22.8.07

IMAGE WORD MEANING REVISION/ THINGS I AM NOT







I am not your apple, chamcham, coconut, butterchicken, makhan ki tikiya, bajji, doodh factory, narangi, mosambi, nimbu.... or whatever else you might want to eat. Blank Noise has created this food chart as an attempt to revise the relationship between- image, word and meaning.

Here's a compilation of words/food names sent in by over 70 women. While this list is out today it proposes to build istelf further with new participation. If you have more food names to add to in based on your experiences , please email us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, subject titled "excuse me?"

This is also an attempt to define 'street sexual harasment' through each person that has witnessed or experienced it.

We would also like to emphasize on the tone/ the adjective versus the noun - looking versus how one is looking.

The 70 + participants of " excuse me?" have been referred to as the following by random male strangers:

  • text edited by Hemangini Gupta.
Don't miss Salon's discussion about food and street sexual harassment.

  • The posters are up at Payal Kamat's office in Hyderbad! Email us and tell us if you have put them up in your neighbourhood/ college/ office/ marketplace!

street tales of love and lust

food name , statements, words of love , film songs,

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi great job!!!

can i use the banner image on my blog? will not hot link.

thanks


schizo

J said...

sure schizo. feel free!

Anonymous said...

Graci. Done.

Gitika said...

I like how the pictures and the wordy descriptions desexualise all those words. I could never say mango without wincing.

But I am back to seeing these words, reading descriptions and feeling hungry again.

And remembering all over again - they were never meant to mean all that those boys were taught in school.

Ree said...

Merci beaucoup jasmeen...nice to see those words minus the sexual baggage

Istar Rómestámo said...

Too much :)
Love it!!!!

J said...

merci reema/ mithraah- to all who sent the list in! hemangini and I just put it together. :)

Purba said...

oh hey...the man with tomato eyes looks familiar! :D
nice, very nice.

sugabee said...

just gorgeous! what a genius concept. one thing, the description for mosambi seems to be wrong, or the picture is wrong..check it out. i want to see these posters plastered all over the city! they are simply amazing.

J said...

oops! youre right suru! thanks for pointing it out. changing it right away.

The Ignoramus said...

excellent work in terms of creativity and also, the effort. Keep it up!

srapri said...

this is an amazing attempt at re-thinking our notions of eve-teasing. do tell me where in hyderabad i can pick up the posters. wud love to have them.

also do u conduct workshops in universities?

J said...

hello! yes we do conduct workshops in universities. Do email us- blurtblanknoise@gmail.com and let's start talking?

thanks!

Anonymous said...

I often leer at women on the street. some of them strike my fancy. some are built like i want a woman to be built like if i were with them. that's who i am. i dont think they should feel objectified or harassed, seeing as how my intent is not to embarrass or make them flee. i like the way women look and approaching them and explaining that is clearly not wanted, nor in most cases would i want to get to know a strange person. You are women. you are people. you are as strange as any of us and getting to know some of you would only shatter any illusion we might have as we're sitting across from you on the bus. i don't condone pigs who yell things out from construction sites or in bars, but we don't all do that, so don't paint us all with the same brush. Tonight, for instance, i was at a restaurant at the bar, and a pretty girl walked by with her boyfriend. Now it's not that i wanted to sleep with her, but she was wearing tights and those show off the shape of a woman's legs and hips. Many men agree; even if the chick is not the most generally attractive person, showing off the shape of her legs ups the perception that she is someone to be with. Even if you don't think her legs and curves are what you might like, some other guy in the bar is hot for her. So i snuck a glance at her buttocks as she and her man walked by. Now had she been wearing a dress or loose jeans i probably wouldn't have bothered, but she wasn't. It doesn't mean that's all i think she is good for, it just means that i can see an aspect to her that i would definitely like. She didn't see me look, so i figure no harm was done. "EVE" Teasing? it's just a way for Uber feminists to say that they are once again disrespected because some guy is looking at them in an elevator. At one point, Your Dad found your Mom attractive on a guttural level or else you wouldn't be here, so lighten the hell up.

J said...

hey hold on to that argument- thanks for sharing it- and its precisely the territory we want to explore with men on this blog- on boundaries of light/ fun/ serious/ flirt/ violence- we need to define that with individuals/ bloggers- such as you.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with 'Mac Grurry' that when he leers at women it is not eve teasing. He may stop at that, there are others who pinch butt, brush against etc. When I was subjected to these kinds of harassment, I was not even 14, and I wore 'decent' dress (loose salwar). So don't come here preaching that it is ok to look as long as you dont mean anything. It is so demeaning to go through this. When I came to US and I could walk around without being noticed, touched .......... I felt so free. Don't try to tell it is the women's fault for dressing like that. Learn to respect women first.. And women have the same right to go where they want and dress how they want. In India and everywhere in the world.

mayjune said...

The day we stop the attitude of "Chalta hai",
Eve teasing would stop....

Roshan Kotian said...

I just want to ask a question........
Is jst "lookin" (its not the disguisting luk) at womens who are Beautiful....
or jst lukin at gals who accidentally cum in front of us is also Bad or do women dont like it????
im mean lot of women are naturally so very beautiful....
God has Made them so very Beautiful..



I expect a Frank and Straight forward answer....
even if its a bit insulting it will do...

bn girl said...

@roshan. we've said this before and we will say it again
it's not about looking, ofcourse everybody looks , men at women, women at men, men at men, women at women etc
but it is in the WAY of looking. how are you looking is the question here.
where are you looking?

countless women have had their body parts spoken to, their breasts spoken to, not the face. it can be a sickening, disgusting and infuriating experience.

trauma queen said...

garlic??? reallly??

even if it were a sexual word...i'm trying to think of how it is one!

i always thought "kaddu" was a synonym for "dummy"

Anonymous said...

I'm thirteen and my mum is almost fifty... they don't care. They'll have a go at anything with a heartbeat.

lets make good sons said...

indeed my friend indeed. but the THEY is not one mass of men - there are men and there are men. lets make good cool wonderful men out of our sons. yes?

Nithya said...

Men on the roads dont care if you are old, young. You should simply have breasts. A manager (an IITian to boot) used to talk to my breasts always. I would find it very irritating and found a way of making him cringe: whenever he would start talking, staring at my chest, I wuld grab a chair, sit down, and start staring at his crotch. After the fourth attempt, he took the pains to look up and start talking, to me. Phew! Educated men are like this, we need to attempt to change the illiterate TASMAC regular.

Lawrence said...

Jasmeen your response to Mac Grurry shows an open mind,on exploring the territory of boundaries of light/ fun/ serious/ flirt/ violence. This can lead to healthy discussions and may be better understanding of what both sexes would be comfortable in their interactions.