Caution against shaming

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 Caution against shaming

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• Anti-pornography or Rank-conservatism? The Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi featured a woman breastfeeding a child, leading to a huge shaming campaign, calling it obscene. The Kerala High Court has dismissed a writ petition claiming it violated child rights, was insulting to women etc. It cautioned against anti pornography positions that can slide into rank conservatism.
• Conservative all along: Kerala has been a conservative society. When the young challenge it, this judgment will come in handy.
• Upper part of the body: Caste superiority made males and females of inferior castes keep their upper body exposed in presence of “superiors”. Many battles were fought, largely for the female form.
• Why the practice? Perhaps the Brahmins + Nairs contract made inferior classes vulnerable to that power structure. Modern reformists saw it through only Victorian morality and fought for dignity of the female, not the male. Kerala women used to breastfeed openly earlier. That is now over.
• Modern taboo: That Grihalakshmi picture dents the modern taboo a bit. That picture intended to say that it is a mother’s body, dedicated to nurturing, so immune from sexual gaze. But the Conservatives found it obscene, and a shaming campaign on social media commenced.
• High Court: It did not find the exposed female body instantly obscene. It draws upon the representational traditions of ancient Indian art to make its point. But warns that “we cannot chain ourselves to the past”.
• Legal paternalism v/s Legal moralism: The HC had annulled the Hadiya marriage. Now, it warns against legal moralism (commendable).
• Deeper worry: While the gains are obvious (pleasure of mother-child bond cannot be obscene) and so on, the idea that women’s development is about kitchen programmes (present govt. thrust) is disturbing. Social conservatism lives on.
• Summary : The question of a mother breastfeeding her child raised moral worries in some minds, that the Kerala HC has quashed!

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