Coffee and Tea for Type II Diabetes?

So I just read about this new study on BBC.com. Researchers think coffee and tea can help prevent or treat Type II Diabetes, along with lifestyle modifications of course. My heart sank a little when I read the headline cuz I thought, well damn, now people are going to rush to get the addictive beverages and while we lower diabetes, we’re gonna drive up GI problems and addiction! But the research is more complicated than that, and the researchers were balanced about their conclusions. It’s not necessarily the caffeine in coffee and tea that helps diabetes, as decaf coffee worked even better! So it’s more likely to be other compounds in the drinks that are beneficial.

Here’s an Ayurvedic view on caffeine that I found very helpful. Now before you jump to conclusions about how the abstract theories of Ayurveda are not scientific, just consider the premise of the specific opinion. We get addicted to coffee and tea for good reason, because we need the boost to get through our busy day. Additionally, many of us like the taste of coffee and tea, which from an Ayurvedic view is a craving for a bitter taste that we don’t get from the proper, nutritious sources. Coffee and tea aren’t without benefits. It’s the addiction to them that’s the problem. Pretty soon we start getting drained and need the drink even more, while our body endures the side effects, whether felt or unfelt by us. It’s the same way with alcohol. Recent studies have shown the benefits of alcohol, even non-red wine alcohols, even in more than recommended amounts, can be beneficial for the heart. Well yes, the depressive effect of alcohol relieves the heart of its work, but heart isn’t the only organ in your body. Taking too much alcohol is hard on your liver – don’t forget you LIVER! On top of that alcohol can give you hyperlipidimia which would block your arteries under the right circumstances of stress+inflammation+genes, etc.

This new coffee and tea study is interesting to say the least. Perhaps it’s even more than the compounds in coffee and tea (other than caffeine) that helps prevent diabetes. Perhaps those who drink coffee frequently get into an active mindset, and somewhat physically active too. So this activity results from a small flight or fight mindset that interacts with insulin/glucagon and metabolism. That thought fits in with the finding that decaf coffee gave even better benefits, which means even in absence of caffeine something, (maybe a psychological boost) helped with metabolism. But of course, preventing diabetes isn’t the only goal for a healthy life. You don’t want coffee and tea aggravating other bodily dysfunctions just to delay diabetes. And of course, living an all-over balanced life will prevent diabetes efficiently too.

When I read about all these different correlations and findings about health, I think about how some of of Ayurveda make sense. Scientists are very often critical of all ancient knowledge banks because we don’t have physical proof about such things as “elements” and “doshas,” and also because the ancient ideas are mired in various extrapolations or superstitions. But not all of the theories are superstitious or fraudulent, and not all oppose modern science. Some ideas don’t have proof in modern science, but many ideas in Ayurveda are not implausible either. Theories like Ayurveda are “big picture” ideas, not exact physical entities. To me it’s just a source of knowledge that can put together the various research findings medicine in a coherent picture. I’m not bothered by the reference to fire, water, earth elements as I don’t take it literally. At the end of the day, Ayurveda makes sense to me in practice, and is not in conflict with modern scientific understanding of disease processes and cures/treatments.

 

Revisiting the Mammogram Confusion

As we all know, recent recommendations about mammograms and Pap smears have caused some confusion among both women and doctors. I can understand at a time when we’re discussing cutting costs in healthcare and setting up death panels to kill old people, guidelines to reduce screenings can cause suspicion. Nonetheless, I was surprised that the discussions on my favorite blog (yes, even more than my own!) Feministing generally perpetuated that suspicion/outrage. I expected that feminists would be more skeptical of American healthcare and skeptical of the original mammograms guidelines to be so struck by the changes.

You can read more about the science behind the new guidelines here, and I’m sure in many other blogs. The whole point of revising the once-a-year mammogram rule is that it leads to a lot of over-treatment. Of course, screening too little would be under-treatment. Evidence based guidelines are always trying to find the happy medium, and yearly mammograms are not that happy medium. One author I read complained that the new guideline was not based on new studies, but faults of older studies that lead to the yearly mammogram rule. But if the yearly mammogram rule was based on flawed studies, isn’t that enough reason to question the guideline, especially when it leads to over treatment? A poster on Feministing had asked “how could reduced screening ever be a good thing?” Well, you have to consider the invasiveness and cost of the screening. X-ray imaging, which has more risks, and MRIs which are expensive, are done less often. On the other hand, self breast exams can and should be done more often. I wish the authors of the guideline had done a better job of explaining the reasoning. Instead of highlighting that yearly mammograms lead to unnecessary anxiety, which understandably made women mad, they should’ve made it more clear that previous guidelines were not based on the best evidence, and the risks of over treatment are greater than the benefits of frequent invasive screening. They should’ve also emphasized the importance of breast exams, by self and doctor. It would be useful to know other countries’ policies on this too.

I expected feminists to think about the above reasoning intuitively, given the context of women and healthcare. So I was surprised to see the notion that a right was being taken away, rather than questioning whether yearly mammograms were the best thing to do in the first place. Are we so naive to believe that existing healthcare practices on women’s issues are always in the best interests of women? Haven’t we discussed before that sometimes profit motives of pharmaceutical and biotech companies can interfere with evidence based medicine, and over-pathologize certain issues like PMS and reduced interest in sex, to create a market for drugs? And who can forget “designer vaginas?” Feminist theorists have pointed out that because we have historically considered the male body as the norm, many female bodily processes have seemed inherently pathological. While access to birth control is definitely a positive thing for women, some feminists have also noted the sexism in the drive to regulating women’s fertility with drugs and devices, as opposed to researching birth control on men. For social reasons, women’s bodies are more tampered with on the aspects where women are different from men. In America especially, where healthcare practices are heavily influenced by profit and inequality of access, we tend to have widespread use of technological and pharmacological interventions on women’s bodies, from interventions during labor, C-sections, hysterectomies, pills for PMS, PMDD, etc, etc. It’s not that such high use of gadgetry is unsafe, but it’s not based on scientific recommendations or medical indications either. In countries with more socialized healthcare, cost-effectiveness is always an issue, so the necessity of pills and surgeries are under more scrutiny. I’m not saying that previous mammogram guidelines were based on biotech companies wanting to make more money. I’m saying that given the context of American healthcare, guidelines for less use of gadgets is likely to be a good thing, as the norm for us is usually overuse and waste. Has our widespread use of invasive medical procedures led to much better outcomes for American women? Not really.

I realize that the mammogram issue is different for two reasons, 1) it’s not really in the realm of reproductive health where inequality is clearer, and 2) it’s because of feminist activism that breast cancer awareness and prevention has become such important issues in the first place. Once upon a time, breast cancer research was actually being done on men (!), who comprise a small minority of breast cancer patients. It has been a huge success of feminist activists to shed light on a disease that affected and killed women (for the most part). Breast cancer awareness, screening, and treatment have saved many women’s lives.

But as feminist activism changes society, feminists have to deal with new issues of a new society. Nowadays, breast cancer awareness is so commercialized that merchandise is ubiquitous. Community posts on Feministing have pointed out the sexism in using breast cancer campaign slogans like “Save the Tatas.” It seems now that feminists have legitimized the threat of breast cancer, the interest in the issue is becoming a little sensational. After all, it is about boobies, not non-sexual things like cardiovascular diseases (which kills more women than breast cancer) or colon cancer. So I think we feminists need to take a step back from the notion that fewer mammograms mean that the scientists don’t care about women dying from breast cancer. It just means that as far as we know, fewer mammograms will reduce over-treatment yet not reduce survival rates. This is also an opportunity to think about how breast cancer isn’t women’s only health issue. Let’s start focusing some effort on cardiovascular health, which is also an area where we need more women-specific research.

 

How Exercise Affects Period Pain and Related Musings

A recent study in the UK showed that there was no positive correlation between the amount of exercise a woman did and the amount of period pain she experienced, if any. The authors conclude that “that more research was needed before women are told that exercise will reduce of alleviate period pain.”

I think the study findings are helpful to realize what to recommend for period pain relief, and how to recommend it, but I don’t agree with the implication that we can’t recommend exercise for period pain relief at all. That is because, the study compared amount of exercise and pain between different women, but not between a woman’s individual pain experience with or without exercise. Hence, it’s still possible that period pain can be worse for a woman when she hasn’t exercised for some time vs. when she is exercising regularly, and the importance of exercise for her could be totally different from another woman. Another woman might decide that exercise makes no difference in her individual experience of period pain. That’s because so many factors affect menstrual cycles and pain, and at any point, one factor can override another.

Personal anecdote: I started puberty quite early and most often had heavy periods, accompanied with bothersome pain. I was an overweight kid too. In high school I started exercising to lose weight, and continued exercise to maintain the lower weight (can’t remember how periods were). From college onwards, as my exercise routine became variable, I noticed that for the months where I exercised regularly, my period was lighter and consequently less painful. When I got lazy about exercise, which was usually when I was stressed too, my period got heavier and more painful. Diet also had an impact of periods. As a vegan avoiding processed foods, my periods have been shorter, lighter, and painless, even though I haven’t been exercising for months. Perhaps all these variations just occurred with age alone? I don’t know.

So, my point is that we shouldn’t make conclusions about diet and exercise working or not working based alone on studies that compare exercising vs. non-exercising women. We also have to give importance to a woman’s individual period variations with diet and exercise. There are interactions between different hormones/chemicals of the body, and factors like diet, exercise, stress, happiness do make a difference. Research suggests links between diet and inflammation, which in turn is related to pain and disease processes. Studies by Dr. Ornish have shown that a combination of healthy vegetarian diet, yoga/meditation, and group support even reverses disease processes. A recent study suggested the benefit of meditation over attempts to change lifestyle for heart disease, and another study linked processed food and depression. Mental stress, loneliness or feelings of isolation makes everything worse, subjectively and objectively.

In discussing the effects of diet, exercise, etc, I’m not ignoring that there are menstrual disorders that affect some women no matter what. Some women are predisposed to it. I’m saying that lifestyle factors are always important to consider for period issues. A woman who exercises regularly might have more period pain than me, but she could have even more issues if she didn’t exercise, or perhaps exercise doesn’t make a difference for her because of other overriding factors. As this study suggests, exercise isn’t correlated with period pain, but that doesn’t mean it can’t change the individual experience. Pain relievers and birth control pills should be at hand for period issues, but over time, period issues can be an opportunity to realize more about self-health and improvement.

 

Refining My Thoughts on Childbirth

As a medical student and a feminist interested in women’s health, women’s reproductive health is of utmost importance to me. Obviously abortion rights are important, but equally important is the issue of childbirth. My college senior thesis in Women’s Studies was on Childbirth and Women’s Choices, and since then I’ve sought to continually refine my views.

My latest endeavor was to read some opinions by Amy Tuteur, MD, who calls herself “The Skeptical OB.” The label “skeptic” has become akin to the “I’m not a racist” disclaimer. If someone feels the need to clarify that they’re not a racist, chances are that they are a racist! Similarly, the term “skeptic” is used by many bloggers as if to prove that they’re searching for the truth, when it’s evident from they’re writing that they’re only skeptical about things outside of their ideology. Anyways, Dr. Tuteur is a hoot! When you read her blogposts and her responses to the comments on her posts, the strongest impression you’ll get won’t be about childbirth, but that Amy is FULL OF HERSELF! I can go on and on about the stupidity of some of her comments, but you can go judge for yourself.

I’m glad I read through some of her absurd articles though, as it helped me refine my thoughts on pregnancy and childbirth once more. The American maternity healthcare system is plain dysfunctional. As with many other aspects of our healthcare system, we spend wayyy to much without getting any benefits over other developed countries who spend less. For more on that, you can read articles by Jennifer Block or Marsden Wagner. Until recently, I vehemently criticized the overuse of C-sections, epidurals and medical inductions in American obstetrics on the grounds that it causes higher morbidity and mortality in women. I also firmly believed that home births for low risk mothers are as safe as hospital births, so it was perfectly okay to promote. Those opinions remain true, but it is the focus of the argument that I’m refining after reading crazy OB’s blog.

You see, Dr. Tuteur can’t get over the fact that the study of home births in North America showed that babies are 3 times more likely to die during a home birth than a hospital birth. Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? That’s until you consider how TINY the absolute risks are for babies of low-risk mothers dying at all. The risks in this particular study were ~0.7% for hospital births and ~2.1% for home births. The authors of the study explained that because the risks are so small, it fluctuates between values of 1 to 3%, therefore, direct comparisons between the values are not appropriate. One can only comment on how similar the values are. Now of course to understand such nuances you have to understand research methodology, but Dr. Amy is not a researcher. Her agenda as an OB is to protect her trade and outlaw options like home birth that would give legitimacy to midwives.

Another thing she’s vehemently against is water birth. She cites a 1999 study that concluded that out of 4030 deliveries in water, 35 babies had serious problems, of whom 3 died. Here is the authors’ conclusion: “Perinatal mortality is not substantially higher among babies delivered in water than among those born to low risk women who delivered conventionally. The data are compatible with a small increase or decrease in perinatal mortality for babies delivered in water.” But Dr. Tuteurs conclusion is that because the water in the tub is contaminated with fecal bacteria and meconium, etc, and because a small number of babies aspirate the water before being pulled out, water births are not safe: “Babies should not be born underwater. There is no benefit to the baby, only risk, including the risk of fresh water drowning and aspirating fecally contaminated water.” When a commenter points out that the water births were safe for the vast majority of cases, Amy points out that “First of all 99.55% doesn’t mean it is safe; it’s means that it is dangerous.” RIGHT. I’d like to see her use the same arguments for use of the epidural or elective inductions – they don’t have any benefits for the baby, but only potential risks, so therefore should not be used! But of course if her logic was consistent then she wouldn’t be able to justify the virtues of American obstetrics.

Her absurd articles made me realize one thing, that sometimes because of the frustrations of dealing with the American OB system, feminist activists exaggerate their claims a bit. Jennifer Block acknowledged how the benefits of breast feeding is sometimes promoted based on fear or promise of a super-baby, rather than the simple acknowledgment that breast milk is best for baby and mom, do it if you can. I’ve held very strong opinions on how unnecessary Cesareans have 3x the risk of maternal mortality than vaginal births and additional risks to the baby, and also how C-section rates over 15% for a country is correlated with increased maternal mortality as determined by WHO. But the thing is, the absolute risks of dying from C-sections in a developed country  is pretty low, so my opinions about doing a natural birth in order to avoid that have seemed as extreme as Dr. Amy’s claims about home births and water births.

My issues with American obstetrics now focuses more on the wasteful spending and unnecessary use of gadgets as well as the lack of options for birthing women. Hopefully, as we’re moving towards better health insurance, cost effectiveness will become more important. Women should know that even if they’re low risk, there’s a chance of unforeseen complications in childbirth that many require hospital care, especially for the baby. Hence they need to take that into account when planning a home birth that’s more than 30 minutes away from a hospital. Women should know the small risks to the baby specific to water birth. And they should also know that there are risks to the mother and baby in every obstetric intervention, so the benefits might not justify the risks if these interventions are used without medical indication.

Is there any choice in life without risk? No. Some people are totally repulsed by the small risk to the baby during water birth. Fine, don’t take that risk. OBs like to say that epidurals are completely safe. Yet there’s a very small risk of paralysis or even death. If you’re fine with that, take that risk. In developed countries at least, there are numerous safe options available for childbirth. Each woman decides which ones she wants to take. I realize that many women will take the risks that I won’t take, but using fear tactics and selective skepticism is not a useful approach. Though, to birth activists’ credit, even if their rhetoric is biased, they’re not out there to outlaw certain birth choices as some crazy OBs are.

Readers might be wondering why I haven’t linked Amy’s blog articles. That’s because I want to limit the interference from trolls to my blog. You can either google her name, “skeptical OB,” “home birth debate,” or find her articles on the “science based medicine” blog (prime source of trolls on health issues).

And here’s another very meaningful article by Jill at Unnecesarean.

 

Islamophobia, or Perhaps Just Patriarchy, or… I dunno

This was a recent conversation between two Hindu guests at my parent’s house:

1: What is the reasoning Muslims give in support of polygamy?

2: Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had said that a man can marry up to four women if he can treat them equally. Treating equally probably referring to their material needs. In addition, the Prophet himself had many wives and in society men outnumber women.

I waited before responding to see if the second guest was going to give the complete explanation behind the polygamy issue, and when he didn’t, I explained to the first guest that not all Muslims support polygamy, and use the same verse referred to above to prove that since it is impossible to treat four wives equally, Islam is actually against polygamy.

This little conversation brings up so many issues for me. Firstly, a friend had told me some time before that the guest no. 2 was very learned about both Islam and Hinduism, so it was hard to argue with him about these issues. Well, the thing is, most Bangladeshi Hindus know a thing or two about Islam, since we live in a Muslim majority country, so I’m not ignorant either. Knowing about Islam doesn’t mean just knowing about how conservative Muslims justify patriarchal traditions or violence against “infidels.” Fully knowing about Islam, or anything else, means knowing about different interpretations of the same text. Once upon a time, I thought I knew about Islam too, when in fact, I only knew about the hateful rhetoric conservative Muslims spewed. Thanks to what I learned later from feminist Muslims and liberal Muslims, I now feel like I truly “know” Islam, and other religions for that matter, even though I’m not adept at quoting suras or verses or anything.

When I was still quite ignorant on the issue, a Muslim friend told me, “Blame Muslims for all the negative portrayals of Islam, not Islam itself. Islam is perfect.” At that time, I didn’t understand what he meant. Like many feminists, I thought that the problem lied in the ideology, whether Islam or any other religion, not the interpretation. That view changed while learning about female religious leaders in a Women’s Studies class. I found a quote by a Christian feminist preacher that went along the lines of, “The religious establishment is patriarchal – get over it. Every secular establishment is patriarchal too, and yet feminists fight to change things in the workplace, in politics, etc. By shunning religion instead of reforming it, we feminists deny ourselves valuable spirituality instead of reclaiming what’s rightfully ours from patriarchal religious people.” Unfortunately, I lost the link to this gem of a quote that changed my life, and I can’t find the link. But the knowledge will be with me forever.

I finally realized what it meant to criticize Muslims, but not Islam, for the crimes some Muslims commit. Islam gets a bad rep for oppressing women and holding women back, and yet, for every verse in the Quran or Hadith that is misused to justify women’s oppression, there are many more verses that support women’s equality. Islam gave women the right to inherit and own property, to marry with prenupital agreements (!), and divorce if those are not met. Were those rights equal to the rights given to men? No. But progressive Muslims argue that Islamic law represents progress towards an equitable society, not the final word on laws as countries like Saudi Arabia interpret it to be. That argument is not created out of thin air. Islamic jurisprudence is not static, but a process where new interpretations of the law override previous ones. The Quran itself is said to have several layers of meaning (I think seven), so it does not make sense to accept conservative Muslims’ interpretations as “literal” and shun Islam as some oppressive philosophy.

There’s another solid reason why feminists should stop thinking of religion as patriarchal bullshit. Think of it as a perpetuation of the “boys will be boys” attitude. In this case, the attitude is that “religious people will always be oppressive, or violent, or illogical.” That’s just not true! We’re missing a valuable opportunity to collaborate with other feminists in changing religions and making them more equitable. Demonizing their belief systems and morals just alienates them. Instead, we need to recognize the similarities between the struggles of Christian, Muslim, or Hindu women to reconcile their feminism and spirituality, just as many secular feminists struggle to reconcile their cultural identities or careers with their feminism. Do we stop calling ourselves Americans just because our government does many things we don’t agree with? You get the point.

Now, when feminists or progressive people mistakenly shun all religions, I can see where they’re coming from. I’ve made the same mistakes not too long ago. But when people of one religion claim that their religion is so equitable, and so kind to women, while other religions are not – now that’s stupid. But I’ll save that for my next post.

 

Regina Benjamin and the Burger King Controversy

So Dr. Benjamin, the current Surgeon General, got a lot of crap for being on the advisory board for Burger King. But after reading about her on Wiki, I had a hard time believing that such an apparently intelligent, humane, and accomplished woman was on that board for evil reasons.

And voila, by coincidence, I found this video of Dr. Dean Ornish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTIY66IPjdY

Here, he says he’s also on fast food companies’ advisory boards! But not to promote the junk they usually sell, but to promote healthier options like the salads. I suspect Dr. Benjamin is on there for the same thing.

As for her own weight – well, losing weight, even with a healthy diet is not easy when you have an active or stressful life. I know very well

 

What would India Personified Look Like?

Stupid question? Well, the idea was put forward by Karen Salmansohn on Oprah.com

Now, folks at Feministing.com have already criticized the premise of this article – the debate over whether feminism is too “masculine” or a rejection of “femininity.” The debate has already been settled, and feminism is not about being masculine, as Salmansohn alleges. Feminism is diverse, period. Some feminists are more masculine, some more feminine, but all of us, like the general population, are androgynous. The difference is that feminists accept this androgyny, rather than force men and women and all those in between to follow rigid stereotypes.

It has also been pointed out that the article exoticizes India, which it truly does, and that’s the idea I want to discuss a little. It is not unusual for foreigners to see a new culture and just be fascinated by it – positively or negatively. Both are bad because they fail to understand and accept the culture as a whole. Much has been said about Orientalism and Europeans’ “othering” of colored cultures. South Asians feminists know that plenty of our desi folks exoticize in the opposite direction, that is, they are either fascinated by the total “freedom” and “equal opportunity” in the West, or they are disgusted by the “hedonism.” Both pictures are incorrect, of course. Individual freedom is more prevalent in America, and that has it’s drawbacks, but plenty of oppression still exists. At the same time, Americans are not just a bunch of “slutty” wasteful people who divorce their spouses over an argument over what bed sheet to buy (I have seriously heard the last analogy!). I should add, being a slut and being divorced/divorcing is not a bad thing in the first place. Any strong woman is called a slut and a whore – if I’m called one (I came close), it means I’m doing something right! Yay.

Ok, back to my original point – you have to see beyond the generalizations about countries and cultures. We all generalize sometimes to make certain points, but we can never take that too far. Once we see both the good and bad in a culture, then we can se how similar it is to our own – the first step to being humane.

Westerners generalize South Asians in two ways – either by disgust and contempt at the backwardness and weirdness, or by adulation and worship of the spirituality and other-worldliness of Hinduism. I should add a third one – Westerners are further fascinated by Islam – another big component of South Asia. Our author Karen falls in the category of adulation of Hinduism, or she would not have characterized India this way:

“If America were to be personified, it would definitely be a real guy’s guy—running around, talking loudly, smacking you on the back in greeting, occasionally belching—a lovable, rambunctious guy’s guy. Now, imagine a country like India personified. It would embrace more feminine qualities like stillness, meditativeness and spirituality.”

No one with a complete experience of India or South Asia would agree. Firstly, the male chauvinistic, self-serving Hindu men are going to get their panties in a bunch over the fact that Karen called meditativeness and spirituality “feminine.” It’s a good laugh just to imagine the reactions of the idiotic types of Hindus who say that women are less inclined towards true spirituality, blah blah. Secondly, what makes spirituality feminine? Nothing. Masculine and Feminine traits, using their traditional definitions, are qualities of Maya, or the material world, and spirituality is about transcending both the masculine and the feminine. So spirituality is definitely neither masculine, not feminine, though sexist male Hindus have forcibly kept women out of spirituality, thus making their institutions “masculine,” or rather, “insecure masculine.”

Finally, anyone who is aware of what goes on in India knows that it’s much, much more that spirituality. In fact, most Indians would make fun of the New Age type of spirituality. That’s because India has as much of the “guy’s guy” personality that apparently America personifies. What’s worse, both countries have plenty of aggression and violence to go around, making neither lovable, or spiritual. If India was spirituality personified, why would it have so much dowry killing, female fetus abortion, female infanticide, rape, assault and human trafficking?

Westerners see the incessant religious rituals and think of the magical spirituality, etc. That’s fine with me. It’s true that Vedic knowledge is fascinating, and something that the whole world can appreciate. But look at the whole picture. Let’s not think that India is some kind of spiritual and feminine Goddess just because Indians are immersed in rituals. Those religious rituals mean nothing spiritually unless done with spiritual intention, and that is lacking in India as much as it is in America. Anyone who is familiar with the reality of India knows not to be complacent with such adulation of Hindu spirituality. It’s there in India, but so is evil.

 

On SCUM

SCUM is the Society for Cutting up Men.

Is it any surprise that of all the feminist thoughts and writings out there, SCUM is all that makes it into pop culture? This is once of the few topics I actually heard of while browsing TV channels, rather than in my Women’s Studies classes.

I had dismissed SCUM as some weird and obviously unsupported, obscure writing dreamt up by a crazy woman. But luckily, I got to have a new perspective as a fellow feminist on Feministing.com posted the link to the whole document. Now after actually reading it, I see it as a brilliant satire. It just reverses all the utter bullshit and hatred that patriarchy has spewed about women. If any readers find the claims made in the SCUM manifesto absurd, then consider how equally absurd the hateful claims about women are? Such claims are made by idiotic, sexist religious leaders, politicians, husbands, scientists, fathers, and any Joe Schmo alike (and even sexist women, I should add).

Recently I’d been thinking about the ridiculous makes-me-want-to-vomit kind of women-hating pseudo-spirituality that many ISKCON leaders spread. I was also think about stupid male chauvinistic scientists whose aim in life is to “prove” that women are less intelligent than men, because, you know, their interpretation of research data is “objective” while the rest of us get to “personal.” The SCUM Manifesto would be my response to all those douchebags.

I hope you like the satire as much as I did

 

Sita Sings the Blues

I got to the party fashionably late. Sita Sings the Blues is a retelling of the Ramayana through Nina Paley’s eyes. It’s recent, but been around for some time. Thanks to Paley and sponsors for making the animated film available to many. It is cute and witty, and the animation – beautiful. I caught some minor flaws, like ignoring the fact that Kaikeyi was a warrior queen who saved Dasaratha’s life, and missing certain details like Surpanakha enticing Laxmana or Ravana dressing up as a sage to fool Sita, but that’s cool. You can read some other discussions on it here and here.

As usual, conservative folks got their panties in a bunch over the supposed irreverence of the film. I take hurt sentiments seriously, and many feminists have protested misogynistic literature themselves, but I don’t agree with the premise of the conservatives when they criticize literary works. You can get a glimpse of their attitudes (read the comments) over another retelling of the Ramayana here.

Sita Sings the Blues is hardly irreverent, especially considering that the Ramayana is an epic with many versions. How absurd would it be if the Greeks got crazy over retellings of the Iliad and Odyssey. Conservative Hindus have this absurd attitude where they despise Muslims for their frenzy and fatwas against Salman Rushdie or Theo van Gogh, then they themselves set a similar example whenever an Indian epic is retold. And God forbid the retelling be from a feminist point of view, then suddenly it hurts the sentiments of the Hindus, never mind that the Indian epics are literature already retold thousands of times, and they aren’t even central tenets of Hindu spirituality!! Hindu epics and even stories of deities are acted out in Hindi drama serials all the time, yet they don’t cause a fiasco because they repeat the same patriarchal bullshit of mainstream versions of the stories.

One of the complaints against this animation is the clothing of Sita, although it’s not unusual for Hindu deities and epic characters to be scantily clad, since clothing of the ancient times were different. It’s only in modern conservative depictions that women wear long sleeve blouses and covering saris; there’s more evidence for a freer clothing style back in the day, rather than what we wear today. Anyone who gets offended by Nina Paley’s or any other feminist’s retelling of Ramayana needs to think whether the Ashvamedha Yagna that Dasaratha performs in Valmiki’s Ramayana is offensive or not. Surely, you don’t think that forcing Kausalya to have sex with a horse and Dasaratha offering his other wives to Brahmins for sex is less offensive than Sita showing some cleavage???

The whole fiasco over sentiments is based on the faulty premise of equating literature with “absolute truth.” We forget that these epics are filled with myths and imaginations that reflect the creativity, or perhaps ulterior motives, of its authors. The better approach is to acknowledge that these epics are after all just text, with readers creating the meaning behind them. To use a Hindu cliche, you have to recognize and extract the spirit of the text as a lotus is “pure” even among the murky water it grows in.

That being said, I now feel inspired to create my own meaning of the Ramayana, though I suspect many other women have found this meaning before me. Whenever I think of controversial literature, I think about my Feminist Theory class in college where we discussed Spike Lee’s Huckleberry Finn. Too bad the script has not become a movie yet, but the premise of the script is to use the original text by Mark Twain, only to give it a whole new meaning by telling it from Jim’s point of view. Here, Jim is not the helpless superstitious slave as Tom Swayer sees him, but he’s a very intelligent person who’s acting comical to survive amongst hostile white people. It also reminds me of Shehrazade of Arabian Nights, who tells stories to delay, and eventually prevent what would have been her inevitable death. These characters could have been quite strong only if you think of them that way.

That would be a refreshing way to view Sita, Rama or Ravana, without changing the story or the text of the Ramayana. Whereas conservative misogynists have used Sita’s character to teach women to be oppressed, feminists can easily point out that Sita gains nothing from her unconditional love, thus rejecting the need for it altogether. Rama gains nothing either. It’s fascinating to think about how a supposed villain like Ravana was actually honorable towards Sita while supposedly honorable Rama did not fulfill his duties as Sita’s husband. I think, ultimately the Ramayana teaches the fallacy of good vs. evil in the material world and questions what we think of as truth and reality. I think Sita provides the most compelling proof for Hindu women that marriage, husband, children, and unconditional love of the material world does not hold the key to happiness. You can remain as “pure” and virginal as you want to, it ain’t gonna satisfy your man if his priorities are elsewhere. The earlier you realize it, the less suffering you’ll go through. I think Jessica Valenti would find Ramayana to be a big Purity Myth! Above all, epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata are full of contradictions, because as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar points out, truth is contradictory. If Self-realization and God-realization were so easy, we would’ve all been happy.

Here’s a final bone for you to chew on: Ramayana is actually one of three encounters between Vishnu and his two guards in heaven, Jay and Vijay. Jay and Vijay had angered Vishnu so he gave them a choice of being born seven times as Vishnu’s friend, or being born three times, with short lives, as Vishnu’s enemies, as a lesson for their sins. In one of those three lives, Jay and Vijay were Ravana and Kumbhakarna. So there you go, all this hoop-la about a story that was a mere play between Vishnu and his guards. Indeed, the world is a theater!

 

 

Something Different for a Change

all med students are renaissance persons before med school crushes their soul and causes irreversible mind damage. my hobby was painting, and this is one of my amateur works that i like a lot.

one of my paintings that i like most