Ep 280: Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
Sex Work
Sex work is the outcome of precariety. It's not a career option or a vocation, but it is a form of transaction. Sex workers being organized has been their most important strength. Escorts perhaps are not the same as sex work as i had understood it all along. I find that there must be many people who would have done some sort of sexual service provision in the pandemic to make ends meet.
The world is changing for women -- but is it getting better? Manjima Bhattacharjya joins Amit Varma in episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey as a feminist and why she believes in the long arc. She also talks about her book Intimate City, and the changing face of sex work in India. Also check out: 1. Manjima Bhattacharjya on Twitter, YouTube and Google Scholar. 2. Intimate City -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 3. Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 4. Jhumpa Lahiri on Amazon. 5. Empire of the Sun -- Steven Spielberg. 6. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 7. Farouk Abdul-Aziz and Kuwait Cine Club. 8. Nancy Drew on Wikipedia and Amazon. 9. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Some episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare and Shrayana Bhattacharjya, 11. Kali For Women. 12. Jagori. 13. Mrityudand -- Prakash Jha. 14. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 15. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 16. Bargaining with Patriarchy -- Deniz Kandiyoti. 17. On the Road to Change -- A conversation between Kavita Krishnan and Amit Varma. 18. If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai — Srinath Perur. 19. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 20. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 21. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? -- Devika Kher. 22. Here’s What’s Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act -- Suman Joshi. 23. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 24. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 25. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 26. An Economist Looks at #MeToo -- Episode 92 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 27. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner. 28. The Problem that Has No Name -- Betty Friedan. 29. Kamla Bhasin and Abha Bhaiya. 30. Live Sex Acts -- Wendy Chapkis. 31. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Daily Rituals — Mason Currey. 34. Daily Rituals: Women at Work — Mason Currey. 35. Thin Places -- Ann Armbrecht. 36. Cheryl Strayed on Amazon. 37. Mahanagar — Satyajit Ray. 38. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 39. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 40. Abhimaan -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 41. Natasha Badhwar on Amazon. 42. Parenthood -- Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar). 43. Yuzvendra Chahal's bullying. 44. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 45. Temporarily Yours – Intimacy, Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex -- Elizabeth Bernstein. 46. The Girlfriend Experience. 47. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 48. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 49. Literotica stories archive. 50. The news article about a journalist and some artists forced to strip to their underwear. 51. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator economy with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 52. 11th Lane: Kamathipura -- Sudharak Olwe. 53. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 54. Notting Hill and Pretty Woman. 55. An Educated Woman In Prostitution -- Manada Devi. 56. Factory Girls -- Leslie T Chang. 57. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 58. Elles -- Malgoska Szumowska. 59. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Philip Kaufman. 60. Roger Ebert's review of Unbearable Lightness. 61. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel. 62. The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas -- Rajesh Rajamani. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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