The Politics of Misogyny Will Always Be Obscene |
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If you want to understand the true cost of being a woman in Indian politics, do not look at the manifestos, the parliamentary seat counts, or the lip service paid to women’s empowerment. Look, instead, at the dark corners of political “IT” cells and the campaign rally microphones. Look at the sheer, unadulterated misogyny deployed to keep women in their place.
A recent 2D image engineered by a right-wing troll account perfectly illustrates this. Targeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a brand of politics that frequently centres the state’s Muslim population, the cartoon depicts her in a grossly sexualised posture, reducing a three-time elected head of state to a grotesque anatomical gate.
It is a nauseating image, but we must not look away. We cannot either, because it was shared multiple times in the course of two days.
It represents a deliberate, calculated strategy where if you cannot defeat a woman on policy, you weaponise her gender. You humiliate her, stripping her of her formidable political agency to present a crude caricature. But it would be intellectually dishonest to dismiss this as merely the work of fringe online trolls. This image is simply the visual manifestation of a rot that goes all the way to the top of India’s political........