Concept "artgazine"

I spend endless hours on art blogs when I should be sleeping. Today I found this:

It's called "Feminist Theory". The description at the bottom says in Thai, roughly, "feminist literature: exposing the man/unleashing from male domination". I guess it's obvious that feminism is all about struggles against patriarchy but I always find it tiring when we define it and all the work of feminists in relation to man, thereby reducing our purpose and identity in relation to man only. I don't even know if that makes sense. Gloria Steinem is rolling her eyes and asking me to return my feminist card.

Dude looks like Gandhi, no? That's why it caught my eye, you know, considering the debate on whether he was a misogynist or an emanicipator of women, it's just a striking image.

The "artgazine" (because it's cooler than "art magazine") also have music which my computer won't play probably because it is ultra smart at detecting shit music before my ears can hear it. I used to put it down to good taste but I think it's the IBM. I am curious to listen to this Thaksin thing because the cover art is kinda cool.

Sex theatre

The bizarre chalk drawings on the wall of monkeys climbing Klimt trees in the nighttime pretty much set the tone for my most hilarious theatre experience. Ever.


Makhampom Theatre originated back in the 1970s as part of the democracy movement. As students were killed and detained, many fled to the jungles up north. As such, the theatre has continued for over 25 years by being based in Chiang Dao in the north. They define their work as being theatre for community and cultural development, so they do both community based folk theatre as well as "theatre for development".

Their studio in Bangkok is out by Saphan Kwai station, it's a tiny but inviting space. I guess watched one of their "theatre for development" pieces called Sperm because it turned out to have a sex education objective.

It began with audience participation. We were to write down on a piece of paper what we call our genitals. Then we fold it and put it in a basket. And THEN, the basket gets passed around and your audience comrades have to read them out loud. The first word to get read out was in English. And it was rude. All eyes turn to the only 2 non-Thais in the room. So, understandably, my audience comrade had a hard time pronouncing it which meant that I had to assist her. Hilarity ensued.

I can't even describe the play if I tried. Everyone wore flourescent stuff and there was black light and people pretending to be sperm and ova. I got lost at certain points, so I had to ask my friend Aoe to help me out with the translation. "He have sex with hand" "now he have sex with mouth" "girl scared of sperm".

At the beginning, when reading out words used to describe our sexual organs or whatever, I found it interesting that the Thai words being read out were metaphorical and mostly a non-reference. One person wrote the Thai word for "bread" another wrote "pig" and another wrote "down there". Most had cute nicknames that mean nothing, like "juu" and "chim". Intrestingly, the audience members were all adults in our early 20s but the play was childish, colourful and spoke about sex firstly from a male point of view (I know it was called "Sperm", but still) and secondly in a very animated, cartoony "let's turn this into a game" way.

I really see the link between the lack of openness in discussion about sex and sexuality and the confusing women's movement here. There is a strong women's labour movement and they have been successful in lobbying for labour rights for women, and there is also a strong sex workers movement where again they have done tremendous work in being recognised under labour law. But there doesn't seem to be much of a broad-based, widespread women's movement that can lead to open discussion, both in the private and public sphere, about sexuality. And so, even in their 20s, young people here are learning about sex through cartoons.

Suddenly, very aware of my gender...

Some dude wrote this about me on his blog after the FCCT dramatics:

"P., a slight, pretty Indian girl with fierce eyes, gave a nicely written statement detailing that her organization is not anti-Chinese, but rather pro-human rights... She kept it short and sweet."

Matt, my fave Thai whiteboy/lostboy blogger, says this about my blog in his links page:

"I used to think this blog was authored by a man, but it isn’t. Tackles some serious issues with flair. Great stuff on human rights."

Slightly condescending, no?

Remembering Benazir Bhutto

I have been having a hard time with all the love Benazir Bhutto has been getting lately, particularly by the Western media and feminist groups. I find it creepy how, in death, the media has picked and chosen and carefully created a brand new caricature of Bhutto, one that I simply do not recognise. She was an ineffective leader, she was corrupt, she was most certainly not a feminist and definitely not a patriot! She belonged to a political dynasty like the Gandhis in India - bloodline has no place in democracies! Bloodlines are for monarchies!

Her death was tragic, no doubt, and left a bad taste in my mouth for days. It left me feeling depressed and largely pessimistic about the future of Pakistan as she was the only strong and viable voice of opposition, and the country needed opposition more than anything. However, she certainly was not going to be the great new hope for democratic reform, as is now widely assumed.

CNN sensationalism has got to stop, the news is akin to glorified reality shows where political leaders and foreign correspondents alike are elevated to celebrity status, allowing for an international nitpick session on whether it was a bullet or a shard.

But really, the most far-fetched for me is the notion that she somehow advanced the status of Muslim women. Sure, seeing a woman in charge of a whole nation state is inspiring, but what has changed for Pakistani women in the last couples of decades as a direct result of any of her interventions? I do not find that Bhutto is in any way an inspiring feminist leader, a woman in power should not lead to the automatic assumption that she is a feminist and has done great things for women.

Now, read the article linked for a more informed perspective [full text here] Choice quote below:

"I think Western feminists want to view Bhutto and the other women leaders as pioneers," said Muneeza Rashed, 38-year-old woman in Lahore.

"But they're not. They're more like throwbacks to the men who came before them. They practice the same kind of old-boy politics. Helping women is secondary for them," she said.

Under Bhutto, most Pakistani women still lived the impoverished, home-bound lives they had lived before. Girls still went uneducated while their brothers were sent off to school. And women who were raped still found themselves contending with laws that discriminated against the victims of sex crimes — laws that would only be changed years later by President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 military coup.

"In many ways women benefited very little under her," said Unaiza Malik, 64, who was born in Pakistan and now works with the Muslim Women's Society in London.

Sholay: not so great. Sorry.

The Bangkok International Film Festival this year is hosting a Hema Malini retrospective, showing 4 of her films out of the 600 she has shot in her entire life. Bollywood films were once incredibly popular in Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia. India had a strong film culture long before Thailand, and of course the vibrancy of Bollywood tends to be infectious. Hema Malini, I am told, was quite popular in Thailand in the 1970s when Hindi films dubbed in Thai were regularly shown in cinemas and on television. This Hema Malini retrospective aimed to recapture the essence of Bollywood as remembered by Thais in a time long ago, before all the song-dance numbers became soft-core porn.

On Friday night, members of my Film Club (I belong to a Film Club) and I watched Sholay, a classic from 1970-something. Hema Malini played the infamous role of Basanti. In 1999, BBC India declared Sholay to be the greatest Bollywood film of all time. In a controversial move that may discredit me forever, I would like to state that I thought Sholay was the most disappointing film I have ever watched and, as I sat there in the darkened cinema, I kept wishing for death to come upon me because I feared the film would never end.

Inspired by Seven Samurai, like all Hollywood Westerns, Sholay is a story of two Bollywood cowboys, Veer and Jai, who shun societal norms and are delinquents but with principles. They begin the film existing on the margins of society, where they prefer to be, breaking laws and looting the rich. The Indian masses immediately empathise and relate to them. The film ends with redemption, enabling Veer to enter mainstream society. The Indian masses immediately feel hope and upliftment. Jai, meanwhile, is dead. Listen, he dies in the 3rd hour, and the film still goes on after that. I have done you a favour by telling you, trust me.

Sholay is an important film because it set a very obvious stylistic precedent on subsequent Bollywood films, like Seven Samurai to the Western. If most Bollywood movies of the time seemed like cookie-cutter versions of the same thing, then it is because they were all, to a greater or lesser degree, taking from Sholay. But is that a reason to declare it the greatest film of all time, does that make it a classic? I wasn't moved by the film, I couldn't sympathise with any of the characters, and Gabbar Singh made me giggle rather than cry. The choreographed motorcycle sequence in the Yeh Dosti song continues to amuse me, though.

I am a huge fan of Raj Kapoor films (partially due to my left-wing pinkoism) because I love the art of story-telling and I believe he does it the best while I felt completely apathetic towards Sholay from beginning to end. Classics are supposed to be timeless, universal tales while Sholay is a film that is dated in every way, including the "dish-kaew" shotgun sound effects that I so love!

For a brief moment, I got excited that there may be a feminist message hidden in the film as Basanti flees from the bandits in her horse carriage, fighting the evil-doers off with her whip as she desperately tries to save her chastity, "Dhanno, aaj Basanti ki izzat ka savaal hai!!" The girl takes on 6 bandits! I was on the edge of my seat. Aaannnd then she gets caught and Gabbar Singh makes her dance under the scorching sun telling her that if she stops then her lover Veer will be killed. And so Basanti dances her heart out to save her man lover, she keeps going despite the exhaustion and the dehydration and just when I am convinced that any hopes of a feminist revolution via Hema Malini have been squashed, the plot thickens. She is made to dance on broken glass. Meanwhile, the dude is chilling, tied up to a pole, thinking "I will never die so long as my girlfriend's servitude continues". Clearly, I am supposed to be in awe and moved by Basanti's uncompromising faith and devotion to her man.

Anyway, Hema Malini didn't hold a post-movie Q&A because in true nationalist fashion, the Embassy held a state dinner-esque event in her honour, but she was there to introduce the film at the beginning. Good job too, the cinema had about 5 people left in it by the time the film ended. She is so stunningly beautiful, she wore a pink sari with sparkly things that distracted me.

I will end with this: mehbooba mehbooba, mehbooba mehbooba, ooo ooo oooooooooooooo. That's right, you heard me.

The Disappearance of Vickie Vixen and Felicity Fox

I was almost disappointed at this Friday's edition of crappy Bangkok Post weekend magazine "Guru". It failed to include the Pillow Talk column written by none other than super-modern-Thai-babes Vickie Vixen and Felicity Fox (I really hope thats their real name...) Nothing gets me more riled up than that Sex-and-the-City-stylee column and I was really looking forward to hurling glass objects against the wall on Friday morning. Alas, twas not to be. I secretly love being offended by the Vixen and the Fox, I feel a great sense of loss that they are no longer in print. I find it hilarious that they think of themselves as empowered, "Westernised" Thai women yet they consistently say the most unfeminist things. I'd love to slap them across the face with a stiletto.

Guru does not have an online edition of their publication and so the world at large are spared of the atrocities committed to women by the column.