Rethinking New Womanhood : Practices of Gender, Class, Culture and Religion in South Asia

Covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, Rethinking New Womanhood effectively introduces a 'new' wave of gender research from South Asia that resonates with feminist debates around the world. The volume conceptualises 'new womanhood' as a complex, heterogeneous and intersectional identity. By deconstructing classification systems and highlighting women's everyday ongoing negotiations with boundaries of social categories, the book reconfigures the concept of 'new woman' as a symbolic identity denoting 'modern' femininity at the intersection of gender, class, culture, sexuality and religion in South Asia. The collection maps new sites and expressions on women and gender studies around nationhood, women's rights, transnational feminist solidarity, 'new girlhoods ', aesthetic and sexualised labour, respectability and 'modernity', LGBT discourses, domestic violence and 'new' feminisms. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including gender studies, sociology, education, media and cultural studies, literature, anthropology, history, development studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.-- Provided by publisher Contents 5 List of Contributors 7 List of Tables 10 Introduction 11 Redefining the Third-World Woman 13 Redefining ‘New Woman’ 14 Contemporary ‘New Women’ of South Asia 17 Boundary Work of New Women 22 Politics of Representation: New Woman in Literature and the Media 25 Practices of Gender, Sexuality, Class, Culture, and Religion: New Women Subjects in Everyday Life 26 Trends and Directions 27 References 28 Part I: Politics of Representation: New Woman in Literature and the Media 33 ‘(New) Woman’ as a Flashpoint Within the Nation: The Border as Method in Tales of Modernity 34 Introduction 34 The New Woman Then and Now 35 Days of the Turban: Gulnari in the 1980s 38 Ladies Coupè: Akhila in the 1990s 41 The Park Street Rape Case: Suzette in 2012 44 Conclusion: Violence and the Female Body 49 References 51 Made in Bangladesh: The Romance of the New Woman 55 Introduction 55 The Death of a Thousand Dreams 59 Under Construction 63 Garments 66 Made in Bangladesh3 69 Conclusion 76 References 77 The New Heroine? Gender Representations in Contemporary Pakistani Dramas 79 Tracking the New Woman in Popular Culture 81 Women in Pakistani Dramas: From PTV to Cable and Satellite Television 83 Urdu Dramas in Pakistan: Some Elements of Context 83 Identifying Problems and Proposing Solutions: The Representation of Women’s Issues in Dramas 86 Constructing the Pakistani ‘New Woman’ 91 Balancing ‘Liberalism’ and ‘Traditions’: The Pakistani New Woman 91 The New Woman at the Intersection of Gender and Class 93 Conclusion 95 Annex 1: Description of the Corpus 97 References 98 Videos 101 Part II: New Women Subjects in Everyday Life: Practices of Gender, Sexuality, Class, Culture and Religion 102 Bangladeshi New Women’s ‘Smart’ Dressing: Negotiating Class, Culture, and Religion 103 Introduction 103 Theorising the Neoliberal Affluent Middle Class and the New Women of Bangladesh 105 Hybridization of Clothing and Fashion in Post-colonial Societies 109 Clothing Practices in Bangladesh 111 Constructing Smart Dressing 112 Hybridization 112 Context Specificity 116 Conclusion 121 References 124 Nepalese (New) Women Workers in the Hotel Industry: Exploring Women’s Work and Respectability 128 Introduction 128 Interactive Service Work and Respectability 130 The Nepalese Context 134 Research Design 135 Research Findings 136 Conforming to Gendered Work, Aesthetic Labour and Sexualised Labour 136 Gendered Work 136 Aesthetic Labour 137 Sexualised Work and Sexualised Labour 138 Resistance and Negotiation at Work: Role of the Trade Union 139 Challenging Gendered Ideologies 140 Defying Codes of Grooming 140 Confronting Sexualisation by Customers and Male Workers 142 Negotiating Respectability 143 Conclusion 145 References 148 Merging Career and Marital Aspirations: Emerging Discourse of ‘New Girlhood’ Among Muslims in Assam 152 Data Collection 154 Mapping Key Literature: New Womanhood, Girlhood, and Aspirations 156 New Girlhood and Appropriate Aspirations 160 Inhabiting ‘New Girlhood’: Aspirational Victimhood 165 Conclusion 170 References 171 Earning as Empowerment?: The Relationship Between Paid Work and Domestic Violence in Lyari, Karachi 174 Introduction 174 Background: Violence Against Women and Employment 175 The Case of Women in Lyari, Karachi 177 Women in Low-Paid Work 180 Women in Higher-Paid Professions 184 Conclusions 187 References 189 Heterosexual Profession, Lesbian Practices: How Sex Workers’ Sexuality Right Positions Through Intersection of Sexuality, Gender, and Class Within the Hierarchy of LGBT Activism in Bangladesh 193 Introduction 193 Methodology 196 ‘Bon’ding Through Love and Sexuality: Organization of Same-Sex Households of Female Sex Workers 197 Shomopremi Versus ‘Lesbian’: The Politics of Identities, Visibility, and Representation 203 Conclusion 209 References 211 ‘New’ Feminisms in India: Encountering the ‘West’ and the Rest 214 Feminism, the ‘West,’ and Theoretical Tensions 216 Visual Politics, New Feminisms, and the West 220 Territoriality, the West, and New Feminisms 224 References 227 Index 230 Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Nazia Hussein)....Pages 1-22 Front Matter ....Pages 23-23 ‘(New) Woman’ as a Flashpoint Within the Nation: The Border as Method in Tales of Modernity (Nandita Ghosh)....Pages 25-45 Made in Bangladesh: The Romance of the New Woman (Elora Halim Chowdhury)....Pages 47-70 The New Heroine? Gender Representations in Contemporary Pakistani Dramas (Virginie Dutoya)....Pages 71-93 Front Matter ....Pages 95-95 Bangladeshi New Women’s ‘Smart’ Dressing: Negotiating Class, Culture, and Religion (Nazia Hussein)....Pages 97-121 Nepalese (New) Women Workers in the Hotel Industry: Exploring Women’s Work and Respectability (Mona Shrestha Adhikari)....Pages 123-146 Merging Career and Marital Aspirations: Emerging Discourse of ‘New Girlhood’ Among Muslims in Assam (Saba M. Hussain)....Pages 147-168 Earning as Empowerment?: The Relationship Between Paid Work and Domestic Violence in Lyari, Karachi (Nida Kirmani)....Pages 169-187 Heterosexual Profession, Lesbian Practices: How Sex Workers’ Sexuality Right Positions Through Intersection of Sexuality, Gender, and Class Within the Hierarchy of LGBT Activism in Bangladesh (Shuchi Karim)....Pages 189-209 ‘New’ Feminisms in India: Encountering the ‘West’ and the Rest (Sushmita Chatterjee)....Pages 211-226 Back Matter ....Pages 227-231 Covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, __Rethinking New Womanhood__ effectively introduces a ‘new’ wave of gender research from South Asia that resonates with feminist debates around the world__.__ The volume conceptualises ‘new womanhood’ as a complex, heterogeneous and intersectional identity. By deconstructing classification systems and highlighting women’s everyday ongoing negotiations with boundaries of social categories, the book reconfigures the concept of ‘new woman’ as a symbolic identity denoting ‘modern’ femininity at the intersection of gender, class, culture, sexuality and religion in South Asia. The collection maps new sites and expressions on women and gender studiesaround nationhood, women’s rights, transnational feminist solidarity, ‘new girlhoods ’, aesthetic and sexualised labour, respectability and ‘modernity’, LGBT discourses, domestic violence and ‘new’ feminisms. The volumewill be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including gender studies, sociology, education, media and cultural studies, literature, anthropology, history, development studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies. Covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, this book effectively introduces a new wave of gender research from South Asia that resonates with feminist debates around the world. The volume conceptualises?new womanhood? as a complex, heterogeneous and intersectional identity. By deconstructing classification systems and highlighting women?s everyday ongoing negotiations with boundaries of social categories, the book reconfigures the concept of?new woman? as a symbolic identity denoting?modern? femininity at the intersection of gender, class, culture, sexuality and religion in South Asia. The collection maps new sites and expressions on women and gender studies around nationhood, women?s rights, transnational feminist solidarity,?new girlhoods?, aesthetic and sexualised labour, respectability and?modernity?, LGBT discourses, domestic violence and?new? feminisms.0