BENGALURU: In most cultures, masculinity and femininity are considered completely separate and opposite in every way, as different from each other as a stone and a flower. But city-based media and arts collective Maraa questions this notion with its ongoing annual arts showcase, October Jam, instead exploring gender as a spectrum of expression.
With the theme ‘Stone Flowers: Exploring the Masculine Feminine’, the showcase asks: Is there a bit of the stone in the flower and the flower in the stone? What desires, fears, and fragilities do they share?
The showcase is currently underway and will be held until November 3, featuring around 22 film screenings, art exhibitions, and music, dance, poetry, and theatre performances held across the city.
One of the performances that plays with the fluidity of expression between masculine and feminine is Launda Naach, a Bihari folk dance performed by men in drag. “The performer impersonates a woman but goes back to becoming a man.
It’s very different from a trans man or a trans woman performing. I feel this interesting flux in the performer’s body which allows us to go beyond the fact that there is man, woman, and transgender. There’s also this fluidity that is visible in this performance,” says Ekta Mittal, co-founder of Maraa.
In the process of working with several women’s rights organisations as part of their theatre practice, Maraa’s members noticed that the figure of the man emerged either as a perpetrator or as someone to be reformed. According to Angaarika Guha, co-curator of the festival, it’s often more complex than that.
“When we say masculinity, we assume that there’s just one kind of man. But if we include the questions of caste, religion, or class, they are very different kinds of masculinities. In a public space, would a working-class man have the same kind of power as an upper-class man? Of course not, because there’s a particular way in which class shapes their expression of masculinity,” Guha adds.
Exploring a nuanced understanding of masculinity, Maraa undertook an ethnographic study two years ago. In their conversations with people across social contexts, they found something surprising: many men do not want to perform the rigid masculinity that society expects of them. “In a patriarchal context, it’s a very specific kind of masculinity or femininity that gets legitimised.
A lot of men may not want to be the breadwinners or be aggressive or dominant. But if you don’t perform that kind of masculinity or perform the functions of a particular caste group, then there are some serious consequences,” Guha explains. “One of the ethnographers told us he really didn’t want to have a moustache, but in his caste, it’s a matter of pride to have a big moustache. So his own family would taunt him for not having it.”
The collective has offered a fellowship to 12 artistes of various classes, castes, linguistic backgrounds, genders, and sexual identities who have delved into their relationship with masculinity through art, photography, theatre, and more over the last six months. October Jam will platform their work in a showcase, titlled Mirrors, alongside several other artistes’ work engaging with masculinity.
“The aim is to expand the scope of masculinity and identify the different kinds of masculinity and femininity that play within each of us. It is not about defining masculinity but throwing up questions about the relationship between its different kinds. The artistes we’ve invited are people whose work doesn’t fall into either binary,” shares Guha.
Furthermore, October Jam also features Journey of a Voice a performance by poet and classical singer Rumi Harish, inspired by his experience of gender transition; the Sufi music concert Daastan from Shah Jo Risalo; and Rap x Gaana by transgender Delhi rapper Kinari.
Theatre aficionados can look forward to Upar Wala Kamra by director Anoop Gupta, exploring the complicated relationship between a father and son. Film screenings include filmmaker Govind Nihalani’s 1980 classic Aakrosh; Céline Sciamma’s French film Water Lilies; and the Taiwanese film I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone by Ming-liang Tsai.
(For more information, visit @maraacollective on Instagram)