What is the issue?
- The bare upper body has always been a sticky topic in Kerala’s political context, with multiple movements associated with it.
- In this context, the cover page of a Malayalam magazine that depicted a woman breastfeeding a baby, has stirred a controversy.
- The Kerala High Court has now upheld the magazine’s right to expression in its verdict on a case filed in this regard.
What is Kerala’s historic context regarding bare-breasts?
- Oppression - Many battles were fought in Malayali society of the early 20th century (and before) over the exposure of the upper body.
- Caste rules in Kerala had traditionally required that the lower castes (both female and male) must be bare chest in front of ostensible social superiors.
- Perhaps, such exposure of lower castes was a way of making their vulnerabilities visible to the powerful social classes.
- Reform - While the exposure rule was gender neutral, social reformism in general seemed outraged only by the nakedness of the female form.
- This bias was because 19th century reformists largely based their worldview in “Victorian morality”, that was hawkish to upper caste sexual predators.
- By around the 1970s, reformists had managed to secure for all women, the right to cover their breasts, while the male bare chest was hardly noticed.
- Nonetheless, breastfeeding openly continued to persist widely in the keralite society till the turn of the 21st century.
What has brought the libertarian debate back to centre-stage?
- The cover-page of a leading Malayalam women’s magazine “Grihalakshmi” recently displayed the image of “a woman breastfeeding a baby”.
- This attracted courts cases and stirred a controversy, with some calling it obscenity and others seeing it as an excellent artistic expression.
- A writ petition was filed in Kerala High Court, claiming that the image in Grihalakshmi was obscene, insulting to women and in violation of child rights.
- But the judges in their verdict have explicitly stated that these claims were unfounded and cited recent scholarship on free speech to drive their point.
- Kerala High court has now dismissed the claims of obscenity and given an eloquent judgment, which is likely to have far reaching implications.
- The court has also advocated a liberal attitude and also cautioned against an anti-pornographic position sliding into rank conservatism.
- The verdict has hence been hailed as a vindication of the righteousness of the bold depiction of motherhood and the mother-child physical bond.
What could be read form the image?
- The magazine carried an expressive image of a young model breast-feeding a baby, and thereby breaking a relatively modern but entrenched social taboo.
- From the depiction, one can infer that the woman is clearly married, respectable, and elite in appearance (unlike the topless downtrodden).
- More importantly, the image has been clearly intended as maternal with all its motherly charms, and begs to clearly distinguish itself from sexual gaze.
- Hence, there has been an attempt portray a familiar stereotypical mother’s body that is locally perceived as non-sexual and above physical pleasures.
- A critical scrutiny of the statement being made on biological motherhood would’ve been a healthy; but it was lost amidst the conservative opposition.
- Nonetheless, having beautifully portrayed a professionally-groomed young woman in a home setting, the picture deserves artistic appreciation.
- From another perspective, it is a case of “a modern woman balancing community sanctioned traditional ways with her professional responsibilities”.
Source: The Hindu
