Sexual Slander against Women Politicians

Sexual slandering against women has become quite common, especially after the upsurge of social media. It often becomes a political tool to taunt down women in politics. In this article, we analyse the discourse around a sexual remark made by K. S Hariharan, a leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, against K. K Shailaja, an electoral candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), during the 2024 parliament elections. K K Shailaja (called as ‘teacher amma’) has become the face of female leadership in Kerala after successfully handling the NIPAH and COVID-19 outbreak while serving as the health minister. We try to understand sexual slandering against women through the lens of gender essentialisations that put women in a moral spectrum of gendered roles that range from reproduction to fulfilment of male desirability. We explain how the normalisation of ‘feminine ableness’ against a masculine benchmark of ‘political ability’ through the capitalisation of essentialist gender roles is being counter-attacked by sexualising women’s bodies. Drawing on the literature on political masculinity, gender essentialisation and the political history of Kerala, we explain how the sexual demeaning of women in public allows room for the performance of collective virile masculinity

Communism · Essentialism · Face (sociological concept · Negotiation · Parliament · Politics · Gender Politics and Representation · Social and Economic Development in India · South Asian Cinema and Culture