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Durga As I See Her: 12 Photos Of Her That Address Gender And Sexuality
A major part of the society considers women as sex objects but cannot accept the female deity and its sexuality together. Women in all forms aren’t respected in our society, but when it comes to festivals, we all worship female goddesses. For example, sex workers are disdainfully excluded from society and festivals along with the entire ‘punya mati’ hypocrisy. Men too have to fit into accepted gender roles in society. This year, I have documented Durga Ma in her various forms, to address the whole issue of women, sexuality and gender through her imagery.
Image 1 explores the paradigm of how society can’t accept female deitism and sexuality together.
The next four images show us how identities are socially constructed. Boys and men learn to ‘appropriate’ gender roles in accordance to the masculine expectations of their given society, where they are expected to be big, tough, violent and aggressive. They are not supposed to put on lipstick and the one’s who do are considered not masculine enough, which is unacceptable in society (In the photo, the idol-maker is trying to express himself and the reaction of the idol of non-acceptance). It shows us how men feel just as much pressure as women to fit into a specific, set gender role in the society. The moustache with the lipstick can also represent the transgender community and how they are separated from the society.
The next images show patriarchy and various forms of male dominance, few of them being the purdah system, sexual assault and rape.
The next three images showcase women empowerment and how women are gradually becoming self-reliant, translating into greater overall independence as they push back on the sociocultural boundaries ascribed by tradition, and how men who feel threatened by these newly emancipated women are countering the power shift with an aggressive dominance. (The period of transition and the increasing number of abuse on women)
The last two images show how homosexuals (lesbians here) are socially or legally not accepted into the society.
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G.L.
If women are so independant, emancipated, and liberated, why do you need a man to change your tire or lift your car out of the snow, why do you need a man to pay for your shopping and lunch, why do you need reserved seats in buses and metros, why do you need a man paying alimony and child support, why do you need special quotas in parliament and companies, why the reserved seats in colleges and universities?
Feminists are narcissists and opportunists whose cries about gender equality are only applicable when it works in their favour.
B
A futile attempt to emasculate men. A man IS supposed to be tough and strong due to his God given role of a protector.
Don’t feminists hate the word God, since religion is the only thing that stands in the way of immorality and injustice.
P.S. I will become a feminist when women will have to spend their entire lives earning for men.
Spider-Man
Feminists are obsessed with nudity. They have not even spared Durga
Ujjwal Singh
To all the people with toxic masculine pride who have replied in the defence of men and went on to belittle people who have balls to call out shit. It’s very calm and comfortable to callously call out feminism or women empowerment a shit show and not understand the precarious existence of women in general. The whole idea of gender being engendered in us by Global political body and it’s institutions be it capital or state and so on is unfathomable to majority. So you might as well try to listen to what’s being displayed here. The institutions of modern state aren’t capable enought to catch all of the monstrous existence of human flesh, the more they try to contain the more it will slip. The artificial life that we have been living in is more of the reason people including “women” will be radicalised. And masochists and the last men wouldn’t be able to a thing about it. There is commonality and I’ll meet you all there.