Neoliberal values & queer/disability in Margarita with a Straw

ABSTRACT

Margarita with a Straw is an Indian movie about a queer/disabled woman exploring her sexuality. The article uses textual analysis with a discursive formation approach to analyze how the protagonist’s queer/disabled identity is constituted vis-à-vis intimate partnerships alongside the promotion of neoliberal values. One relationship with an able-bodied white man takes place within a caregiving dynamic that challenges her independence. The other relationship with a disabled South Asian woman creates an interdependence that bifurcates their identities as disabled-and-queer. The article argues that the promotion of neoliberal values in the context of queer/disability is about independence from dependence on sociopolitical systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Bisexuality
• disability
• India
• neoliberalism
• queer

Acknowledgements

While it is customary to acknowledge the editors and reviewers, we want to especially thank them for their care with the revisions that eventually gave two junior scholars hope for their future in academia.

ORCID

Ryan A. D’Souza http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2235-0461

Notes

1 It is common in Indian cinema for able-bodied actors to portray disabled characters. But critiquing the casting will lead to a conversation on nepotism in Indian cinema which will not inform the central idea of the paper. Yet we understand the problematics of the casting, and support the inclusion of disabled actors in mainstream cinema.

2 We put together queer and disabled to mark a cultural and political identity in response to neoliberal logics of productivity. The term was introduced in the “Desiring Disability: Queer Theory meets Disability Studies” special issue of GLQ. The identity is arranged as such – queer before disabled – because McRuer and Wilkerson (2003) utilize queer theory to understand disability. We take our cues on the arrangement of the term from these authors and the scholarship that followed the initial theorization.

3 We bracket “diasporic” to convey the full meaning of Gayatri Gopinath’s argument. Gopinath’s analysis of the diaspora may be applied to Laila too. However, our concern is with queer female subjectivity.

4 The narrative of caregiver romance has been theorized in the context of western media, but it is noticeable in mainstream Indian movies too. For example, the deaf-blind young protagonist in Black (Bhansali, 2005) asks her caregiver/teacher to kiss her on the lips. Additionally, an autistic young woman in Barfi! (Basu, 2012) falls in love with the mute caregiving protagonist.

5 The medical model of disability portrays disability as a negative and tragic condition in need of cure. The social model, championed by mainstream disability rights activists, advocates for universal design and to help disabled people adapt better to an able-bodied world. Puar (2017) argues that if able-bodiedness is part of the neoliberal project, then the social model continues to center ability, and therefore neoliberalism.