Papers by Aastha Mishra
Feminism In India
By and large, when asked, don’t we stringently outstretch the idea that Vitiligo is unambiguously... more By and large, when asked, don’t we stringently outstretch the idea that Vitiligo is unambiguously a medical condition? One would fleetly respond saying, yes! this thought is legitimately well founded. Vitiligo is an incessant skin condition in which smooth white spots/patches appear on the skin of the partaker. This forthwith underlines the medical definition of the infirmity. However, it is vital to be mindful of some girdling existential and phenomenological questions which inhabit within this acquired skin condition. If we categorically speak about the concept of self-consciousness emotionality, it could be propounded that the self-conscious emotional foreboding of the disorder on the subject amasses a dual connotation; first, as generally framed and convicted, self-conscious emotionality implies a sense of awareness about one self; one’s body, behaviour, traits, activities, etcetera and second, with distinct reference to the phenomenological nuance of self-consciousness, it also accentuates the world-conscious length and breadth of it. This world-conscious aspect of human emotionality involves the design of pre-reflective engagement with the world. This entails that when an individual experiences an emotion, he/she is conscious of something in the outside world.
Living with Vitiligo: Feminist Phenomenological Overtones
Into the bargain, if we make reference to the instance of Vitiligo with singular contemplation on women’s negative emotional experiences of the state, we would be able to legibly distinguish and perceive coherent pervasiveness of the self-conscious sense of emotionality bracketed with the world-conscious plane associated with it. In a feminist pneuma, we may postulate that female subjects who are racked with the strain of Vitiligo perhaps ferret out the world-conscious position conceivably identified with experiences of negative self-conscious emotions, like shame, embarrassment, disgust, fear, etcetera. First hand self-conscious encounters of these emotions among women encompass the phenomenological world-conscious deportment, taking note of the social engagements women perpetually execute, succour and aggrandize. Their emotional journeys are directed towards something in the outside world; the people, the norms, the patterns and the entire external environment.
In this milieu, can’t we dexterously expostulate that women with Vitiligo were everlastingly made to feel negative emotions and ultimately believe that their sense of being and worth, both are insistent on the world-conscious state of their existence? Besides, isn’t it unerring to perpetuate that the exacted medical state of Vitiligo incontestably has phenomenological significance, over and above? A synergetic answer to these questions could be a prompt yes!
Towards Consciousness-raising
We are well-seasoned with the emotional, psychological and social tolls bred by the disease. These are assuredly the distressing, miserable and wistful offshoots of Vitiligo. The fact of the matter is that this facet makes us learn and posit that living with this skin condition presupposes deficiency, fragility, pain and resentment. However, in recent times, with the appearance, stimulation and active employment of various social media platforms, the phenomenon of Vitiligo has certainly secured a revived and constructive configuration. One of the gaping yields of this resurrected configuration of this progressive world-conscious configuration of the condition has been the revival and escalation of feminist consciousness-raising. Kathie Sarachild defines consciousness-raising as a radical weapon for women. In a nutshell, according to her, consciousness raising involves the act of self-expression, sharing of bitter experiences, evaluating feelings, cross examining them, having interactions and eventually, creating awareness. She categorically borrowed the phrase from Anne Forer, about which Forer states:
“In the Old Left, they used to say that the workers don't know they're oppressed, so we have to raise their consciousness. One night at a meeting I said, 'Would everybody please give me an example from their own life on how they experienced oppression as a woman? I need to hear it to raise my own consciousness.' Kathie was sitting behind me and the words rang in her mind. From then on she sort of made it an institution and called it consciousness-raising.”
Lately, social media consciousness-raising has become an actively amplifying and emotionally stirring sight. In the context of Vitiligo, we would encounter noteworthy representative cases in which individuals who shoulder the encumber of this condition take a crack at bartering the customary down casted profile of Vitiligo with a new-fangled elated picture of it. Through social media engagement, women in India are evidently observed to be vigorously participating in feminist consciousness-raising enterprises through blogging and vlogging. Cyberspaces are being efficiently and radically used to depict the proposed shift from the detrimental approximation of the condition to a more prolific and optimistic portrait of it. Thus, in the midst of these manifold schemes reclines active addressal of the garden variety stigmas that encircle Vitiligo.
Opening Up and Voicing Out: Miss Riya Agrawal Narrates
What sweeping and insurgent messages do women’s virtual engagement in consciousness-raising transmit? These messages orbit around the re-consideration and re-construction of the aesthetical, psycho-social, socio-cultural and existential reverberations affixed to the condition. Riya Agrawal (Rhea Agrawal), a 22-year-old Vitiligo influencer voices about the tendered shift from being an object of self-conscious negative emotional experiences to becoming a subject of change through the enterprise of consciousness-raising. She states:
“I always wanted to be loud and proud about my skin condition. I yearn for change and I gradually understood that for change to happen, creation of a vision is rudimentary and this vision even enjoins performance and communication. With my social media handle, I consciously chose to raise awareness about Vitiligo. Yes, I was subjected to shaming, but, self-acceptance and self-celebration is all that I have with me, for me, presently.”
Photo Credit: Riya Agarwal, Official Instagram Profile.
When asked about her underlying intent and target, she highlighted about the role of consciousness-raising:
“My fundamental aim is to foster consciousness expansion. I know there are inestimable women (or individuals in general) who are confronted with many profound emotional charges in view of the aesthetical prejudices that orbit around the skin condition. Hence, I wish to share my personal stories and raise public consciousness. I feel, virtual feminist consciousness-raising schemes have the capacity to examine stereotypes, challenge them and repress them. It is time for us to recover from being negatively self-conscious about oneself to becoming an agent of feminist consciousness-raising.”
Photo Credit: Riya Agarwal, Official Instagram Profile.
Thus, if we intricately review the case of Vitiligo, it is perceptible that there has been an escalating cruise wherein the subjects have undergone a move from being passive objects of negative self-consciousness emotionality to becoming active subjects of change.
This World Vitiligo Day, let us ask ourselves- “Vitiligo is an emotionally sapping disease in itself, why spiral the ordeal with socio-cultural denunciation?”
Feminism in India
Generally speaking, it is maintained that menstruation is a biological process, a socio-culturall... more Generally speaking, it is maintained that menstruation is a biological process, a socio-culturally stigmatized phenomenon and a disguised personal corporeal experience. However, it is noticed that menstrual experiences also have existentialist underpinnings. Women, as menstruating subjects keep their menstrual bodies within the boundaries of certain norms and prescribed rules of etiquette. The most simplistic understanding of the idea of menstrual etiquette may be uncovered through the following examples: Women are expected to observe menstrual etiquette by keeping silent about their menstrual experiences, by keeping a check on their clothes in order to confirm that it is stain-free, by hiding the purchase of sanitary wear, by storing and using it secretly, etcetera. Hence, menstrual etiquette is plainly related to concealment, silence and surveillance.
Since childhood, women have been motivated to menstruate politely. By polite menstruation, we may refer to the disciplinary measures that menstruating women follow as repeated upholders of etiquettes related to menstruation. These measures are directed towards one core goal, which is to conceal or cover the facts about their menstruation. For instance, few efforts towards this concealment include the following: ““Look at the back of my skirt, is anything showing?” “Here, take my sweater and tie it around your waist, I’ll walk behind you.” “Can you pass me a tampon in your algebra book?” We dwell in the delicious space of shared secrets and protect one another from ridicule” (I.M. Young)
Image: Cover page of Feminist Philosopher, I.M. Young’s seminal book: On Female Body Experience.
In addition, the potency of polite menstruation also lies in the directive demands of creating a balance between a menstruating body and the socio-cultural situation that prevails. This balancing act communicates a lot about the existing power dynamics. A menstruating body acquires the status of docility in an active way indicates two things, first, a docile body is active with regards to the actions that are other-directed, referring to the fact that women as menstruators both physically and verbally actualise this panoptic discipline in response to the power structures that foster such regimes and second, docile bodies as active also entails the act of self-policing. Thus, a menstruating body is glued, frozen and deserted!
Organised menstruation does not refer to deliberate or scheduled menstruation; rather, it refers to a well-planned, strategized and managed menstrual experience. Women, in our society still choose polite menstruation over the proposed idea of organised menstruation. The question is: “Why does this form of choice transpire?” The extensive climate of menstrual shame and women’s attribution and ascription to it could be considered as one of catalysts for the selection and transpiration of this choice. Menstrual shame, as a phenomenon is a subjective experience; a product of internalisation of external norms and menstrual shaming is a product of objective/ external influence on women’s bodies and bodily events.
In the Indian society, taboos around menstruation reflect the consistent perception that a menstrual body is impure and dishonourable. The range of limitations and secrecy which are associated with menstruation create a negative impact on women. One such negative impact could be specified as polite menstruation. When we are speaking of women’s subjective act of menstruating politely as one of the negative impacts, this indicates that there is an undermining impetus that is originally guided and governed by the prevalent socio-cultural design. Therefore, we may simply state the choosing politeness or planning is actually a product of the act of shaming.
Image: Period Shaming is a Serious Problem, Engender.
All in all, it can be moderately said that the relation between women and their lived menstrual experiences encompass not merely biological subordination of women, but also their socio-cultural subjection.
Artha - Journal of Social Sciences
The following paper intends to employ and consider
Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of Symbolic Violence... more The following paper intends to employ and consider
Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of Symbolic Violence as a
theoretical avenue to examine and conceptualise the
phenomenon of femicide. The primary goal here is to
conduct a philosophical investigation into the
gender-biased practice of femicide in order to eventually
construct and exhibit the affinity between the generally
deemed elementary-physical and the
complementary-symbolic facet of this category of
violence. To be precise, by categorically alluding to
Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and field, the paper attempts
to demonstrate how the issue of femicide is substantially
embedded in the symbolic schema. I centrally argue for
the importance of re-conceptualising femicide as a
continuum of symbolic form of violence in order to
demonstrate that femicide does not solely necessitate and
imply the perceptible physical act of the killing of
females, rather, it also involves symbolic connotations. I
recognise and expostulate that these symbolic
connotations denote the prevalence of unfair and unjust
state of affairs and the fact that physical violence is an
embodied manifestation of these mundane state of affairs.
Towards the end, I show that if we comprehend femicide
in view of both the elementary-physical and the complementary-symbolic constituents, we eventually
ensue an analogue between them, thereby breaking the
physical-symbolic dichotomy.
Two fundamental questions that shall be addressed here
are- “how can we re-conceptualise femicide by giving
thematic consideration to the category of symbolic
violence?” and secondly, “what does this
re-conceptualisation channel about the long-established
physical-symbolic dichotomy with regards to the
phenomenon of femicide?
International Journal Of Philosophy And Social-Psychological Sciences
Vulnerability is an inalienable aspect of human existence. In spite of the fact that sufficient g... more Vulnerability is an inalienable aspect of human existence. In spite of the fact that sufficient groundwork has been done on the notion of vulnerability, it is to be noted that until now, vulnerability has typically been conceived as a negative condition relating to dependency, weakness, fragility, passivity and exploitation. Contrary to this, this paper attempts to re-consider the concept of vulnerability along positive lines by principally focusing upon the moral and ontological roots of vulnerability by employing the Feminist Ethics of Care model. The exponents of Care Ethics extend a normative version of vulnerability with prime emphasis on two aspects, namely, vulnerability as a compositional form of relationality and responsibility. The question that will be addressed in this paper is, ‘How can we construct a progressive and value-laden approach to vulnerability by employing the principles of an Ethic of Care?’ Fundamentally, it will be argued that between the individual and the universal, lies relationships that have been overlooked while discussing the notion of vulnerability. This study therefore, aims to unlock the moral dynamic of vulnerability with ontological implications. Subsequently, an idea of Shared human vulnerability will be authentically introduced in the paper which will help us to think about the power of vulnerability with the existential genesis of Care Ethics.
Keywords: Ethic of Care; Feminist Ethics; Relational Ontology; Shared Human Vulnerability; Vulnerability; Vulnerable Subject.
Kalakalpa , 2020
Emotions are meaningful and hold significant content related to psychology, ethics, phenomenology... more Emotions are meaningful and hold significant content related to psychology, ethics, phenomenology, sociology and philosophy of mind. Additionally, emotions may be understood in terms of cognition which further involves certain evaluative properties, appraisals, intentions, judgments or simply as basic emotional dispositions. In this frame of reference, the present paper sketches a synthetic overview of the aboutness aspect of emotion. As a point of departure, the paper begins with a comparative analysis of the Cognitive and Non-Cognitive models of emotion. Following from here, the proficient correspondence between the cognitive theory of emotion and the socio-existential meanings that emotions convey shall be examined along two lines: firstly, by considering the intentionality theory that belongs to the existential phenomenological tradition and secondly, by employing the socio-psychological theory of appraisal. Thus, the central objective of this paper is two-fold, firstly, to present an extensive interpretation of emotional experience on the lines of the notion of intentionality as upheld by the existential phenomenology tradition, and secondly, to suggest that an intentional understanding of emotion appears to be compatible with the appraisal model of emotion as offered by the social psychologists. Fundamental questions that will be addressed here are, ‘are emotions simply automatic, are they part of a process?’, ‘what is the significance of emotional experiences?’ or ‘what inherent meanings do emotions convey?’, ‘how can we understand emotions in terms of the notion of intentionality and appraisal?’ and lastly, ‘how do we recognize and assess the socio-existential significations attached with emotional experiences?’
Feminism in India, 2021
Multi-faceted male-female dichotomies warp our way of thinking, perceiving and acting. In a rife ... more Multi-faceted male-female dichotomies warp our way of thinking, perceiving and acting. In a rife sense, we are well-seasoned with certain sex-related dichotomies such as blue-pink, strength-fragility, cars-dolls, public sphere-private sphere, etcetera. Thus, there are a range of discrete attributes that characterize male(ness) or female(ness) in association with a particular being. Few crucial questions surface in the milieu, ‘Is this characterization a natural undertaking?’; ‘Is it learnt?’; or lastly, ‘Is it imposed?’ These questions, broadly allude to the theme of elementary phenomenon of moral development which begins since early childhood. Children acquire gender-specific perspectives and patterns within the brackets of their domestic affiliation; they learn, embrace and sustain gender concepts from home.
Numerous developmental researchers argue that there is a vertical interplay between children and stereotypical conditioning they undergo within their abode. One such stereotypical conditioning touches on a hierarchical polarity, namely, the reason-emotion dichotomy. The rational has consistently been at odds with the emotional. This separatist leaning could be sketched out even in the realm of morality; moral development, specifically. Over-generalisation about particular thoughts, beliefs and attitudes have dispensed a prejudiced, differentiated and uneven path to moral development for both boys and girls.
Psychologists and philosophers have studied the nature of moral development in children in a multi-faceted manner. However, the academic works of multiple moral development theorists are indicted for floating a gender-biased assessment of moral development and morality, altogether. Carol Gilligan, a professor at Harvard University, in her seminal book, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, outlines the significance of restoring the perennial lost voices of girls. Her research fundamentally focuses on a systematic comparison of moral development between male and female children. Gilligan writes:
“It has been long that we have been listening to the male voices and have ignored the voices of women.”
One may wonder now, ‘What is the male voice all about and why is it being interrogated in the moral context?’ The answer to this question revolves around the problem that had been triumphing since incessantly. In plain terms, the male voice pertains to inflated values like rationality, lucidity and assertiveness. In academics, the male voice was computed as the “universalised” subject and thread for the estimation of child moral development. Thus, the basal issue was two-fold; first, negligence of the female voice and second, generalisation on the basis of the male voice.
As the word “development” suggests a type of maturation, evolution and change, in this tune, the process of “moral development” indicates qualitative changes in children as they get conscious of concepts such as right-wrong, good-bad, fair-unfair, etcetera. According to Gilligan, the most cardinal theme which is acutely associated with the moral development of children and has also been routinely overlooked by mainstream theorists is the “inclusion” of girl’s voices.
Gilligan conducted interviews with girls (between 5 to 18 years of age, specifically) and furthermore, evinced the value of vindicating a “girl’s” perspective within the domain of morality. Her extensive work indicates that moral reasoning for boys and girls differ. In her view, boys/men and girls/women are different on account of their individual tone and temperament. It is in the nature of women to care for others, take responsibility for others and think for others while acting. Thus, in this tune, it is an imperative to recognize and nurture these differences while appraising moral development in children, in theory and practice.
In on with, a glaring question transpires, ‘What does this detection and celebration of the moral voice of female subjects utter about the emancipatory facets associated with this endeavour?’
In unadorned terms, we may discern four facets that are furtively knotted with Gilligan’s consideration of the female voice. Squarely placed, the four facets are as follows-
Inclusion: First, by arguing in favour of the girl child’s voice, Gilligan was able to manufacture an all-embracing and all-inclusive version of child moral development.
Individuality: Second, she talks in favour of the first-person account of the self; self or sense of being of the female child. This first-person perspective echoes about the value of care, concern and other emotions.
Equality: Third, additionally, as a moral theorist, she was also able to contribute towards the attainment of certain socio-political goals. The most encyclopaedic of them all could be ticketed as the fruition of gender equality.
Vocalisation: Fourth, she could provoke a shift from the status of the girl child as passive listeners to active speakers. Thus, the voices of the girl child could procure a loftier standing; in the realm of morality and eventually, in the vast sense. Curtly put, we now understand-Who speaks? What does that voice convey? Whose story it is? Why is it important to listen?
Lastly, in Gilligan’s words:
“Children must be taught to “value their hearts over their heads” rather than disregard their natural emotions in fear of resorting to subjection which defies the traditional male-oriented “ethics of justice”. In sum, women and children may exhibit more moral depth than men.”
Guwahati University Journal of Philosophy , 2020
Feminist researchers have reviewed various bodily experiences of women with regard to the designa... more Feminist researchers have reviewed various bodily experiences of women with regard to the designated set of standards and codes. Women as menstruating beings keep their menstrual bodies within the boundaries of certain norms and prescribed rules of etiquette. Having pronounced this, it will be elementarily contended in the following paper that menstrual etiquette promotes corporal devaluation and socio-cultural subjugation of women in relation to their feminine bodily experiences. The codes of menstrual etiquette grant a suppressive and subordinate status to a woman’s body due to the disciplinary endurance it creates. In this setting, the paper examines the socio-ontological implications of the system of menstrual etiquette by referring to various feminist theories on the female body. More specifically, the notion of body-for-others, body as docile and body as an abject will considered in order to demonstrate how the disciplinary comportments linked with menstrual etiquette is closely interlaced with the ontological condition of female corporeality. Therefore, there are three fundamental question that guided this research, they are: ‘what is menstrual etiquette and how is it connected to women’s corporeal mode of existence?’ secondly, ‘how can the stature of the female body as docile and as an abject serve as a superlative approach for investigating women’s adherence to the system of menstrual etiquette?’ and lastly, ‘what does it mean to exist under the authority of menstrual etiquette?’ Therefore, the fundamental objective of the following study is to exhibit how the menstrual etiquette is grounded in the socio-ontological condition of the female body. This way, the paper explores a somewhat overlooked work of menstrual etiquette.
Keywords: Menstruation, Menstrual Etiquette, Corporeal Feminism, Female Body, Body-for-Others, Docile body, Abject, Abjection.
International Journal of Applied Ethics, 2022
The following paper intends to expound few ethical questions around the practice of corporal puni... more The following paper intends to expound few ethical questions around the practice of corporal punishment of children. Moving beyond a myriad of mental and physical ramifications, the objective here is to estimate the deep-seated issues that the damaging disciplinary model of corporal punishment yields and to furthermore, promote a virtue ethical approach to parental discipline. For the sake of clarity and precision, the paper will restrict to two ethical questions-the question of personhood and degradation. Plainly put, a beating does not just affect the subject physically but has reverberating ethical consequences. In the end, I shall suggest/argue that Virtue Ethics presents an approach to remedial parenting that guides the child in an ethical manner. Fundamental research questions that will be addressed here are: 'What ethical concerns does the practice of corporal punishment of children upheave?', 'How do the questions concerning personhood and degradation offer an ethical interpretive paradigm for understanding the real iniquitous transactions of corporal punishment of children?' and ''Which prominent ethical theory can act as a remedial model in this context? Thus, through this work, readers would be able to be cognizant of the entrenched ethical implications and ensuing directions of this inglorious form of parenting style.
Conference Presentations by Aastha Mishra
Ethics of Care is a normative ethical theory which is fundamentally centered around the idea of r... more Ethics of Care is a normative ethical theory which is fundamentally centered around the idea of relational interdependency and intersubjectivity. Caring relations (caring for, caring towards, caring about and being cared for) require the presence of significant others and a sense of mutual connectedness between human beings. As existential phenomenology involves questions related to human existence, inter-human relationships, human actions, human experiences, etcetera, in this light, the following paper exhibits a conversation between care ethics and the notion of intersubjectivity with special emphasis on the role of human emotionality. It will be argued that by developing an account of care/ caring practice as a moral enactment, the exponents of Care Ethics conceptualize persons as "relational", "interdependent", and "emotional" beings and this further entails the existential phenomenological undertones that subsist. The fundamental question that shall be addressed in the following paper is-'how does an ethic of care ascribe a central place to certain existential phenomenological themes?' Therefore, it will be contented that the Ethics of Care theory has the potentiality to provide a well-elaborated framework for constructing a phenomenological ethics as it ascribes a vital position to the inter-personal aspect of moral life.
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Papers by Aastha Mishra
Living with Vitiligo: Feminist Phenomenological Overtones
Into the bargain, if we make reference to the instance of Vitiligo with singular contemplation on women’s negative emotional experiences of the state, we would be able to legibly distinguish and perceive coherent pervasiveness of the self-conscious sense of emotionality bracketed with the world-conscious plane associated with it. In a feminist pneuma, we may postulate that female subjects who are racked with the strain of Vitiligo perhaps ferret out the world-conscious position conceivably identified with experiences of negative self-conscious emotions, like shame, embarrassment, disgust, fear, etcetera. First hand self-conscious encounters of these emotions among women encompass the phenomenological world-conscious deportment, taking note of the social engagements women perpetually execute, succour and aggrandize. Their emotional journeys are directed towards something in the outside world; the people, the norms, the patterns and the entire external environment.
In this milieu, can’t we dexterously expostulate that women with Vitiligo were everlastingly made to feel negative emotions and ultimately believe that their sense of being and worth, both are insistent on the world-conscious state of their existence? Besides, isn’t it unerring to perpetuate that the exacted medical state of Vitiligo incontestably has phenomenological significance, over and above? A synergetic answer to these questions could be a prompt yes!
Towards Consciousness-raising
We are well-seasoned with the emotional, psychological and social tolls bred by the disease. These are assuredly the distressing, miserable and wistful offshoots of Vitiligo. The fact of the matter is that this facet makes us learn and posit that living with this skin condition presupposes deficiency, fragility, pain and resentment. However, in recent times, with the appearance, stimulation and active employment of various social media platforms, the phenomenon of Vitiligo has certainly secured a revived and constructive configuration. One of the gaping yields of this resurrected configuration of this progressive world-conscious configuration of the condition has been the revival and escalation of feminist consciousness-raising. Kathie Sarachild defines consciousness-raising as a radical weapon for women. In a nutshell, according to her, consciousness raising involves the act of self-expression, sharing of bitter experiences, evaluating feelings, cross examining them, having interactions and eventually, creating awareness. She categorically borrowed the phrase from Anne Forer, about which Forer states:
“In the Old Left, they used to say that the workers don't know they're oppressed, so we have to raise their consciousness. One night at a meeting I said, 'Would everybody please give me an example from their own life on how they experienced oppression as a woman? I need to hear it to raise my own consciousness.' Kathie was sitting behind me and the words rang in her mind. From then on she sort of made it an institution and called it consciousness-raising.”
Lately, social media consciousness-raising has become an actively amplifying and emotionally stirring sight. In the context of Vitiligo, we would encounter noteworthy representative cases in which individuals who shoulder the encumber of this condition take a crack at bartering the customary down casted profile of Vitiligo with a new-fangled elated picture of it. Through social media engagement, women in India are evidently observed to be vigorously participating in feminist consciousness-raising enterprises through blogging and vlogging. Cyberspaces are being efficiently and radically used to depict the proposed shift from the detrimental approximation of the condition to a more prolific and optimistic portrait of it. Thus, in the midst of these manifold schemes reclines active addressal of the garden variety stigmas that encircle Vitiligo.
Opening Up and Voicing Out: Miss Riya Agrawal Narrates
What sweeping and insurgent messages do women’s virtual engagement in consciousness-raising transmit? These messages orbit around the re-consideration and re-construction of the aesthetical, psycho-social, socio-cultural and existential reverberations affixed to the condition. Riya Agrawal (Rhea Agrawal), a 22-year-old Vitiligo influencer voices about the tendered shift from being an object of self-conscious negative emotional experiences to becoming a subject of change through the enterprise of consciousness-raising. She states:
“I always wanted to be loud and proud about my skin condition. I yearn for change and I gradually understood that for change to happen, creation of a vision is rudimentary and this vision even enjoins performance and communication. With my social media handle, I consciously chose to raise awareness about Vitiligo. Yes, I was subjected to shaming, but, self-acceptance and self-celebration is all that I have with me, for me, presently.”
Photo Credit: Riya Agarwal, Official Instagram Profile.
When asked about her underlying intent and target, she highlighted about the role of consciousness-raising:
“My fundamental aim is to foster consciousness expansion. I know there are inestimable women (or individuals in general) who are confronted with many profound emotional charges in view of the aesthetical prejudices that orbit around the skin condition. Hence, I wish to share my personal stories and raise public consciousness. I feel, virtual feminist consciousness-raising schemes have the capacity to examine stereotypes, challenge them and repress them. It is time for us to recover from being negatively self-conscious about oneself to becoming an agent of feminist consciousness-raising.”
Photo Credit: Riya Agarwal, Official Instagram Profile.
Thus, if we intricately review the case of Vitiligo, it is perceptible that there has been an escalating cruise wherein the subjects have undergone a move from being passive objects of negative self-consciousness emotionality to becoming active subjects of change.
This World Vitiligo Day, let us ask ourselves- “Vitiligo is an emotionally sapping disease in itself, why spiral the ordeal with socio-cultural denunciation?”
Since childhood, women have been motivated to menstruate politely. By polite menstruation, we may refer to the disciplinary measures that menstruating women follow as repeated upholders of etiquettes related to menstruation. These measures are directed towards one core goal, which is to conceal or cover the facts about their menstruation. For instance, few efforts towards this concealment include the following: ““Look at the back of my skirt, is anything showing?” “Here, take my sweater and tie it around your waist, I’ll walk behind you.” “Can you pass me a tampon in your algebra book?” We dwell in the delicious space of shared secrets and protect one another from ridicule” (I.M. Young)
Image: Cover page of Feminist Philosopher, I.M. Young’s seminal book: On Female Body Experience.
In addition, the potency of polite menstruation also lies in the directive demands of creating a balance between a menstruating body and the socio-cultural situation that prevails. This balancing act communicates a lot about the existing power dynamics. A menstruating body acquires the status of docility in an active way indicates two things, first, a docile body is active with regards to the actions that are other-directed, referring to the fact that women as menstruators both physically and verbally actualise this panoptic discipline in response to the power structures that foster such regimes and second, docile bodies as active also entails the act of self-policing. Thus, a menstruating body is glued, frozen and deserted!
Organised menstruation does not refer to deliberate or scheduled menstruation; rather, it refers to a well-planned, strategized and managed menstrual experience. Women, in our society still choose polite menstruation over the proposed idea of organised menstruation. The question is: “Why does this form of choice transpire?” The extensive climate of menstrual shame and women’s attribution and ascription to it could be considered as one of catalysts for the selection and transpiration of this choice. Menstrual shame, as a phenomenon is a subjective experience; a product of internalisation of external norms and menstrual shaming is a product of objective/ external influence on women’s bodies and bodily events.
In the Indian society, taboos around menstruation reflect the consistent perception that a menstrual body is impure and dishonourable. The range of limitations and secrecy which are associated with menstruation create a negative impact on women. One such negative impact could be specified as polite menstruation. When we are speaking of women’s subjective act of menstruating politely as one of the negative impacts, this indicates that there is an undermining impetus that is originally guided and governed by the prevalent socio-cultural design. Therefore, we may simply state the choosing politeness or planning is actually a product of the act of shaming.
Image: Period Shaming is a Serious Problem, Engender.
All in all, it can be moderately said that the relation between women and their lived menstrual experiences encompass not merely biological subordination of women, but also their socio-cultural subjection.
Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of Symbolic Violence as a
theoretical avenue to examine and conceptualise the
phenomenon of femicide. The primary goal here is to
conduct a philosophical investigation into the
gender-biased practice of femicide in order to eventually
construct and exhibit the affinity between the generally
deemed elementary-physical and the
complementary-symbolic facet of this category of
violence. To be precise, by categorically alluding to
Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and field, the paper attempts
to demonstrate how the issue of femicide is substantially
embedded in the symbolic schema. I centrally argue for
the importance of re-conceptualising femicide as a
continuum of symbolic form of violence in order to
demonstrate that femicide does not solely necessitate and
imply the perceptible physical act of the killing of
females, rather, it also involves symbolic connotations. I
recognise and expostulate that these symbolic
connotations denote the prevalence of unfair and unjust
state of affairs and the fact that physical violence is an
embodied manifestation of these mundane state of affairs.
Towards the end, I show that if we comprehend femicide
in view of both the elementary-physical and the complementary-symbolic constituents, we eventually
ensue an analogue between them, thereby breaking the
physical-symbolic dichotomy.
Two fundamental questions that shall be addressed here
are- “how can we re-conceptualise femicide by giving
thematic consideration to the category of symbolic
violence?” and secondly, “what does this
re-conceptualisation channel about the long-established
physical-symbolic dichotomy with regards to the
phenomenon of femicide?
Keywords: Ethic of Care; Feminist Ethics; Relational Ontology; Shared Human Vulnerability; Vulnerability; Vulnerable Subject.
Numerous developmental researchers argue that there is a vertical interplay between children and stereotypical conditioning they undergo within their abode. One such stereotypical conditioning touches on a hierarchical polarity, namely, the reason-emotion dichotomy. The rational has consistently been at odds with the emotional. This separatist leaning could be sketched out even in the realm of morality; moral development, specifically. Over-generalisation about particular thoughts, beliefs and attitudes have dispensed a prejudiced, differentiated and uneven path to moral development for both boys and girls.
Psychologists and philosophers have studied the nature of moral development in children in a multi-faceted manner. However, the academic works of multiple moral development theorists are indicted for floating a gender-biased assessment of moral development and morality, altogether. Carol Gilligan, a professor at Harvard University, in her seminal book, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, outlines the significance of restoring the perennial lost voices of girls. Her research fundamentally focuses on a systematic comparison of moral development between male and female children. Gilligan writes:
“It has been long that we have been listening to the male voices and have ignored the voices of women.”
One may wonder now, ‘What is the male voice all about and why is it being interrogated in the moral context?’ The answer to this question revolves around the problem that had been triumphing since incessantly. In plain terms, the male voice pertains to inflated values like rationality, lucidity and assertiveness. In academics, the male voice was computed as the “universalised” subject and thread for the estimation of child moral development. Thus, the basal issue was two-fold; first, negligence of the female voice and second, generalisation on the basis of the male voice.
As the word “development” suggests a type of maturation, evolution and change, in this tune, the process of “moral development” indicates qualitative changes in children as they get conscious of concepts such as right-wrong, good-bad, fair-unfair, etcetera. According to Gilligan, the most cardinal theme which is acutely associated with the moral development of children and has also been routinely overlooked by mainstream theorists is the “inclusion” of girl’s voices.
Gilligan conducted interviews with girls (between 5 to 18 years of age, specifically) and furthermore, evinced the value of vindicating a “girl’s” perspective within the domain of morality. Her extensive work indicates that moral reasoning for boys and girls differ. In her view, boys/men and girls/women are different on account of their individual tone and temperament. It is in the nature of women to care for others, take responsibility for others and think for others while acting. Thus, in this tune, it is an imperative to recognize and nurture these differences while appraising moral development in children, in theory and practice.
In on with, a glaring question transpires, ‘What does this detection and celebration of the moral voice of female subjects utter about the emancipatory facets associated with this endeavour?’
In unadorned terms, we may discern four facets that are furtively knotted with Gilligan’s consideration of the female voice. Squarely placed, the four facets are as follows-
Inclusion: First, by arguing in favour of the girl child’s voice, Gilligan was able to manufacture an all-embracing and all-inclusive version of child moral development.
Individuality: Second, she talks in favour of the first-person account of the self; self or sense of being of the female child. This first-person perspective echoes about the value of care, concern and other emotions.
Equality: Third, additionally, as a moral theorist, she was also able to contribute towards the attainment of certain socio-political goals. The most encyclopaedic of them all could be ticketed as the fruition of gender equality.
Vocalisation: Fourth, she could provoke a shift from the status of the girl child as passive listeners to active speakers. Thus, the voices of the girl child could procure a loftier standing; in the realm of morality and eventually, in the vast sense. Curtly put, we now understand-Who speaks? What does that voice convey? Whose story it is? Why is it important to listen?
Lastly, in Gilligan’s words:
“Children must be taught to “value their hearts over their heads” rather than disregard their natural emotions in fear of resorting to subjection which defies the traditional male-oriented “ethics of justice”. In sum, women and children may exhibit more moral depth than men.”
Keywords: Menstruation, Menstrual Etiquette, Corporeal Feminism, Female Body, Body-for-Others, Docile body, Abject, Abjection.
Conference Presentations by Aastha Mishra