The Cherry Trade: Sexual Politics in Parched
Christina John
Treesa Reena John
Christina John
ABSTRACT
All of masculine power invariably rests in the female being. Men irrespective of their class/race location consciously or unconsciously uphold the very bourgeois ideals of exploitation and control of women’s body and sexuality for mere utilitarian interests. Her creative powers of procreation, labor and self-sufficiency are after all commoditized into man’s economics. The society is affected by patriarchal interpellation wherein inequality essentially stems from her lack of sense of selfhood.
In an attempt to validate our said understandings through contemporary lens, we have decided to discuss Leena Yadav’s exemplar movie Parched (2015) set in rural Rajasthan. The paper also seeks to unravel the ever-oppressive sexual, political, economic and psychological underpinnings of everyday female reality.
If the world is - as Irigaray believes – a nexus of male homosexuality, then where are the four parched women at the end headed towards?
“Utopia? Perhaps…”
Keywords: women’s agency, vulnerability, homosexuality, feminism
INTRODUCTION
The luscious ones for a higher rate, they say. The sweeter one goes to the highest bidder. And thus goes the cherry trade...
A trade governed by its “natural” stakeholders which Luce Irigaray concludes as the nexus of male homosexuality and is underlined by the ‘male desire’; the male desire which has a disproportionate claim on “wisdom, moderation, truth” (as she calls it) and which in turn has been believed to be an impetus for the civilization of (Man)kind and (His)tory. The assumption of an impossibility of her-civilization and her-story can be a major consequence of her being the “second sex”, of her being associated with the “weight of a madness” however, more importantly a pretense to garb man’s latent fear of her creative powers.
Feminism to a great extent has dismantled and questioned the patriarchal structure but how far has it emancipated the women? Perhaps, the homogeneity and exclusivity of the feminist ideals have restricted its emancipatory zeal and marginalized the non-white women. Feminism i.e. white feminism, propounds a uniform code of selfhood and aims, which insensitively negates a whole array of marginalized communities based on race, class, caste etcetera to name a few. The inadequacy of mainstream feminism to accommodate the plurality of needs, aims and actions of the “other”, sprouts a need for creating a healthy space for all women’s interaction, independence and individuality. Even though feminism has long evaded the question of intersectionality of its women community, nevertheless with time it has evolved and has garnered the spirit of accommodation and cooperation.
Firstly, the paper attempts to trace the oppressive machinery of patriarchy in a small village in Rajasthan. A village which hitherto reflects the macrocosm through its portrayal of the everyday reality of Lajjo(supposedly barren woman), Bijli (prostitute), Rani (widow) and many other women.
Bijli: Paisa Kon Kamayega? Tera baap?
Rani: Arrey baap, bhai, bete ko chod! Kishan ne kaam sikhaye se na, kuch na kuch toh kar hi lenge.
Rani: Ee baar… mein maara dil ki sunoongi.
It is these inner desires of sexual freedom, economic independence, autonomy, agency - essentially the right to life which are at stake in the capitalist framework of marriage (trade). And it is their unapologetic claim to these that Parched poignantly captures.
Secondly, the paper attempts to formulate an alternative system for the women. Because the final event of the three women’s transgressive movement and autonomy lays a fertile ground for much possibility for a ‘female utopia’ as we believe it to be.
I
Parched takes the rigidly patriarchal society to task for its fallacious view of female inferiority. Conventionally, being a female constitutes a fall from freedom and strength to a debilitating ladylike dependence. Female potential and self-sufficiency tends to get subsumed within the regressive hold of the patriarch. However, our protagonists attempt to subvert the unequal power dynamics and display potent acts of self-affirmation. Lajjo, deemed to be a “baanjh”(infertile) and beaten up by her husband is an adroit woman, who manages to make for herself an identity that is not subsumed within her husband’s ;not solely as the wife of a man but also as a craftsperson. The pervasive fear of women transcending their delimited and inferior position is corroborated in the incident of Lajjo’s husband beating her up for having acquired a salaried job.
Bijli, a prostitute, is the one in the movie who embraces her sexuality and aids in Lajjo and Rani’s upliftment by making them accept their desires and open up possibilities that they would never have otherwise dreamt of. She asserts that she is not obsequious and shows a will to act on her own behalf when she is ordered to receive clients, by remarking “aaj dukaan bandh hai”. She re-examines certain assumptions latent in the way the society functions and her vituperations of the meretricious society enables Rani and Lajjo to become more adept at crossing thresholds hitherto denied to them. Bijli tells Lajjo of the possibility of her husband being infertile and convinces her to “transgress” by indulging in a liaison with a man in a cave to fulfil her desire for a child. The cave man becomes a means for Lajjo to use men as vehicles to bear a child, thus subverting the convention of men using women as child producing “vending machines”.
Gulab, Rani’s son is seen threatening his wife and mother that he would leave the house. Women living alone without a male protector is often construed as an anathema. “Manhe bhi dekhna se ki bina marad k kaisan chlta se yeh ghar” (I would like to see how this house runs without a man) But a house that is run by men who adhere to the notions of domination and control over women is often a site of exploitation. Champa, a villager’s daughter escapes from her marital home because of being sexually exploited by her father in law and other men in the family. Parched throws light on the double standards of the village, wherein on the one hand, the panchayat congregates to protect the women from being corrupted by the influence of mobiles and televisions and on the other hand condones the practice of men visiting dancing companies and brothels, without anyone batting an eye.
Trying to recruit Bijli as his new asset, Raju who worked for her and had initially appeared to be affectionate, reiterates the notion of women being mere stepping stones to a man’s ascension in a predominantly male nexus of economics.
The movie abounds in instances that affirm sorority. Lajjo and Rani can be seen seeking amelioration in the face of their shared experiences of misery meted out by men .They are aware of their vulnerabilities and subjugation but attempt to become proactive in earning their own livelihood. With the help of Kishan , a prototypical feminist in the village who believes in women’s empowerment and whose wife Naobi is also working towards bringing education to the women, the handicraft business becomes an endeavor that gives the women in the village agency and through which they even get themselves television. It can also be seen as a metaphorical rending of man’s monopoly over economics.
Now no longer rendered crippled by an inability to participate as equals in a system of exchange based on prerogatives of a man, in the end, at the crossroads, Bijli, Rani and Lajjo intend to engage with the world at their own terms, shedding their male structured identities and creating their own.
II
It is argued – mostly without contention – that feminism is bringing a gradual change in the lifestyle of women around the world. Our proposal will then not be centered round what a historical movement is already in the process of achieving. Oppressed women collectively desire an alternative existence and in this drive they have envisioned multi-universes for themselves. The vision of a female utopia has always been a volatile theme of feminist discourses. From Kenya’s Samburu village - where women have organized themselves into small female-only communities - we may deduce that the female utopia is not a vision difficult to be materialized. However the question then arises – how is the utopia essentially different from the world that we live in today? With the exception of men, the utopian setting includes all aspects of the patriarchal world. Thus utopia, in all its progressive calculation and grandeur of vision is a successful replica of what already exists. A female-only world will be the result of a narrow understanding of human relations. Inclusiveness therefore becomes an indispensable and rationally suitable choice of society. Nevertheless, ours is a reality which shall remain oppressive and unequal unless there is a significant change in the interpellation within men and women.
Economic dependence rigidly ties down the woman to an oppressive system. The rural women in India unlike those from aristocratic families are daily wage workers. But their economic independence essentially ends where the man’s ego begins. It is desirable and recommended that the woman be retained under her husband’s aegis, earning the bare minimum enough to buy household groceries. Therefore a visionary coexistence requires women to own a surplus at their disposal. Financial independence is a catalyst to building up oppressed selves.
Homosexuality must not go unmentioned in a crucial hour of need such as this. Women experiencing sexual and social love from each other is the beginning of a more egalitarian and satisfactory social system. To understand that men are not necessary for sexual satiation actives self-discovery and self-sufficiency. A short scene from the movie portrays Rani medically assisting Lajjo who is brutally battered by her husband. The scene moves on to be an almost intense sexual encounter between the two women , who are interrupted by Janaki’s ( Rani’s daughter in law) entry. A scene which sets tone for a number of forbidden questions of women’s sexuality , preferences and agency. Lesbianism can arise as a purely situational reaction to a deeply unequal sexual relationship with men and yet be an unconscious choice of the female body.
It is high time for all the women of the world to come together. Irrespective of caste, class and race they must conspire not against men but against the system that has successfully disregarded and suppressed the female power. In order to achieve this, women must help men untangle themselves from the chains that tie them down to masculinity. Mandatory femininity and masculinity are the toxic demarcating factors that eliminate what is humane in a human. Man is rendered weak and uncertain in this system where the energy that he possesses finds no site for operation. Woman thus becomes the patronized and the underprivileged due to his misery. They should work as “passionate comrades and allies” (Rich). Our proposition can be aptly named as a supernatural sisterhood. “Supernatural” because women are essentially believed to lack a sense of sisterhood as against the affectionate notion of brotherhood. This complete negation of the existence of sisterhood stems from deliberate de-recognition and dismissal of it. It is the effacement of this resolute bond of womanhood which distances it from the lived reality, thus, a supernatural sisterhood. The first step of bringing together women into an umbrella organization will ensure the destruction of male self-aggrandizement at the face of female-misery.
Our assertion and re-assertion is on skill acquirement and enhancement. From being a CEO to a homemaker, women can find an outlet for their creative energies but this valuable power need not be used FOR men anymore. In this coexistence, women can choose NOT to conform and lead their lives as they own it. The coming together would be a difficult task because of a long history of alienation of one woman to the other. Yet this clarion call is a call to arms and is the significant first step towards a future that will be a future of man and woman; of leaders who are capable and not men alone.
Because “once the idea exists, it cannot be killed”.
Works Cited
Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”. 1980. http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm. Web.
Irigaray, Luce. “When the Good Get Together”. 1977. Theoryisms. Worldview Publications. Print.
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