On the 21st of February, Seattle became the first city in the United States to explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of caste after the ordinance was passed by the City council. The ordinance was introduced by council member Kshama Sawant. Kshama grew up in Mumbai moved to the US and completed a Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina State University. She is a member of the Socialist Alternative, the first, and the only member of the party to be elected into public office. She has been a council member since 2014. She has been crucial in the historic change in minimum wage law in the city ..read more

We have discussed how gender reflects in various fields of work, in the previous episodes of this podcast. We all have different kinds of work environments. In some workplaces, we can afford to keep our persona, views, and opinions private. In other professions, that is not an option. Journalism is one such area of work where there is a lot of public gaze on the journalist, especially with the advent of digital and multimedia journalism. One often has to put their face, voice, opinions, and political views out there. They are scrutinised, correlated, juxtaposed, and many  kinds of consequ ..read more

The development sector is among the many fields where critical investigations in social engineering, policy pushing, social audit, and accountability initiatives, happen, among other projects. Often, with women who work in this sector, there is a stereotypical representation attached - the NGO woman - geeky, always serious, somewhat rigid - and these are all the images we have seen in popular culture and narratives that are largely male and far from the truth. So what is it to be a woman working in the development sector in India? Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is human r ..read more

When we talk about the role of gender in art or the relationship between gender and art, we cannot discount the fact that gender presentation and representation in art is not just in the hand of the artist but an outcome of the sociocultural process that defines sexual and social identity. With this in mind, we also need to talk about what art/artists include and what it excludes. How hierarchies and marginalisations and disparity can also showcase itself in art. And how art itself can become a way to push back on the same.  Joining our hosts Shriya and Sukanya in this episode is visual a ..read more

The whole idea of how a sportsperson should be is constructed from a very masculine perspective, where even men are required to perform hypermasculinity to be taken seriously. Sports is also a career choice that a lot more individuals are pursuing today, compared to older times. We are also witnessing the entry of numerous female and queer athletes into various sports, where they thrive and shine. In this background, it is quite intriguing to understand what it means to be a woman in sports. Does she also have to embrace the hypermasculine construct of how a sportsperson should seem? Does she ..read more

All of us like to laugh, don't we? Humour keeps us going and adds that layer of lightness to our lives. When we look at comedy as a genre, there are various forms of it. There are political jokes, satire, sarcasm, there is sketch comedy, improvisation, imitation, and so on and so forth. But very often, we notice that jokes are gendered, in the sense that most of them are made at the expense of women or gender minorities, and contain sexist, racist, casteist underpinnings. Comedy is an arena where dominant narratives can be re-negotiated, spoofed, questioned, and critiqued. But do we do that? I ..read more

We know the wait was long, but we're back with Season 3 of Intersectional Feminism—Desi Style! Last season, we spoke about everything pop culture and feminism, and now, in Season 3, we are back with brand new, exciting guests and conversations. This season looks to explore the nuances of gender in the workplace and will feature women/trans and queer individuals from different fields like journalism, politics, social work, sports, business and so much more. Join our hosts Sukanya and Shriya as they talk about un-stereotyping gender at the workplace with a stellar lineup of guests! Concept and c ..read more

Through this entire season we’ve had the great fortune of speaking with women who cover the length and breadth of everything that comes to mind when we think of pop culture! A recurring theme that we saw this entire season was the way in which we look at women who take up space in pop culture, whether they’re fictional characters or women just daring to live their life on their own terms. Today we thought there was truly no better way to wrap up this season but to celebrate these offbeat women both and off screen. We’re so honoured and excited to have joining our hosts this season an actor wh ..read more

This week India saw history being created. For the first time ever an Indian documentary was nominated for an Academy Award in the feature length category. Writing With Fire has been breaking a world of barriers and we are so honoured and excited to have one of the film's makers, Rintu Thomas with us on the podcast today. Tune in to this episode to hear at length about the journey of documenting an institution like Khabar Lehariya as well as the hurdles and triumphs of bringing such a glorious story on the big screen. We also deep dive into the evocative powers of non-fiction narratives, the ..read more

When we think of pop culture, and commercial cinema with mainstream stars, we can see that women are almost always portrayed in certain pre-constructed ways - they look a certain way, belong to a certain age bracket or social location. Very rarely do we see women both in terms or actors as well as characters who are removed from these moulds. Slowly but surely however, some filmmakers are paving the way for far more realistic portrayals of women on screen - joining our hosts in this episode of our podcast is one such filmmaker - Alankrita Srivastava. Tune in to this episode to hear more about ..read more