Seeing Like a Feminist - Book Review

The politics of being a women in a country like India is not easy to fathom. Where caste and class divisions take precedence over gender issues women find it difficult to raise their voices. Nivedita Menon's 'Seeing Like a Feminist' links this reality of a female existence to a variety of dimensions that control it and manipulate it. 

The book is well versed when it comes to the facts that it mentions and the claims that it makes. Like any other good writer Menon has succeeded in backing all her statements with official data leaving no window for questioning. The fluid language and ease of understanding makes the book a very wonderful read. Despite the lucidity it is easy to gather that the book is a work of academic excellence. She combines the perfect amount of humour with factual details so as to keep the reader entertained.

Nivedita Menon deconstructs the idea of family, the female body and female desires. She questions their functioning and their basis. She clearly states that the idea of family functions on gendered notions. However the human body and its relation to gender is highly contentious. The dismantling of ideas related to the human body is well articulated and her readers will definitely find it engaging. 

The book deals with varying facets of  feminism and how they all combine to form something universal. The call for women empowerment is not one that is most needed at the highest level but which is felt largely at the lowest. Feminism is not restricted to women and Menon maintains this view point throughout her book. Her contemporary examples makes it easier to relate to for the younger readers. What the book aims for can be deduced differently by different people but the theme of awareness will be common to all. 

In the section "Feminist and 'Women'" Menon claims that "feminism is not in fact about ‘women’ but about recognizing how modern discourses of gender produce human beings as exclusively ‘men’ or ‘women’. For her it is about a transformation that changes old markers of society in a such a way that they cannot gain any kind of authority again.

Nivedita Menon is the writer of acclaimed books like Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law (2004) and Sexualities (2007). She teaches Political Thought at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.