https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.082
Between Agency and Aesthetics: Women’s Bodies in Contemporary Ritual Culture
VIDYA K
Associate Professor
Govt. Arts & Science College Karindalam, Kerala
vidyabalabc2024@gmail.com
Abstract: This article attempts to analyze the cultural transformation of decisive phases in the lives of women in Kerala such as puberty, gestation, and entry into motherhood. During the olden orthodox times these phases functioned as rites of passage being controlled by family and the collective of relatives. Anthropological studies suggest that the rites such as menarche and pregnancy especially primigravida helped bring the female body to the limits of social control and gender-based functions. But in the contemporary context of Kerala, these rites have undergone a transformation into highly visualized and commercialized celebrations due to globalization, consumerist culture, and the rhizomatic permeation of digital media. If these rites had been an internal affair of the family and relatives, now in the post-globalized era, these experiences have increasingly become part of a general visual culture. The propagation of pregnancy photoshoot, baby shower, and menarche celebration videos on the social media platforms is a signal of how female body has been redefined as a visual-cultural object. It is in this context that this article raises three vital questions: (a) How did the traditional rites socially control the female body? (b) What new kind of meanings do the consumerist culture and digital media together attribute to these rites? (c) Do these changes empower the agency of women or do they create novel forms of gender-based regulations?
Keywords: Menarche, Puberty, Bride to-be, Commodity, Female Body, Rites of Passage
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