The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international ... more The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international media event that cast public spaces in India as unsafe, and situated sexual violence as a problem characterized by class difference and lack of development. This dominant media discourse reiterated long-standing neocolonial, classist and casteist tropes that signified a failure of transnational solidarity. At this time, Talk to Me, a public art intervention by the Bangalore-based feminist artist collective, Blank Noise, went viral on social media. The project took place near the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology on a lane along which many women experience molestation and harassment. Students from Srishti engaged strangerstypically migrant and displaced men from the lower classesin a conversation over tea and a snack. In this article, I analyse Talk to Me as an intervention that offered a counternarrative and countervisual to the dominant, fear-based characterization of public spaces in India. Talk to Me encouraged participants, through a process of dialogue and conversation, to identify and overcome their internalized biases about the lower-class, migrant men who are often constructed as sexual threats to upper-class women. These conversations, I argue, were designed to break down ingrained biases and internalized prejudice, and to attempt to create compassion and solidarity across the barriers of class, education, language, and gender. The intervention offers a model of building solidarity that is not passive or automatic, but rather requires the difficult and often uncomfortable labour of self-reflection and introspection.
In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social ... more In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social media networks. Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge), Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) and Durga (the goddess of strength and power) appear as victims of domestic abuse in the Abused Goddesses advertising campaign against domestic violence. In this article, I analyse the Abused Goddesses campaign and the conversations it generated. I argue that it reiterates both a form of Hindu nationalistic discourse as well as longstanding patriarchal, orientalist and neocolonialist perspectives about sexual violence in India. I examine the discourse generated by the Abused Goddesses campaign on social and mainstream media in order to trace how these images were circulated, perceived and engaged with by Indian and international audiences. While the campaign went viral on social media, I argue that its virality offers insufficient conditions for substantial social change around gender violence, including consciousness raising. Through analysis of the campaign and the ways in which it has been commented on, I demonstrate how the representation of domestic violence through the calendar art imagery of abused goddesses ultimately reaffirms classist, casteist, racist, sexist and orientalist discourses about Indian women and the violence they face.
In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social ... more In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social media networks. Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge), Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) and Durga (the goddess of strength and power) appear as victims of domestic abuse in the Abused Goddesses advertising campaign against domestic violence. In this article, I analyse the Abused Goddesses campaign and the conversations it generated. I argue that it reiterates both a form of Hindu nationalistic discourse as well as longstanding patriarchal, orientalist and neocolonialist perspectives about sexual violence in India. I examine the discourse generated by the Abused Goddesses campaign on social and mainstream media in order to trace how these images were circulated, perceived and engaged with by Indian and international audiences. While the campaign went viral on social media, I argue that its virality offers insufficient conditions for substantial social change around gender violence, includin...
The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international ... more The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international media event that cast public spaces in India as unsafe, and situated sexual violence as a problem characterized by class difference and lack of development. This dominant media discourse reiterated long-standing neocolonial, classist and casteist tropes that signified a failure of transnational solidarity. At this time, Talk to Me, a public art intervention by the Bangalore-based feminist artist collective, Blank Noise, went viral on social media. The project took place near the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology on a lane along which many women experience molestation and harassment. Students from Srishti engaged strangers – typically migrant and displaced men from the lower classes – in a conversation over tea and a snack. In this article, I analyse Talk to Me as an intervention that offered a counternarrative and countervisual to the dominant, fear-based characterization of p...
Sexual violence continues to be normalized in modern society through heterosexist jokes and probl... more Sexual violence continues to be normalized in modern society through heterosexist jokes and problematic portrayals of female sexuality. A number of young female activists use YouTube as a technology of nonviolence to share their thoughts about rape culture and how it can be transformed. We performed a thematic analysis of 10 videos produced by young women and girls to investigate what they identify as rape culture and how they use videos to communicate their messages. We argue that they offer meaningful insight into the institutions that contribute to the normalization of sexual violence, including schools and universities, the media, and legal and political systems. We believe that stakeholders interested in dismantling rape culture can use these videos to educate themselves and others about the concerns voiced by women and girls, who are, arguably, the population most affected by sexual violence.
The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international ... more The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international media event that cast public spaces in India as unsafe, and situated sexual violence as a problem characterized by class difference and lack of development. This dominant media discourse reiterated long-standing neocolonial, classist and casteist tropes that signified a failure of transnational solidarity. At this time, Talk to Me, a public art intervention by the Bangalore-based feminist artist collective, Blank Noise, went viral on social media. The project took place near the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology on a lane along which many women experience molestation and harassment. Students from Srishti engaged strangerstypically migrant and displaced men from the lower classesin a conversation over tea and a snack. In this article, I analyse Talk to Me as an intervention that offered a counternarrative and countervisual to the dominant, fear-based characterization of public spaces in India. Talk to Me encouraged participants, through a process of dialogue and conversation, to identify and overcome their internalized biases about the lower-class, migrant men who are often constructed as sexual threats to upper-class women. These conversations, I argue, were designed to break down ingrained biases and internalized prejudice, and to attempt to create compassion and solidarity across the barriers of class, education, language, and gender. The intervention offers a model of building solidarity that is not passive or automatic, but rather requires the difficult and often uncomfortable labour of self-reflection and introspection.
In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social ... more In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social media networks. Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge), Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) and Durga (the goddess of strength and power) appear as victims of domestic abuse in the Abused Goddesses advertising campaign against domestic violence. In this article, I analyse the Abused Goddesses campaign and the conversations it generated. I argue that it reiterates both a form of Hindu nationalistic discourse as well as longstanding patriarchal, orientalist and neocolonialist perspectives about sexual violence in India. I examine the discourse generated by the Abused Goddesses campaign on social and mainstream media in order to trace how these images were circulated, perceived and engaged with by Indian and international audiences. While the campaign went viral on social media, I argue that its virality offers insufficient conditions for substantial social change around gender violence, including consciousness raising. Through analysis of the campaign and the ways in which it has been commented on, I demonstrate how the representation of domestic violence through the calendar art imagery of abused goddesses ultimately reaffirms classist, casteist, racist, sexist and orientalist discourses about Indian women and the violence they face.
In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social ... more In September 2013, images of bruised, bleeding and battered Hindu goddesses went viral on social media networks. Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge), Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) and Durga (the goddess of strength and power) appear as victims of domestic abuse in the Abused Goddesses advertising campaign against domestic violence. In this article, I analyse the Abused Goddesses campaign and the conversations it generated. I argue that it reiterates both a form of Hindu nationalistic discourse as well as longstanding patriarchal, orientalist and neocolonialist perspectives about sexual violence in India. I examine the discourse generated by the Abused Goddesses campaign on social and mainstream media in order to trace how these images were circulated, perceived and engaged with by Indian and international audiences. While the campaign went viral on social media, I argue that its virality offers insufficient conditions for substantial social change around gender violence, includin...
The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international ... more The 2012 gangrape of a young woman in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case, became an international media event that cast public spaces in India as unsafe, and situated sexual violence as a problem characterized by class difference and lack of development. This dominant media discourse reiterated long-standing neocolonial, classist and casteist tropes that signified a failure of transnational solidarity. At this time, Talk to Me, a public art intervention by the Bangalore-based feminist artist collective, Blank Noise, went viral on social media. The project took place near the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology on a lane along which many women experience molestation and harassment. Students from Srishti engaged strangers – typically migrant and displaced men from the lower classes – in a conversation over tea and a snack. In this article, I analyse Talk to Me as an intervention that offered a counternarrative and countervisual to the dominant, fear-based characterization of p...
Sexual violence continues to be normalized in modern society through heterosexist jokes and probl... more Sexual violence continues to be normalized in modern society through heterosexist jokes and problematic portrayals of female sexuality. A number of young female activists use YouTube as a technology of nonviolence to share their thoughts about rape culture and how it can be transformed. We performed a thematic analysis of 10 videos produced by young women and girls to investigate what they identify as rape culture and how they use videos to communicate their messages. We argue that they offer meaningful insight into the institutions that contribute to the normalization of sexual violence, including schools and universities, the media, and legal and political systems. We believe that stakeholders interested in dismantling rape culture can use these videos to educate themselves and others about the concerns voiced by women and girls, who are, arguably, the population most affected by sexual violence.
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