Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Female Body Image and the Politics of Appearance in Contemporary India / Srirupa Chatterjee
Part I. Bodies on the Margins: “Othering,” Hegemonic Beauty Norms, and Female Bodies
1. Imag(in)ing the Dalit Woman: Body Image and Identity in Bama’s Sangati / Nishat Haider
2. Bodies at Surveillance: Appearance, Social Control, and Female Body Image in India’s Postmillennial Lesbian and Trans Narratives / Tanupriya and Aratrika Bose
Part II. Reflections on Beauty Politics: Gender and Body Image in the Works of Contemporary Indian Women Writers
3. Writing Woman / Woman Writing: Shashi Deshpande and the Aesthetics of the Female Body / Swatie
4. Manjula Padmanabhan and the Question of Problematizing Embodied Gender Identity: A Reading of Getting There / Shubhra Ray
5. Future Forms: Female Body Image in Indian Dystopian Fiction / Annika Taneja
Part III. Alternate Beauties? Disabled and Disfigured Female Bodies in Contemporary Indian Literature and Culture
6. Fitting In When Your Body Does Not: Young Girl Characters with Disabilities in Contemporary Indian English Fiction for Children / Anurima Chanda
7. Pathologies of “Body Fictions”: A Comparative Study of Margarita with a Straw and Kuch Bheege Alfaaz / Samrita Sinha
Part IV. Scopophilic Cultures: Female Body Image in Contemporary Indian Cinema
8. Unjust Gradations of Fairness: Gender, Looks, and Colorism in Postmillennial Hindi Cinema / Shailendra Kumar Singh
9. Fetishism, Scopophilia, and the Fat Actresses of Bhojpuri Cinema / Shailendra Kumar Singh
Part V. Neoliberal Cultures and Female Body Image in Indian Advertisements and Popular Media
10. Gender, Body Image, and the Aspirational Middle-Class Imaginary of Indian Advertising / Kavita Daiya, Sukshma Vedere, and Turni Chakrabarti
11. Unpacking Compliances and Resistances in the Indian Yummy Mummy / Sucharita Sarkar
12. “Hey! She’s a Bro!”: Tomboys, Body Image, and Desire in India / Ketaki Chowkhani
Conclusion: Womanhood and Body Positivity: Problems, Possibilities, and Promises / Shweta Rao Garg
Further Reading
Contributors
Index