Sexual Incitement, Spectatorship and Economic Liberalization in Contemporary India

Abstract

In this essay we seek to trouble the easy conflation of sexual and economic liberalism in contemporary India. Even as new regimes of consumption connect narratives of economic freedom with sexual freedom, there remain many constraints on women's ability to express sexuality in creative and autonomous, rather than obligatory and scripted, ways. Focusing on two recent episodes – proposals to ban cheerleaders in cricket performances in Maharashtra and the vigilante attacks in pubs and streets on women in southern Karnataka – we analyse reactions across varied political positions, including those of official women's organizations. Our goal is to bring theories of spectatorship to bear on understanding the politics of these episodes. We emphasize distinctions between the contexts of performance and reception, and argue that women's attire and conduct can be read in heterogeneous ways. Our aim is to seek a more effective feminist response to such controversies, and to articulate a vision of sexual autonomy that is not necessarily linked to hegemonic consumer behaviour.

• class
• cultural politics
• economic liberalization
• gender
• globalization
• moral policing
• sexuality

Acknowledgements

Ashwini Tambe would like to acknowledge the support of ILS Law College in providing time and resources to work on writing this essay during a Ford Foundation Chair position. She would also like to thank Hemangini Gupta for research assistance on media coverage of the cheerleaders controversy.

Notes

1 The term ‘nativist’ is used here to refer to groups that claim their authority in the name of a local language and culture. They practise a highly selective form of belongingness, and are typically also anti-immigrant and anti-westernization. We use it as shorthand to refer to groups such as the Shiv Sena in Mumbai and Sri Ram Sene in Karnataka. We should clarify that we do not endorse a colonial-style pejorative use of the term.

2 A notable exception was the local Bangalore organization Hengasara Hakkina Sangha (Women's Rights Organization), which participated in promoting the filing of First Information Reports (FIRs) to the police.

3 Oza (2006) summarizes these various strands of the debate, noting that in many instances, arguments from the context of the 1970s, when women's groups painted over obscene film posters, are now misplaced in the 1990s.

4 The cheerleaders of the Deccan Chargers changed to wearing tights in order to cover their legs (Thaindian News2008). However, this concession actually furthered the interest of promoters, since there was a renewed interest in what the cheerleaders looked like.

5 This observation is somewhat complicated by the occasional presence of black cheerleaders. Significantly, these cheerleaders experienced racist taunts from spectators (IANS 2008).

6 For an account of the long history of Bangalore's social divides, see Nair (2005).

7 While it is true that there has been greater openness to gay and lesbian desire in the past decade, the expression of alternative, binary sexual identities also can assimilate with dominant heterosexual institutions in homonormative ways. For more on this, see Reddy and Tambe (2011).