Kannammaa Writes

The Women of Kandukondain Kandukondain I’ve always liked all the female characters in Kandukondain Kandukondain because: They don’t show women as frivolous, aimless, and dependent like movies these days do The characterization is as realistic as it is revolutionary. Meenakshi (Aishwarya Rai) She is idealistic and a hopeless romantic - her head is in the clouds and she is a bit of a flibbertigibbet.  However: She has an independent mind.  She doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind.  She is not satisfied with staying at home doing nothing to support her family. Meenakshi knows her talents and uses them to contribute financially to her family.  She rejects the married Srikanth, displaying her dignity.  And the maturity she shows when finally choosing her life partner teaches us all about what really matters. Sowmya (Tabu) Sowmya is independent and capable from the start. She feels real when she lets the perception of “raasi illathava” (bad luck bringer) get to her hear...

  I watched Etharkum Thunindhavan yesterday. I appreciate the movie’s following message: 1.        Women’s honor, dignity, and worth don’t lie in their bodies. If men had seen a woman nude, it doesn’t impinge on her honor, dignity, and worth in any way. 2.        It is men who cheat to obtain intimate footage from women in the name of love who should be ashamed and faulted, not the women who trusted those men. 3.        Men who comment, “Link bro. Full video send me bro. So hot bro, how did you nab her bro?” are the ones that should be shamed publicly, not the female victim who was manipulated, forced and publicized. 4.        The world should start talking sordidly of the m*n who dupe these women in such videos – the shooter, camera placer, the rapists, not the women in the videos. 5.        A body is mere flesh and bone...

  The story of Sujatha Nagaraj from Malaysia I had an arranged marriage and I am blessed with 2 children. My problem is, my mother-in-law doesn't like me visiting my parents during weekends. However, she keeps calling her daughters to come over. And when they are here, she treats them like princesses - I am the one who must serve them hand and foot. My co-sisters won't even enter the kitchen.  I am a daughter of another set of parents - won't they like to have me over like how my mother-in-law likes having her daughters over? Like how her daughters love her and want to see her, don't I love my parents and want to see them?  The thing is, my mother-in-law wants me to serve her daughters - they come over during weekends just as I leave to my parents' - they live two blocks away. Her problem is, when I leave, her daughters will have to cook and serve themselves. She can't take that coz "They cook and clean for their husbands and in-laws all week. When they are...

  I live with my mother-in-law, husband, and my 10 years old son. 4 of my co-sisters (my husband is the only son) often come and go or stay over for days but they only eat and sleep – they don’t do a single work at home. I work 6 days a week and I am the one who gets up at 4 am, cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner, goes to work, returns from work, checks my son’s homework, and does all the housework up to 11 pm. This has been my routine for the past 7 years – ever since we moved to a new big house and my husband’s stepmom (whom I adore) moved out with her daughter into their own home. I slave away in the kitchen while my co-sisters watch Astro in the living room – it’s been 7 years since I sat on my couch in my house and watch my subscription TV for which I pay. I spend Sundays (my only leave) cleaning my double-storey bungalow. I got fed up a few months back and told my youngest co-sister who is a teacher trainee that this is our home, not a hotel. I requested her to do some housew...

  It’s New Year 2022. New Year. Same shit every year. I have refrained from blogging about Malaysian politics but the goings on in Malaysia last year riled me up so much, I am writing about it. History is very important, and forgetfulness is the worst disease. 2021 is marked by a number of fiascos. I don’t want to forget them in 2022 and beyond, hence I am writing this recap of shame to see if 2022 brings any sort of amelioration. I won’t bother name-dropping because actions speak, not names. When MAS air-hostess’ uniform is more important than skyrocketing living costs… Apparently, Malaysian Airlines’ stewardesses’ outfit is too “sexy” for a PAS minister – and he raised it as an issue in Parliament. Why are you ogling at MAS stewardesses when the ordinary Malaysian people are literally paying through their noses to survive? Do you know the price of vegetables and raw food? Can an ordinary Malaysian even dream of owning a home? Looking at where things are going, we may have to buy ...

  This meme by Scoop Whoop triggered a lot of Indian men. They are saying that a woman should not be able to recant her consent once the clothes are off and the two people are lying on the bed.    Many of the men also say that when women date men, have consensual sex under the promise of marriage from the men and he says “No” to marriage after all that and then gets jailed for saying “No.” Why the no from the men isn’t honoured they ask.   It’s due to the patriarchy that men like these guys espouse. Why is marriage promised by Indian men to have sex with the women they date? Do Indians saying that women should save their virginity for their husbands ring a bell? You want to f*ck but your girl coyly says, “Chi, all these after marriage only.” To convince her, you promise marriage. So, when you backtrack, you are entrapped by law that adheres to #mairuculture.   Indian courts use cultural norms when forming laws and judgment – women who stop their husbands from lo...

I happened to watch Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumar-u on Friday for the first time. From Minnale to Ghajinikanth, Tamil movies are portraying women as incredibly stupid and men as masters of prevarications. I don’t understand why Tamil movies are so keen on making men with desirable qualities villainous while men who cheat women, think women are stupid, and have no qualms to indulge in deception, heroic. By now, I think it’s subliminal for Tamil men. One tried the same dishonest technique at me and when I exposed him, Tamil men began to support him, even accused me of lying. I just hate to be thought of as stupid and easily manipulated as a woman. That was why I exposed him. I suppose Tamil men want women to be stupid, forgiving, and then accepting liars, Janus-faced douches, and impostors like the heroines of Minnale, Remo, Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumar-u etc. The shit that is fed to us will need decades of undoing. I have never seen a Tamil movie depicting women as intelligent. Women in ...