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UID:20251027T143239EDT-42615w6hwp@132.216.98.100
DTSTAMP:20251027T183239Z
DESCRIPTION:The Ethical Monster: Theorizing Ugliness and Gendered Political
  Subject in India\n\nThe idea that the concept of 'monster' is unevenly ap
 plied to women\, men\, and transgender people\, with implications that enf
 orce gender ideology\, is among the many ways we have come to understand e
 thics and aesthetics as part of systems of power. In many cultural frames\
 , the ugliness of the monster is integral to the very category\, narrative
 ly explained as cause or consequence or moral failing. While the idea of t
 he monster is widely discussed in feminist and social theory\, as is the i
 dea of beauty\, far less explored is the idea of ugliness as a moral and p
 olitical condition on its own terms\, that is\, other than as the impositi
 on of a particular set of standards or gazes.. Drawing on iterations of th
 e narrative of Surpanakha\, a monster (rakshasa) in the Indian epic Ramaya
 na\, as well as on Surpanakha's appearances in law and psychological liter
 ature on trauma\, this paper asks what structural and moral positions are 
 established through ugliness? I will argue that concepts of ugliness that 
 emerge from this and similar narratives at once establish ugliness as puni
 shment and render the ugly or defaced woman as a complex moral actor amid 
 webs of relational demands\, including the double binds of kinship and the
  body politic. Importantly\, for Surpanakha\, this happens by way of the u
 gly woman's position as agent in the social order of kinship\, not as simp
 ly a subjectified victim of violence or impossible gender ideals. At the s
 ame time\, it establishes the deeply gendered conditions of the very conce
 pt of agency.\n\n \n\nSarah Pinto will also lead a discussion seminar with
  pre-circulated readings on TUESDAY September 16\, 9:30-11 am in Peterson 
 Hall 116 \n	(please note the room change from LEA 738 for this seminar)\n
DTSTART:20250915T163000Z
DTEND:20250915T180000Z
LOCATION:room 108\, Peterson Hall\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 0E6\, 3460 rue
  McTavish
SUMMARY:Sarah Pinto (Tufts University) - The Ethical Monster
URL:/anthropology/channels/event/sarah-pinto-tufts-uni
 versity-ethical-monster-366952
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