Anushka Sahu
“A woman’s body is the battlefield where she fights for liberation. It is through her body that oppression works, reifying her, sexualizing her, victimizing her, disabling her. Her physicality is a medium for others to work on; her job is to act as their viceroy, presenting her body for their ministrations, and applying to her body the treatments that have been ordained. If she refuses to present herself, if she refuses to accept the treatments, she is behaving badly.”
- Germaine Greer: “The Whole Woman”
Sexuality as a concept has always been seen through male pleasure tinted lenses. Women are always expected to stage their sexuality, confining themselves inside the box with an ‘eye candy’ label solely for the male gaze. Female queerness overthrows this narrow view of sexuality - appreciating and exploring the beauty of female encounters. It’s high time our society stops linking queer women’s sexuality with male pleasure.
The widespread display of eroticization of lesbian and bisexual women by heterosexual men has been indicated by the rapid increase of lesbian content in erotic material and mainstream media. All women, irrespective of sexuality, are often viewed as sexual objects. Still, the media portrays lesbian relationships where women are romanticized and sexualized for the pleasure of male viewers. This has completely distorted the image of genuine lesbian relationships and presents it as something shallow, flimsy, and superficial. It is essential to consider that queer women are at greater risk of being affected by this phenomenon, putting them in a dangerous position to accept and express themselves.
Fetish or Fear
LGBTQ+ in the media is highly misrepresented. It usually categorizes all queer people as either lesbian or gay.
Twisted media portrayals of queer women make it seem like relationships between women are nothing more than sexual fantasies devoid of any meaning. In December 2020, Apoorva Nijhara, a journalist, examined bisexuality in Bollywood films, noting positive or negative representation. She said that Bollywood has not tried to counter stigma against bisexual people, stating that “bisexuality happens to be the least explored topic when it comes to Bollywood,” citing Fire (1996), Dedh Ishqiya (2014), and Padmaavat (2018) as examples. The ideas of homosexuality have changed throughout history, and the idea of ‘the lesbian’ was fabricated as an immediate threat. It began to be looked down upon, most of the time enclosed with the concept of ‘sickness’, but essentially was a sickness that could only be healed if a man showed them a ‘good time’.
The argument that people view these twisted media portrayals as a true reflection of what it means to be lesbian or bisexual makes it more difficult for queer women to acknowledge their sexuality. To resist this, we must first recognize the far-reaching presence of ‘fad’ lesbian images and then voice our dissent of their use in popular culture.
Effects on the Queer Community - Homosexuality & Violence
According to a UCLA School of Law study, LGBT+ people are nearly four times more likely to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault. They are also more likely to experience violence from someone well-known and a stranger.
Lesbians and bisexuals are vulnerable to the violence faced by all women. Still, they are at greater risks due to their gender orientations. This is comparable to the specific kinds of violence women face based on their identities as Dalit or Adivasi. Lesbianism is often described as a “western import” and allegedly restricted to the urban elite of Indian society. However, the indisputable evidence of same-sex love in Indian history - the Kama Sutra and Khajuraho temple carvings - are facts that contradict these oft-repeated denials of the existence of queer women.
In such a hetero-patriarchal context, for a queer woman to assert their sexuality becomes doubly tricky. A woman who has an intimate sexual relationship with another woman implicitly challenges male control over her sexual life and is often the target of violent misogyny. This is not to say that other women do not face misogynist violence, but to state that when queer women “transgress” the patriarchal boundaries on sexuality, the reason for violence then differs.
Levels of Violence:
Individual - This includes taunting, bullying, harassment, violence, and even murder.
In October 1999, Saamana, a Marathi-language newspaper, carried an article about an “illegal and unnatural” lesbian relationship. The article described Jaya, an educated, Christian woman who approached the local police to marry Ramabai, with whom she had been for 17 years. The local police mocked Jaya’s demand for marriage by arresting Ramabai under Section 377.
Institutional - This refers to criminal homophobic laws, religious leaders that consider it ‘immoral’, and mental health classifications that consider it ‘abnormal’.
In December 1987, two policewomen - Lila Namdeo and Urmila Srivastava - got married through the exchange of garlands at a Hindu temple in Bhopal. The Gandharva vivah was performed by a Brahmin priest. The womens’ parents were present at the wedding. But no sooner did the news reach the Inspector-General than he ordered the immediate suspension of the two women from service. They were locked up in cells for 48 hours and then unceremoniously dumped at the Bhopal railway station around midnight.
Structural - Although less visible, it is by far the most lethal form of violence, through causing excess deaths - deaths that would not occur in more equal societies.
In November 2000, Lokmat, a Marathi newspaper, reported a young lesbian couple in the Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, who committed suicide by jumping into a well. Reconstructing the coercive situations that forced these women to take such an extreme step would be challenging since there are no survivors.
In multiple recent insight reports, it’s been found that ‘lesbian’ was the most searched category across numerous porn sites amongst male viewers. The statistics prove that queer women continue to be framed with the male gaze. Their sexuality is profoundly misinterpreted; people have created stereotypes of lesbian and bisexual characters; therefore, we must continue to address its roots to hold society and ourselves accountable.
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