Pink chaddis and slutwalk couture: The postcolonial politics of feminism lite

Kapur, Ratna (2012) Pink chaddis and slutwalk couture: The postcolonial politics of feminism lite. Feminist Legal Studies, 20 (1). pp. 1-20. ISSN 09663622

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Abstract

The SlutWalk campaigns around the world have triggered a furious debate on whether they advance or limit feminist legal politics. This article examines the location of campaigns such as the SlutWalk marches in the context of feminist legal advocacy in postcolonial India, and discusses whether their emergence signifies the demise of feminism or its incarnation in a different guise. The author argues that the SlutWalks, much like the Pink Chaddi (panty) campaign in India, provide an important normative and discursive challenge to a specific strand of feminism based on male domination and female subordination in the area of sexuality and also speaks to the emergence of consumer agency in the very heart of pleasure in the neo-liberal moment. It serves as a space clearing gesture, a form of feminism 'lite', rather than offering a transformative or revolutionary politics, and thus enables the possibility of feminist theoretical positions in a postcolonial context that have hitherto been marginalised or ignored in feminist legal advocacy in India to emerge.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Consumer agency | Dominance feminism | Feminism lite | Feminist critique | Feminist legal advocacy | Pink chaddi | Postcolonial India | SlutWalk
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Gender Studies
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Social Sciences (General)
JGU School/Centre: Jindal Global Law School
Depositing User: Mr Sombir Dahiya
Date Deposited: 01 Mar 2022 10:23
Last Modified: 01 Mar 2022 10:23
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-012-9193-x
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/1429

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