Posts Tagged ‘Delhi’
Counting down!
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Gender, India on april 13th, 2010
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.
Desi Girls premier!
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.
Being a Girl in Delhi
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.
Say it with a Bollywood song
Posted by Johanna in India, Popular culture on januari 2nd, 2010
I just watched Indias christmas Blockbuster 2009: “3 Idiots”. When the script was written by Chetan Bhagat, author of “A night at the call centre”, I was curios. As a Bollywood blockbuster from the film is interestingly enough to a large extent criticizing the competitivness of the the Indian education system. Furthermore it features India’s youth’s problems with the older generations expectations for their future careers.
This is something that the girls I met in Delhi when doing fieldwork also talked about, they stated that there is a hierarchy among the courses of education engineering is at the top of this hierarchy. The parents in the film all hope fort their sons to become engineers, they not only hope they have forced their children to take up this education. The sons own free will is marginalised and this is the sad truth for many youths in India.
Suicide rates among Indian students who fail to live up to the grading criteria is a problem that is brought up in the film. Viewing life as a “race” where winner takes all is the attitude that is nurtured at “The Imperial College of Engineering”, the school which the “three idiots” attends.
In 3 “idiots” Aamir Khan has the leading role. One of Aamir s lines in the film is something like “The grading systems is like a caste system where people are divided and kept separate”. I think it is a really interesting script writing and I highly recommend this film. Not only great story, also some nice songs and great acting by Aamir, Kareena Kapoor and also Boman Irani. The conclusion of the film is that the parents finally agree that what is right for their child is to do whatever the child him or her self want in life. The free choice of the individual is stressed throughout the film and I hope Indian parent or any other parents who think it is their full right to make choices for their grown children to think again.
I have previously argued in my blog that Bollywood Film often comes with societal critique and watch film “3 idiots” and you will see brilliantly put critique.
Desi girls documentary coming up 2010
I have been granted a scholarship to complete my documentary on the Desi Girls who figures in my thesis. The material has been residing in my drawer for almost exactly one year when I, earlier this week, received the letter of scholarship. I will spend the beginning of 2010 working on my documentary and I will share thoughts and ideas regarding it on my blog.
Happy holidays to you. And I am deeply grateful to my early Christmas gift Desi girl documentary will be presented in 2010.
Desi Girls – MA thesis available
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Gender, India on november 10th, 2009
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
