PSBT’s International Festival on Gender and Sexuality tried to prove gender is not just a biological determinant.
Identity crises A still from “Why Men Wear Frocks”
The recently concluded PSBT International Film Festival on gender and sexuality brought together various viewpoints involved with gender identities. With more than 40 films on show at the Indian Habitat Centre, the festival turned out to be a talking point for those who want to explore the queer.
“Who Can Speak Of Men” by Ambarien Al Qadar, Gazala Yasmin and Nihal talks about three middle class Muslim women in India who refuse to conform to feminine norms. Shot in Zakir Nagar, New Delhi’s conservative Muslim locality, the film juxtaposes the experiences and concerns of three residents Kafeela, Arshi and Chini. The latter is an eight-year-old who insists that she is a he. An intimate account, the film, however, doesn’t show the reaction of the families of the three girls for Ambarien, who also grew up in the same locality, feels that it would have put them in an embarrassing situation in the society.
Not just gays
“Why Men Wear Frocks” by Neil Crombie looks into the world of transvestites or cross dressers. Narrated by Grayson Parry, a happily married 44-year-old cross dresser the film rubbishes the notion that a cross dresser has to be gay. The film also raises the point that when a girl dresses like a male, she is considered to be upwardly mobile or sexy but when a male does the same he is lampooned.
Grayson argues that cross dressing is a complicated flight from masculinity and the way it’s policed, it’s the masculinity that we should attend to.
“Being Male Being Koti” by Mahuya Bandhopadhyay explores the world of kotis who feel themselves to be living in a male body carrying the emotions of both male and female. Mahuya, a sociologist by training, calls it an attempt to bring the gender out of the “neat boxes” that the society classifies it into.
Echoing the view expressed by a protagonist in the film, she says there is nothing like a boyish boy or a girlish girl. “We live in a continuum.” There are times in day-to-day life that a male could not do something that females manages to do. However, Annidya Hazra, a social activist and a koti himself, says, “I always face the dilemma whether we are challenging the gender stereotypes or reinforcing them.”
True, perhaps that is the dilemma that these festivals also face. Can they carry the complex thought of gender construction beyond the refined environs of the Habitat Centres?
Mahuya feels one can. “The first step,” she says, “was when her male crew became aware of something like koti exists in our society.”
The festival also saw a moving art installation “We never ask for it” by Blank Noise Project, a public, participatory art project that seeks to challenge public spaces where we face sexual harassment.
The installation had pieces of clothes that the females were wearing at the time of exploitation with their age and place of residence mentioned on them.
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