'So We Keep Silent': An Ethnography of the Gendered Lives of Women in Kerala, India
Author
Hinchely, Nanna
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2021
Submitted on
2021-06-18
Abstract
This thesis examines how women in Kerala, India, manage gender expectations in everyday life shaped by strong cultural norms and the threat or reality of violence. It is based on fieldwork and the narratives of the women who took part. The study understands gender as performative—something made and sustained through repeated actions rather than a fixed essence. From this view, a "normative gender script" functions like a cultural rulebook. It instructs women to be virtuous, dutiful wives devoted to their husbands, to keep family matters private, and to shoulder responsibility and blame when problems arise. Women are expected to belong to the private sphere, and when in public they must display purity and signal their place in the home. Not meeting these expectations can bring harsh consequences, including physical abuse and social exclusion. Community judgment and blame strongly shape women's wellbeing and life chances. Suffering and endurance are positioned as signs of good womanhood. Women are expected to handle problems quietly and in private, which often means enduring violence and suffering in silence. As a result, women's day-to-day negotiation of gender is guided by an insecure and risky position—precarity—driven largely by fear of violence and social stigma. The thesis extends this argument by proposing that normative womanhood requires self-sacrifice and that suffering itself becomes part of how femininity is performed. In the discussion, it also notes parallels between this ideal of self-sacrifice and the symbolic role of female self-immolation in Hindu mythology.
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan kvinder i Kerala, Indien, håndterer kønsforventninger i hverdagen, som er formet af stærke kulturelle normer og af truslen om eller erfaringer med vold. Den bygger på feltarbejde og de deltagende kvinders fortællinger. Køn forstås som performativt – noget der skabes og opretholdes gennem gentagne handlinger, ikke som en fast essens. I dette lys fungerer et "normativt kønsmanuskript" som en kulturel drejebog. Det foreskriver, at kvinder skal være dydige, pligtopfyldende hustruer, hengivet deres mand, at holde familieanliggender private og bære ansvar og skyld, når problemer opstår. Kvinder forventes at høre til i den private sfære, og når de befinder sig i det offentlige, skal de vise renhed og signalere deres tilhørsforhold til hjemmet. At afvige fra disse forventninger kan få alvorlige følger, herunder fysisk vold og social udelukkelse. Samfundets dom og bebrejdelser former i høj grad kvinders trivsel og livsmuligheder. Lidelse og udholdenhed fremstilles som kendetegn ved god kvindelighed. Kvinder forventes at håndtere problemer stille og privat, hvilket ofte betyder at udholde vold og lide i tavshed. Derfor er kvinders løbende forhandling af køn styret af en usikker og sårbar position – prækærhed – der i høj grad drives af frygt for vold og socialt stigma. Afhandlingen udvider argumentet ved at foreslå, at normativ kvindelighed kræver selvopofrelse, og at lidelse bliver en del af, hvordan femininitet udføres. I diskussionen peges desuden på paralleller mellem dette ideal om selvopofrelse og den symbolske betydning af kvindelig selvafbrænding i hinduistisk mytologi.
[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]