“To deny value to another’s capacity for narrative – to deny her potential for voice – is to deny a basic dimension of human life”
- Nick Couldry, Why Voice Matters.
In this section, you will find voices that have been historically silenced and forgotten – assumed to not have a voice or the skills and resources to be able to tell their stories.
These voices are not merely individualistic, but are grounded in the context of our society, culture, and other stories. They are voices of value, holding expertise, skills, knowledge, know-hows on life with their experiences of structural inequalities, ableism, patriarchy, moral judgements and sexuality. We believe that these voices have power and are mirrors to and reflections of the world we live in.
When you hear some of these voices, we hope you will converse with them, become part of them and be able to exchange narratives back and forth.
In our attempt to emphasize a certain dimension of voice in this section, we do not want to erase the other stories that exist within these voices. We hope that when you view these stories, you will remember that there is a lot of internal diversity within these voices.
Nick Couldry talks about ‘the internal diversity’ within voices, he says, ‘it would be absurd to imagine that a life comprised just one story, or just one continuous sequence of action…to block someone's capacity to bring one part of their lives to bear on another part – is to deny a dimension of voice itself.
Our view as feminists is to champion voice as agency, as occupying space, rewriting old stereotypes and narratives, creating memory, championing self-interpretation and representation by filling the gaps that social narratives leave behind.
Our hope is that this becomes a space for power, recognition of these voices – where these voices are recognised for their value, their expertise, skills, know-how, knowledge, for their struggles, their stories.
Couldry, Nick. “Why Voice Matters.” Google Books, SAGE Publications Inc, 2010
Sex workers have for far too long faced stigma, discrimination, inaccurate media representation,and criminalisation. The social and cultural narrative surrounding sexwork is very harmful, full of many dangerous stereotypes. They are portrayed as victims that need to be rescued from sexwork, or as threats to society. The sex worker collectives in India have been advocating for their rights, sharing information around sex work as a profession they choose and consent to, urging people to disconnect it from its moralistic standpoint.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, access to healthcare was harder for sex workers, due to stigma and misinformation. Furthermore, they had loss of their livelihoods, impacting their physical and mental health and of those who are dependent on them. This not only affected their everyday life, but also their housing, education for their children, and quality of nutrition, access to important medicines, and increased violence.
In our attempt to champion the stories made by sex workers, our hope is that you will get a glimpse of their lives in their voices, their stories of friendship, their reflections, their challenges. Their narratives and representation is in their hands, not in the hands of other storytellers, they are the experts of their own lives.
In our society, the dominant narratives about people with disabilities are misleading and harmful. People with disabilities are not lonely, sad, or helpless, as depicted in mainstream media. Rather, they are denied access in everyday situations as a result of society’s ableist mindset.
People with disabilities live full and vibrant lives – and resist the ableist and unrealistic standards of worth, success, beauty, perfection etc. Still, stigma and discrimination towards people with disabilities run deep, causing many everyday hardships and challenges for people across the spectrum of disabilities. As people, we have to unlearn the small ways in which we carry ableism, at home, at the workplace, and all around us.
The stories made here are by young people with disabilities who have channelled their creativity and created stories that portray a wide range of human emotions. They have created audio stories that have later been illustrated.
The voices of adolescent girls and women (whether low-income, disabled, queer, sex-worker) are not counted or heard – in families, communities, societies and in law and policy. We do not see or hear their perspectives in the media and the public domain. Their experiences, opinions and expertise are often discounted for being trivial and unimportant. The gender norms and stereotypes that impact their lives create many barriers in voice and expression, they also allow for violence, discrimination to go unchallenged. To add to this, the intersections of class, caste, religion, education, occupation create further inequalities.
Digital storytelling is a powerful feminist tool, where people can tell their own stories, self-represent, share their issues and problems in a culture that has otherwise been dominated by the male gaze. “And so we must work on opening up more spaces for women to use technology to articulate their stories, their thoughts, their visions for a fairer world. A feminist story always needs our support. We must amplify this content, spread it, translate it, reproduce it, and make sure it survives the silencing of the patriarchy.”
The dominant narrative tells us that our world is categorised by a binary system, in which gender and sexuality is produced and maintained– through male/female and heterosexuality/homosexuality. These categories include some and exclude many others. Feminism helps us understand power structures in the world – who created these categories? Who do they serve? Who is given power and privilege? Who do these categories police? Who is allowed to speak or be heard as a result of these categories? Who is silenced? These are important questions to reflect on.
The gender and sexuality binary when intersecting with caste, class, disability and occupation, oppresses some more than others, creating imbalance, varied inequalities and injustices.
There are no two genders or sexes in the world. There is multiplicity of genders and sexes, gender expressions and rights. There is a multiplicity of lived experiences, ways of being and becoming, that we must hear and amplify to be able to create a more free and just world, embodying values of love and freedom.