From the Preface -
"This book argues that women, despite caste and class
differences that exist among them at individual levels, can be identified as
also subjected to subordination by common culturally defined and culturally
enforced patterns of restrictions. These restrictions are reinforced and
transmitted by a common ideology. I use the concept of ideology in the
Gramscian sense of the term. Ideology is present. as conceptions of the
world and it is manifest in art, laws, economic activities and in all
practical activities of individual and collective life. The answer as to why
this subordination exists relates to the fact that the Tamil social
formation acts as a power network which has its own gender regime.
Ideology sustains this regime, re-enforcing the
subordination of women. This power regime allocates women a particular
position in the social formation. The nature of this ideology is obviously
an area of key importance for those who wish to transform oppressive
practice. An analysis of the nature and role of ideology is the core theme
of my research.
This research ties into contemporary debates about the
relevance of post-Enlightenment universalism in a context where women are
asserting their differences. What emerged from my research was that women
are subject to the gender regime in their culture in ways which transcend
the multiplicity of their experience. With this in mind I focus on the
prevalence of gender ideology in the South Indian social formation and
explore how gender ideology influences the daily lives of women.
This underscores the need to establish common ground between
women so that they can engage in feminist practice to overcome the
oppressive aspects of the gender regime, In order to explore the influence
of gender ideology in contemporary lives ii is necessary to explore the
construction of a gender hierarchy in South India and the transformations
that occur in this hierarchy at different historical junctures. Before
presenting the research questions and explaining the arguments of the
research. I would like to make a personal detour. I want to briefly discuss
the reasons which motivated me to select this research topic.
Coming from the multi-ethnic, plural society of Sri Lanka
and being a part of the incipient women's movement, I realised that gender
subordination was multi-faceted. A cross-cultural investigation within Sri
Lanka had brought to light the ambivalent mixture of egalitarian customary
laws and persisting male dominance in the general pattern of the social life
of the Sinhala and Tamil ethnic groups. The ambivalence is structurally
contradictory. This was the entry point for my research.
The same kind of contradictions are visible, when the Tamils
living Sri Lanka and South India are compared. Ethnically, and for the most
part, culturally, the Tamils of these two countries belong to the same
stock.
However some of the overtly oppressive and discriminatory
South Indian practices are not found among the Jaffna Tamils. Sati (self
immolation), female infanticide prohibition of widow remarriage, and
prohibition of property rights for women which affected the Tamil women of
South India in the past had no influence the women of Jaffna.
The differences between the two ethnic groups could be
attributed to the absence of a Brahmanical dominance in the socio-political
and the socio-cultural life of the Jaffna Tamils. Both in politics and in
social life, Jaffna was subjected to, non-Brahmanical Vellala hegemony. The
ritual power of the Brahmins was subordinated to the socio-political power
of the Vellala high caste (Perinbanayagam 1982:20). For this reason most of
the overtly oppressive practice, and institutions did not penetrate into Sri
Lanka.
Obeyesekere, while discussing the "implications of the
Brahmanic values for the female role," argues that, the more the groups are
sanskritised towards a Brahmanical scale of values, greater their oppression
and frustration (Obeyesekere 1987:427-440). This historical reality has
connections to caste as well as to the concept of ideology was a special
emphasis on gender differentiation. The examination of the class factor will
also be undertaken as an extension of the argument on the same principle
Whilst gender is a central contradiction in social life it is in interplay
with otl contradictions such as class and caste.
Ideology also, understood as a system of beliefs (views)
which justifies a explains existing relations is usually examined in its
dual role, in the dialectical process of being determined and at the same as
determining. However, research is confined mainly to the determining aspect
of ideology. The research conducted by investigating two aspects of social
life where ideology plays a role.
1) The daily life patterns of women, and
2) Major trends and themes in Tamil films.
The daily life patterns of women are studied by focusing on
a selection social institutions, rituals and gender specific concepts. The
Tamil films analysed, with the realization of the importance of this media
in general, and especially in the context of Tamil Nadu where the film
industry has made a m; impact on socio-political development. According to a
sample survey conducted by L. Rudolph and S. Rudolph on communication
exposure in Madras state, cinema is the biggest attracting medium for both
the rural and urban sectors (Karat Prakash 1980:30). The number of Tamil
films produced in Tamil Nadu has significant implications.
The Tamil films were specially chosen to ascertain important
role of ideology. This is specifically done by an analysis of the images of
women portrayed in films. In order to link theory with practice, an attempt
is made to discover its relevance to social reality.
The research raises a few questions and makes an attempt to
analyse them finding linkages from a historical deconstruction of gender
ideology in the Tamil social formation. The questions, examined in the
context of the contemporary situation, are placed within a historical
perspective. The book is organised around fourteen chapters. The early
chapters investigate the theoretical concepts used, discuss the relevance of
such theories to my research and outline the methodology employed to gather
the two types of data, i.e. from tlrc films and the daily life patterns of
women.
The second part deals with the historicity. This identifies
the process of the construction of the gender hierarchy in the Tamil social
formation and explains how the concept of "otherness" for women was created
as a consequence. A limited number of such constructions which contributed
to gender hierarchy will be analysed in more detail. Concepts such as
chastity and its relation to institutions such as widow seclusion are
explained to show their linkages to the contemporary socio-religious
experiences of women and to the film images of women.
The dichotomous image of women as mother/whore,
Goddess/witch and the development of another dichotomy between the notion of
femininity and the notion of rationality are traced in historical
developments. The first dichotomy had its beginnings in the institution of
prostitution, linked to the idea of feminine evil, this continues to this
day in the image of women projected in the films. The dichotomy of
femininity versus rationality has led to a series of dichotomies on gender
lines. An ideology was projected through the following dichotomous concepts
such as home life/life outside home, emotional/instrtrmental, weak/strong,
nurture/income generation, private; public.
The colonial period saw the emergence of a contradictory
ideological persuasion for women from social reformers. Cultural nationalism
posited a glorified nationalistic image, a noble Oriental against the
Occidental. Yet modernists encouraged the rise of incipient feminist
consciousness. How far this ambivalence is reflected in the image of women
in the film and in their social existence in the family is a question that
is also raised. This is an attempt to understand the comprehensive pattern
of ideology relating to women. The concepts, and institutions that are
discussed, it has to be emphasised are treated as manifestations of gender
ideololgy. This will show that the definition of' the privileges and pains
of being a particular gender are historically contingent and variable. They
are picked from history and shown as continuing to the present day in the
social context and in the film image.
Having traced the institutions, rituals and concepts
historically and identified the gender ideology within them, the manner in
which they are followed, practised and used in the daily lives of the women
will be identified through the interviews conducted with more than a hundred
women.
This part examines and determines the quantitative and
qualitative levels and manners of the continuity of gender ideology. The
caste and class variables are introduced as an addition of inquiry which
examines the differential patterns of caste and class behaviour.
In effect this part of the book examines the working of
gender ideology the family. Discrimination against women is explored on a
three-tier, caste class division. Ideology is here investigated in terms of'
social practice. The selection includes widow remarriage, widow seclusion,
divorce, the mother in law syndrome and the rituals in which women
participate. Mary Douglas (1970-21) argues that rituals should hetreated as
speech forms and as `transmitters of culture' which communicate social
information. Institutions can also be classified as communicators of social
information. The selection of topics was primarily to show how an ideology
was transmitted through them and how they are connected in one way or
other to the ideology pertaining to women.
The selected number of socio-religious institutions
pertaining to women are studied in order to identify gender specific
messages. The messages an related to and compared 'with messages given to
women in the films. Both the
institutions studied and the messages identified are considered as
manifestations of a common gender ideology. The institutions when related to
contemporary situations are analysed from both the attitudinal and the
experiential aspects of women. This is done specifically to differentiate
structure from ideology.
The castes are broadly divided into "high" caste Brahmin,
"middle castes and "lower" castes, called the "depressed caste,,". The class
structure is that of an upper class; middle class, and low class. Variations
and similarities are compared across caste and class. History is used to
explain how and why women behave in a particular manner, and are made to
conform to such behaviour. A hundred and twenty women are included in the
sample survey.
The second and third sections provide the base for the
second area of investigation which is in relation to the Tamil films. The
section on Tamil films investigates the construction of womanhood in the
institution of South culture: films. An analysis of these films in terms of
characters, themes a resolutions is presented. The impact of these films on
the audience was then assessed by a series of systematic discussions with
the a number of selected women from Madras. The first part of this section
gives a short history of the Tamil film, which is followed by a
discussion of media theories. Sixteen films are individually, identifying
the messages in the films. The responses of the women with whom the films
were discussed are treated as indicators of the ideological linkages between
the viewer and the content (both the image and the messages). By this
process an attempt is made to ascertain the relevance of both the image and
the messages to social reality. The argument that connects these sections is
the role the various ideologies presented and represented, play in the
domination and control of women.
The research is concluded with a summary of the findings. In
this research both secondary and primary sources are used. The primary
sources in Tamil are given separately under references. Explanatory notes
are given serially at the end of book along with the numbers indicated in
the text."
From the
Conclusion
"...Women's location in Tamil social formation is part of a
power network... Gender ideology was upheld rather vigorously in
religious texts. By reason of its hegemonic status and through
the pedagogic process the ideology was sustained for long
periods.
The long and elaborate definition of chastity,
which incorporated the rituals of widow penance and sati, had
both a mental state and a physical requirement-mental purity and
physical purity. The ideology behind sati, prohibition of widow
remarriage and divorce is the same ideology of purity based on
controlling the sexuality of women (sati was chastity of the
second order and widow penance was chastity of the third order.
The contemporary situation in Tamil Nadu, though
it has done away with sati, both legally and socially ... has
given forceful legitimisation to widow penance both in its
social reality and in its ideological reproduction in the films.
This reveals that the semiotic world plays a role in reinforcing
signification or gender identities.
Widow remarriage is still abhorred by various
groups of women as an unchaste and impure form of existence.
Women who have divorced their husbands and widows who have
remarried are still few in number and are considered exceptions
to the rule. These reinforcements are in fact as argued by
Gramsci, the result of a process of consent effected both
covertly and overtly. The reproduction of the power relations of
the gender regime are not necessarily through violence.
The concept of chastity seemed to have influenced the lives of
women in the films to decide against remarriage, divorce and
separation. The symbol of tali was abundantly used in the films
to explain and demonstrate the concept. The idea of restraint
that guided and determined the lives of women in the earlier
epochs as evidenced by the references in the literature, seemed
to have affected the decisions of the contemporary women.
The same was given fresh ideological
legitimisation in the themes and presentation of films. The
ritual of nonpu is patriarchy ritualised in another form through
the concept of paty bhakti. The sexuality of women which is
directed, controlled and utilized by men was further restricted
to the private domain, to the physical limits of the household
and an ideology of family/home which was always glorified.
The ideological implications of such a process which started centuries ago
were constantly reimposed. The linguistic connotations of words such as
manai (மனை)
and manaivi (மனைவி) (one who
belongs to the home/house) and concepts such as manaimatchti (மனைமாட்சி)
(the elaborate discussions of the decorum befitting a good wife in
Tirukural) bear witness to the development of otherness for the women in
the public domain.
My research which involved interviewing
women about contemporary Tamil films reinforces the fact that patriarchal
ideology is prevalent. Both in the dialogue with the women and in the
solitary experiences of watching the films, the family/ home and its privacy
was posed as the opposite of the public domain for women. The sanctity of
the home, its ritualised status and the linguistic elevation of it to a
concept equal to temple has led to a social division. There has evolved a
separation between home and the productive sites such as farms and fields,
and now factories and offices. The removal of the production sites to areas
outside the homes has led to this process and the development of a
corresponding ideology in this instance.
Women working at
home or engaged in household labour saw themselves merely as housewives. In
their perceptions, work and labour meant service to the members of the
household. There was evidence of another phenomenon, when women, who were
working in farms and factories managing labour and doing accounts, told me
that they are not working. Farm and factory management in the hands of
housewives is conceptualised as an extension of family/ household labour. As
a result of a deeply entrenched patriarchal consciousness, even where women
are handling a double burden of domestic labour and management of factories
and farm, the vocabulary of work has been appropriated patriarchally and
associated with men's remunerative capacity...
.... Gender
ideology is to a great extent part of the more general ideology in the Tamil
social formation and it does contribute to determine the daily lives of
women across caste and class... The gender ideology prevalent in this
Society is reflected abundantly in the films, but they are presented more as
a legitimising process than as a social reality. They are over-emphasised in
a melodramatic manner often sacrificing reality of contexts and often
neglecting the totality of social reality.
Contemporary Tamil films act as a system of representation. This
system is part of a gender ideology with various modes of
operation. This ideology idealizes or distorts women. One
strategy employed in the films is the process of stereotyping
women. A stereotype is a one-sided description which results
from the collapsing of complex differences into a simple
cardboard cutout. Different characteristics merge or condense
into one. This simplification is then attached to a subject or
place. Its characteristics become the signs, the "evidence", by
which the subject is known. They define its being its essence.
Women in the films become collapsed into a universal woman who
represents the essence of women. The stereotype is then
split into two halves, its good or bad sides which results in a
stereotypical dualism of gender..."
