COVER STORY 4

A JEST CAUSE
MALINI NAIR
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The Crest Edition

THE TIMES OF INDIA
PHOTO: SOUMEN NATH/SAVE THE CHILDREN

JHOLA AND A JOKE

ALL ILLUSTRATIONS ADAPTED FROM LAUGHING MATTERS BY KAMLA BHASIN AND BINDIA THAPAR COURTESY: JAGORI

ho says feminists copy? Our work is seminal, original, uri... Kamla Bhasin clamps a hand over her mouth in mock consternation before she completes her scatalogical punchline. She is a feminist, 67, and on stage at a Delhi theatre doing a very un-feminist thing stand-up comedy. Actually it is sit down comedy because a fall has left her walking on crutches. The jokes come fast and furious: How many feminists does it take to fix a bulb? Five. One to fix it, two to write about the process and two to make a video. Once the jokes end, she sits down with her friends for a session Punjabi tappa and qawwali remixed. Dour and drab. Jholas and starched tangails. Broom and belan raised in fury. Feminism everywhere, and in India, has an image problem. Attribute it to the rage of the early 70s street protests against dowry and wife beating, the passionate polemic of academic circles or the skewed depiction of women libbers as breakers of marriage and wreckers of families. Whatever the reason, the de facto image of a feminist has become that of a humourless, man-hating shrew. So much so that even women whove gained most from the freedoms the movement has won go, Umm, Im not sure I would call myself one when asked if they are feminists. Could fun feminism some humour, a little self deprecation, and healthy doses of mockery be the way out? Bhasin, founder member of feminist group Jagori, admits she is worried that humour hasnt been used enough in the feminist movement. We are portrayed as women who take themselves too seriously. But it is a myth that feminists dont laugh. And the truth is that laughter is the best way to diminish fear and fight tyranny, says Bhasin, who recently released a motley collection of jokes and cartoons, Laughing Matters, at an event marked with a lot of hilarity. Up on the stage to release the book published by Jagori were four girls and a boy, all from Delhi colleges. I didnt want the same old women from commissions and committees up there, quips Bhasin. Bhasin has seen Indias feminist movement pass through many stages since the first wave in the 50s. A lot of what the post-feminists take for granted, she tells you, are hard-won freedoms (I would like to see how many non-feminists will refuse to take their husbands names or fight for family property). Her

HUMOUR THERAPY: Bhasin regales the audience at her sit-down comedy performance in Delhi

earliest memories are of fighting to be allowed to have pockets in her salwar so she could store her marbles like the boys. Then came the leftist, women-centric movements of the 70s. The 80s were marked by fiery morchas, streetfights and writings on labour issues, dowry deaths, domestic violence and sati by feminists groups such as Manushi, Jagori and Sakhi. Today, in this age of social media-driven Pink Chaddi and Slutwalk campaigns, it all seems like history. It is time then, Bhasin says, to move from all-consuming anger to more subtle means. All enemies dont deserve rage. There is a time for the danda, a time for logic, a time for humour, she says. Besides women who are angry all the time are very boring. The loudest laughter at the Delhi Jagori event came from jokes the feminists aimed at themselves, poking fun at the conference circuits, the infighting, and the disconnect between theorists and housewives. In the West, feminist lite, as the idea is often referred to, arrived some years ago. Today, the best known feminists there are wild, wacky, edgy, sexy, highly individualistic and shorn of heavy ideological baggage. The F word has come to mean different things to different women. As the reigning queen of fun feminism,

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We are Feminists! We are against all HEIRARCHY! But yes, sometimes, there is some ANARCHY in our group!!

Caitlin Moran, puts it, Being a feminist isnt like the Duke of Edinburghs Award Scheme. You can actually be quite a shallow feminist if you want. Its not just for women whove spent 30 years debating genderspecific social structuring on Newsnight. The Moran brand of feminism is not without its critics who say its for a privileged audience. But there is no denying that feminism with a smiley is likely to win more friends and supporters than feminism with a frown. In fact, feminists point out, you dont have to work all that hard or even fake it to elicit the laughs. I find it difficult not to be humourous when I write or talk on feminist issues. Look at how absurd and ridiculous the notions of patriarchy are, they defy reason. And how can you fight the lack of reason with only anger? asks academic, author and translator J Devika, whose writings on Keralas deep-rooted sexist mindset invariably drip with delightfully dark humour. Besides everyone likes to hear a good joke, even non-feminists. Devika points out a fact few know that Indian feminist writing in vernacular languages from way back in the late 1930s rippled with black humour. It was so sharp that it almost felt like a whiplash, she says of Keralas women writers who influenced her style. Of these women, K Saraswathi Amma was one. The other contemporary feminist writers from Kerala like KR Meera and Sara Joseph liberally lace their writings with humour. As Nilanjana S Roy, a journalists who writes regularly on gender issues, says, the revolution should be fun. You arent fighting for a glum, dour future, she says. Sarah Joseph, 67, whose works are full of wit, satire and barely veiled allegories, believes that the only way to poke fun at chauvinists is to land a sharp punch loaded with humour. Her story Dimwittitude is about a scientist from a conservative Kerala village who qualifies for a trip to space. The villagers raise many horrified questions: if she goes up to space, wont she need a husband who has travelled even higher? And what if she is molested there? Well, says the girls sister, at that height when gravity is off kilter the men will have trouble groping her. Parihasam (ridicule) is a very strong weapon, stronger even than sarcasm and I find it excellent when I deal with female stereotypes, says Joseph. Given the horrors of everyday living on the streets of urban India today, this humour may seem out of place. But as Bhasin puts it, humour diminishes fear, reduces its place in our lives and stumps the enemy. Nivedita Menon, a professor at JNU and the author of Seeing Like A Feminist, says that humour does not reduce the political content of a feminist argument nor does it mean giving in to patriarchy. Having fun with feminism is a small part of the movement and does not dilute the issue, she says. To quote the great humorist Mark Twain, nothing in the world can stand up to the assault of laughter.

LIBERATION LITE
TINA FEY
The thinking mans woman, tough girl feminist, the woman who ruined SNL like most female comedians, Fey has had her share of the best compliments and worst assumptions. But, as always, she has made a joke out of them or laughed them off. As Liz Lemon, the lead character in the hit TV show 30 Rock, Fey is a feminist, overworked, sarcastic and ambitious.

They are a far cry from the academic feminists who led the brigade in the earlier decades. Meet the women who are at the centre of the debate today CAITLIN MORAN
Morans book, How to be a Woman, has been sneered at by academic feminists as Germaine Greers The Female Eunuch as written from a bar stool. Moran was one of the first to openly call women to be feminists, fun and all rock'n'roll. As she famously said, I come from pop culture, and I wanted it to be like rockn roll. I wanted someone to shout Im a feminist! Its really fun! Let's all go and be feminists in the pub! And for all the criticism, she is bang in the centre of the fun-feminist debate.

SHERYL SANDBERG
Few women get to where Sheryl Sandberg has gone on the board of directors for Facebook, a VP at Google, chief of staff at the US department of treasury and on Times list of 100 most influential people in the world. She advocates that men do their equal share of house work and child care, that women need to keep their hands up at the table and not be afraid to be bossy. Sandberg has received her share of flak for her recent book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, for being too elitist. She has also been called the Pompom girl for feminism by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times.

If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares?

I want every little girl who someone says Theyre bossy to be told instead, You have leadership skills because I was told that and because every woman I know in a leadership position was told that. oh! so thats why you get higher wages?

AMY POEHLER
Best known for her time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (2001-2009), and later as the ultra-ambitious and eternally cheerful Leslie Knope, the central character in Parks and Recreation, Poehler has always been a voice for female empowerment. She also has another show (web series) called Smart Girls at the Party, which focusses on passionate, young girls who are changing the world single-handedly.

It's difficult to see the glass ceiling because its made of glass. Virtually invisible. What we need is for more birds to fly above it and shit all over it, so we can see it properly.

When you're a stay-at-home mother you have to pretend it's really boring, but it's not. It's enriching and fulfilling, and an amazing experience. And then when you're a working mother you have to pretend that you feel guilty all day long.