An Experiential Account of the Sexual Purpose of the Indian Woman

ABSTRACT The goal of this study was to understand Indian women‟s experiences of sexual objectification by placing them in a matrix of interlocking socio-cultural identities. Sexual objectification is said to occur when a woman‟s sexual body parts or functions are singled out from the rest of her body, used as tools for the fulfilment of another person‟s sexual purposes and are taken to represent the woman. Sexual objectification theory which was propounded by Fredrickson & Roberts in 1997, describes objectification as a common occurrence in patriarchal cultures. The theory concentrates heavily on women‟s biological vulnerability to sexual objectification and provides a theoretical framework for comprehending the psychological experiences and mental health consequences that women suffer from by living in a culture that objectifies the female body. Though the propounders of this theory did acknowledge that women‟s diverse identities can alter their experience of being objectified but for them the homogeneity of women‟s experience was more central to understanding objectification. This is a serious limitation of sexual objectification theory. Women‟s biological vulnerability to sexual objectification often manifests itself in different ways as women are not a homogenous category and hence their experiences of sexual objectification vary greatly depending on caste, community, religious, regional and ethnic differences. When gender identity intermingles with other prominent social identities a singular account of an Indian women‟s experience of sexual objectification becomes impossible. This perspective that disallows the use of gender as a dichotomous category, arguing in support for understanding the variations within women is known as intersectionality. Therefore, objectification theory and intersectionality theory together make up the conceptual framework for this research. Accordingly, the objectives of the study were to examine the forms of sexual objectification together with its consequences and coping mechanisms used by women to manage such experiences. For this purpose, a diverse sample of Indian women (N=35) in terms of ethnicity, age, socio-economic status, religion, education, caste and region were located using convenience and snowball sampling. To collect data, unstructured interviews were conducted with the participants. Data was subjected to rigorous phenomenological analysis using the guidelines prescribed by Hycner (1985). To simplify, results obtained for the study have been explained in this thesis under four heads- forms of sexual objectification, consequences of sexual objectification, coping with sexual objectification and intersectionality. With regard to the forms, eight different forms were