Desi Girls means Indian girls and this documentary portrays how three young college girls in Delhi look upon gender in their society and in their lives.
To approach the topic of gender, anthropologist Johanna Sommansson spent two months in Delhi at the end of 2008. The research resaulted in a master’s dissertation as well as this documentary.

The girls in the film are all college students in an interesting phase of transition; being young, educated, and of marriageable age. Being a Desi girl is a paradox: on the one hand, they want to be good girls – subservient, humble and obedient. However, on the other hand they are negotiating and challenging the normative behaviour: finding their own identities among the pre-set rules of how to be a good girl in a city unsafe for women.

A documentary by Johanna Sommansson, faithful India traveller and researcher.

The date, time and place is set!

All are welcome, free entry!

Date: 21 april 2010

Time: 18.30

Place: Haninge Kulturhus, Handen

About the film:

Desi Girls means Indian girls and this documentary constructs a portrait of how three young college girls in Delhi look upon gender in their society and in their lives.

To approach the topic of gender Anthropologist Johanna Sommansson spent two months in Delhi at the end of 2008. The research resaulted in a Masters dissertation as well as this documentary.

The girls in the film are all college students in an interesting phase of transition; being young, educated and of marriageable age. Being a Desi girl is a paradox: on one hand they want to be good girls – subservient, humble and obedient. But on the other hand they are negotiating and challenging the normative behaviour, finding their own identities among the pre-set rules of how to be a good girl in a city unsafe for women.

A made film by Johanna Sommansson, faithful India traveller and researcher.

My recently started film project is coming to shape! I am at moment working out the themes from my material. The girls are so vivid talkative and spontaneous in the interviews that I am so happy about their contribution in my film! It will be a documentary which portrays how 3 Delhi girls look upon their lives, their future and their position as women in Indian society. At the moment I am am dividing the vast material into 5 thematically different though connected parts.

1) Being a girl In Delhi

2) Life in Delhi

3) Eveteasing

4) Indian parents

5) Indian marriage

Eveteasing is an act commonly defined in Indian media, guidebooks and by my informants as men harassing women in the street or on the public transport. An eveteaser stand close to the woman and ‘accidentally’ touches the woman’s hips, breast, bottom, or even her vagina at times. It is also includes verbally comments of sexual character, staring and comments on girls appearances. To bring more light into the issue of eveteasing, watch the video material from News Chanel Aaj Tak and the Jagori “Safe Delhi” ad on You Tube.

My MA dissertation on Delhi girls “Desi Girls – a stydy of young urban middle class girls’ expressions and negotiations of gender” is now to be found online, feel free to download and spread! Thank you.

Just click on this link, and you need to search for the title Desi girls in the first field.

Abstract:

This thesis attempts to understand how gender is expressed and negotiated in the everyday lives of young urban girls in South Delhi. To approach the topic of gender I engaged in participant observation including semi-structured interviews and spending time with young middle-class girls during two months in Delhi at the end of 2008. The girls I encountered in the field are all college students in a phase of transition; being young, educated and of marriageable age.
In constructing a body of knowledge with a foundation in the theoretical framework of discourse analysis, I illustrate how institutions like marriage, family, societal norms, space, and relations between the sexes are juxtaposed in the area of gender. This thesis reveals how gender identity is constructed not as individual accounts, but as juxtapositions of perspectives of individual agency and manifestations of discourses.
Marriage in Delhi is commonly arranged by the parents and is considered a union in which gender needs to be re-negotiated. Aware of the patriarchal ethos imbuing their society, the informants are preparing for the after-marriage talk. After marriage their individual freedom lies in the hands of their husbands, therefore they intend to negotiate with their husbands-to-be to have a marriage based on equality.
Being a Desi girl is a paradox: on one hand they want to be good girls – subservient, humble and obedient – but on the other hand they are negotiating and challenging the normative behaviour when it comes to issues like marriage, go out pubing, or to talking back to their parents. In this thesis, I investigate the societal femininity discourse and the possible discrepancy between the discourse and the actual behaviour. I have concluded that the concept of negotiation plays a key role in the Delhi girls’ constructions of gender.

Key words: Delhi, Gender, Girls, Middle class, Discourse analysis

Since my previous entry I feel an urge to explain how I apply the concept of colonialism in modern times. I think colonialism has at its core a selfish centre. When selfishness results in taking advantage of less fortunate people I apply the term as a noun “He/she is behaving colonial”. Colonial mindset is widely spread in the globalised world,  quoting Mumbai-based psychiatrist Harish Shetty “Anyone in power will target the vulnerable in this globalised world”. This quote is from the article “Mind of a rapist” India today  July 6, 2009, where the issue of power in rape-crimes is issued. The article brings out interesting views regarding this particular crime and focus on the power aspect in the act rather than the sexual activity, which I thinks is well written and serious article. So I stress that rapists are colonial in their abuse of power over the less powerful (read poor women) in society.

I believe that ones own cultural values are more prominent in an information society where the availability of other value systems are easily accessed through the process of globalization, the mobility of goods, services, and people.  Gender is today a transnational concept because young women around the world can easily access ideas and perspectives on how women’s ideal looks like, and can look like in other parts of the world through popular culture and cyberspace. Therefore gender-ideals and role-models have become global.

College students all over the world face and to some extent absorb foreign gender expressions by exchange students, the Internet and social media. When we look at representants from the world of popular culture, we can see how they are role-models breaking cultural boundaries. What makes the American actress Angelina Jolie an ideal woman in so many peoples view? I stress that she is a beauty ideal that goes beyond cultural boundaries. I stress that gender ideals as a concept are global transnational phenomenon.

In the 21st century I can still be amazed by laws to oppress women and their freedom. In the news today I read the story of the trial against the journalist Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese woman whose crime is: she wore trousers in public. That is not legal in Sudan, for women, men if course, can wear pants and go unconvicted. Lubna Hussein is an activist, she was prosecuted for wearing pants at a restaurant in Khartoum last week. When attending her trial on Monday, she chose to wear trousers again. She refused to pay the fines she had been issued, and is therefore waiting a one-month jail-sentence for “immodest dressing in public”. Other women before her have been punished for “imodest dressing in public” before with 40 whips, according to the law. Amnesty international is now urging the Sudanese government to abolish the law which justifies this punishment.

I admire this woman who stands up for her self in a country where discrimination is recognized by law. Lubna face the male domination and will be celebrated for sure as a symbol for the female liberation in Sudan, while the pants of course is a symbolic representation. Because the Sudanese women will be able to wear pants one day!

Johanna: Is there a norm to be a good Indian girl and in that case, which are her
qualities?
Yasmin: In India girls are expected to be silent, demure and sacrificial. It’s not ok to
challenge norms, or argue back with people. You are expected to be subservient and
humble, and excessively helpful.

*
One day at Lady Shri Ram College, in South Delhi, the students were gathered in the
assembly room for a screening of a documentary on women’s issues. Yasmin and Preity
were present in the hall to see the Jagori documentary, they described the documentary
content to me. The documentary makers were filming with a hidden camera at an upper class market in south Delhi at 9 PM.

Various men were asked about their views on women who were outside after 9 PM and the voices in the documentary were unequivocal: “the women who are out at night are not good women – they are obviously not from respected families”, “women who were out at night were not respectable”. And the underlying attitude in a sense justified that the women outside after 9 PM could be blamed if they were caught up in dangerous situations at night. This is one of the many stories on gender and space that my Delhi informants shared with me during research in India. I also found out that the girls are highly aware of the normative behaviour that is ascribed to females and on which ways they negotiate and challenge these norms.

I think the normative gendered public behaviour that is expected out of women is a really interesting topic for research. Hopefully this is what I am researching in the future.

India is interesting on so many levels. And I am fascinated by the strong  “we can do it” approach that is present among the young women. “It” in this sense refers to meeting equality, meeting the men half-way on many levels of society. I have a deep interest in India and gender, therefore, for my master thesis in Anthropology I choose to conduct research in the vibrant globalized sphere of South Delhi -  where gender roles are constantly being negotiated in the capital city which is moving with a high speed towards the  future.

I am especially interested in the gender perspective in India today. Marriage has been and still is an important social institution in India. “A good marriage” is essential and to be a good wife is a desirable goal for many women in India. The young women I met in Delhi  are well aware of what is considered desired female behaviour and they in many ways try to live up to this norm and to follow the social unwritten rules of what is considered desirable female behaviour. But even though they do have room for negotiating their role within the marriage institution.

I am fascinated by the strong  “we can do it” approach – meaning match up to the men, become their equals within the society as such and specifically within the marriage institution. According to my informants, many Indian marriages are based on inequality, the man is often considered to be in charge of decisions. When the family units are becoming nuclear, breaking free from the extended family setting then new rules are negotiated between the spouses with no external power involved. With every generation comes change, and with every generation small changes are being made, my Delhi informants can see these changes in their parents and grandparents attitudes that differs on many levels from their own. Delhi women are moving at a high speed.

Even if the young women are restricted on many areas of the society – especially when it comes to moving freely in their own city after night falls. I admire their spirit! I wish them all the best in their struggle fuelled by their  ‘we can do it’ approach.  I am grateful that I had the privilege to meet some of these  young women during my stay in Delhi at the end of year 2008.

This is as extract from my fieldswork in Delhi; One day at Lady Shri Ram College, in South Delhi, the students were gathered in the assembly room for a screening of a documentary on women’s issues. Two of my informants, Yasmin and Preity, were present in the hall to see the Jagori1 documentary. The documentary makers were filming with a hidden camera at upper class market Saket in south Delhi at 9 PM. Various men were asked about their views on women who were outside after 9 PM and the voices in the documentary were unequivocal: “the women who are out at night are not good women – they are obviously not from respected families”, “women who were out at night were not respectable”. And the underlying attitude in a sense justified that the women outside after 9 PM could be blamed if they were caught up in dangerous situations at night.

This is one of the many stories on gender and space that my informants shared with me. In my thesis I show how my informants are aware of the normative behaviour that is ascribed to females and how they negotiate and challenge these norms on several levels. The data I have gathered during participant observation in Delhi is about being an upper middle-class girl. Based on what my informants told me, I would say that the Delhi society they describe in their experience is, to a large extent, gender segregated. Among my informants there is a cultural code of normative femininity; the good Indian girl. According to this cultural code women are among other things expected to stay indoors after night falls; an exception being if they are accompanied by a man. The street is to be considered safe in male company; the man defines the safe space for my informants.