Varisha Tariq is a recent undergraduate from Ashoka University and she likes reading about politics and deconstructing gender and patriarchy. She aspires to be a writer, business-owner, foreign diplomat and Prime Minister of India all at once although she is currently running an NGO in Lucknow, focused on the education and empowerment of women.
In the Indian imagination, an ‘Aunty’ is a middle-aged, usually fat woman who is married and has children. Young women, especially unmarried ones, either do not want to associate with the term or are expected to steer clear of it.
The resistance to intolerance that has risen from the Janaki and Naveen's dance to the Rasputin video makes us not give up hope of a secular society that looks beyond religion.
While internalised misogyny is pretty much the antithesis of feminism, it is, unfortunately, an obstacle that most feminists have to grapple with due to the inherently patriarchal structure of our world.
Amol Palekar's movie Anaahat (2003), a Marathi film (Anaahat means Eternity), poses several questions about Niyog Pratha and emphasises on a woman's choice to explore her sexual freedom.