The Peter Wall Institute presents this public lecture, co-sponsored by the CFLS
MARTYRS OF MARRIAGE?: Men’s Rights Activists, Law and Feminism
Speaker: Professor Srimati Basu, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Anthropology, University of Kentucky
From faint beginnings in scattered solitary actions in the 1990’s, Men’s Rights Activists have emerged in India as a well-organized social movement, with careful political outreach through social media, legislative lobbying and street action. They represent a range of ethnic and religious groups, include several prominent women leaders, and reflect some diversity of class positions. Their common target is the cynical misuse of civil and criminal laws relating to marriage and domestic violence, in particular the simultaneous deployment of multiple laws.
This presentation focuses on their understandings of law and legal process, and the range of gender identities they create in response to law. It is all too easy to dismiss the claims based on their frequent blatant misogyny, but some of their arguments raise fundamental questions for feminists about power, process, responsibility and subjectivity. Prof. Basu will explore some of the ways in which these discourses disturb notions of gender equity,
gender neutrality and female agency normalized in law, and the reflexive concerns for politics and accountability in feminist legal theory.
MONDAY, 26 May @ 3:30 – 5:00 PM
Room 104, Allard Hall (1822 East Mall)
Would be interested to be part of the group n contribute to the movement