UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE “MY CHOICE?”: AN ANALYSIS OF A CONTROVERSIAL WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT VIDEO FROM INDIA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By ASHLEY SWAMY Norman, Oklahoma 2017 “MY CHOICE?”: AN ANALYSIS OF A CONTROVERSIAL WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT VIDEO FROM INDIA A THESIS APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY BY ______________________________ Dr. Laurel Smith, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Nicholas Bauch ______________________________ Dr. Lisa Funnell © Copyright by ASHLEY SWAMY 2017 All Rights Reserved. Dedicated to my in-laws in India, who inspired this research. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Laurel Smith of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma for her guidance and support in the creation and editing of this thesis. Her insight has been invaluable to the success of this thesis. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Lisa Funnell of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma for her very careful reading of my thesis and her valuable, detailed comments. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Nicholas Bauch of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma for his valuable input on my thesis. I would like to thank Dr. Fred Shelley of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma for his unwavering support during my time in the master’s program. Thank you for encouraging me to go to graduate school. I would like to thank my husband, Atul Swamy, for his encouragement and support. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their support, especially my sister-in-law Amrita Swamy Martin, who helped me recruit participants in India. A special thank you goes to Kimberly Fitzpatrick for helping me format my thesis and create figures and tables. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. ix Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xi Chapter 1: Feminist Geographies: Gendering Space and Place ....................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 Multiple Feminisms .................................................................................................... 2 The Emergence of Feminist Geography in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom ......................................................................................................... 3 Geographers take the ‘cultural turn’ ........................................................................... 7 Situating Feminist Geography in India ....................................................................... 9 Geographies of the Body .......................................................................................... 13 Geography and feminist methodologies ................................................................... 16 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 18 Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2: Initiating the Conversation: Polyvocal Interpretations of a Controversial Video .................................................................................................................. 21 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 21 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 22 Situating Myself in the Research ........................................................................ 22 Working with Visual Materials .......................................................................... 23 Problems Some Women Face in India ............................................................... 29 v The “New Indian Woman” ................................................................................. 35 Analysis .................................................................................................................... 41 The Site of Production: Situating Bollywood .................................................... 41 The Site of Production: The Studio .................................................................... 44 The Site of Production: Situating the Transnational Star ................................... 44 The Site of Production: Target Audience for a Fashion Magazine .................... 46 The Site of Production: Who Made the Video? ................................................. 48 The Site of the Image: “My Choice” .................................................................. 48 The Site of Audiencing: Polyvocal Interpretations ............................................ 51 Theme 1: Mind/Body/Poetry .............................................................................. 51 “My body, my mind, my choice” ....................................................................... 51 “My choice, to have your baby or not” .............................................................. 55 Theme 2: Marriage/Sex/Partnerships ................................................................. 57 “To have sex before marriage, to have sex outside of marriage, to not have sex, my choice” .............................................................................................. 57 “My choice, to love a man, or a woman, or both” .............................................. 62 “My choice, to marry or not to marry” ............................................................... 63 Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Truths ............................................................ 64 Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Silenced ........................................................ 65 Polyvocal Interpretations: A Conversation about the Video .................................... 66 Theme 1: Mind/Body/Poetry .............................................................................. 66 Theme 2: Marriage/Sex/Partnerships ................................................................. 67 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 67 vi Chapter 3: Video-Elicitation and Life Story Interviews: A Strategy for Researching Audience Reception ............................................................................................ 70 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 70 Video-Elicitation Interviewing ................................................................................. 70 Research Findings .................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 4: “My Choice”: Shop! ..................................................................................... 98 Post-Feminism and the New Indian Woman ............................................................ 98 The Question of “Empowerment” .......................................................................... 100 Celebrity Feminism ................................................................................................ 101 Shopping “My Choice” .......................................................................................... 102 Moving Forward with Researching “My Choice” .................................................. 104 Further Research- Geographies of Film ................................................................. 106 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 108 References .................................................................................................................... 109 vii List of Tables Table 1: Participant Demographics ................................................................................ 74 viii List of Figures Figure 1: Critical Visual Methodology, adapted from Rose (2012) ............................... 24 Figure 2: "My Choice" Critical Visual Methodology, adapted from Rose 2012 ........... 26 Figure 3: Marchers walk 4,000 km to protest trafficking of brides in India, 2016, ungift.org ........................................................................................................................ 31 Figure 4: Rape of a child sparks protests in India, 2013, abc.net.au .............................. 33 Figure 5: Roshini, 21, committed suicide and Rujukta 21, attempted suicide because their families did not approve of their lesbian relationship. Picture credit: mid-day.com, Story credit: nostringsng.com, 2016 ............................................................................... 34 Figure 6: Cosmopolitan India, 1996, Chandnimarket.com ...........................................