacity to cultivate sexual futures, showing how sex between aunties exists in continuum with archetypal aunty attributes like cooking and gossip. While aunty sexualities are usually interpreted in relation to younger generations, this article points to the many ways that ageing South Asian women rehearse queer sexual futures for and between themselves.

KEYWORDS:

• South Asia
• diaspora
• aunty
• queer
• gossip
• food

Acknowledgements

The author’s deepest gratitude goes to the three anonymous reviewers whose encouraging and detailed feedback on this project have greatly improved the shape, argument, and voice of this article. Central to the development of this article were the Tufts 2019–2020 Mellon Sawyer Seminar ‘Defamiliarizing the Family: Genealogy and Kinship as Critical Method’ as well as the New England Humanities Council 2020 Seed Grant for ‘Undisciplining Performance’. The author’s gratitude also goes to Darshana Sreedhar Mini and Anirban Baishya for the opportunity to think in community about aunties, to Christine Mok for her brilliant advice, and to Tufts colleague Manjari Mukherjee for the foundational work she did in the earliest stages of researching this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This is not necessarily the case for the relatively young Radha aunty, although her ephemerality mimics the common tendency for aunties to appear only briefly in South Asian narratives.

2 Iconic porn-toons Savita Bhabhi and Velamma were created by US-based South Asian artists, Bollywood crossover star Sunny Leone began her career as a porn star in Canada before moving to India, and ‘footpath erotica’ sold to working-class people in India is meant to appeal to migrants, travellers, and other people in motion.

3 On gossip as a form of protection and care, see Lee (2016).