Thaen Pot on Clubhouse: Ep.1 Tamil Cinema and Sex
Image: Unsplash
On March 14th, Thaen Pot/ Thaen X hosted our first Clubhouse room. Thaen Pot founder Mathusha Senthil, Editor-in-Chief of Thaen X Laxana Paskaran, and Editor of Tamil Guardian and activist Abinaya Nathan moderated a discussion on pleasure, intimacy, gender and sexuality in Tamil movies.
Below are summaries of key takeaways from the conversation:
Allusions to Sex: Nature Imagery in Tamil movies
When thinking about Tamil movies and songs and their portrayal of sex, notions of pleasure are always caged or boxed into particular scenes or songs. And this happens in several different ways.
For example, in the case of visualizing sex or orgasms in particular, what comes to mind are montage scenes of mountains, waterfalls, roses with raindrops on their petals…all of this imagery that insinuate pleasure without actually showing people being intimate on-screen. How does hiding sex in plain sight influence our perceptions of it?
Item songs, Hypersexuality, and the Male Gaze
Tamil songs act as a portal into an alternative universe and cage in images of sexuality often informed by the male gaze. However, the question remains: who do these images leave out? Within 4/5 minute song sequences “rules” that apply in society, at home, and during the plot of the movie do not apply. The same actresses who play main roles with minimal dialogue are hypersexualized only to serve cis-het male audiences. The fantasy intertwines with reality through song sequences.
For example, in the movie, Padayappa, actress Soundharaya who maybe speaks less than 10 words throughout the movie, (and is praised by Rajinikanth for this ‘personality trait’, in his lengthy dialogue about subservient and “goddess” like women) is featured in a song that alludes to clitoral stimulation.
We were reminded of songs that we grew up with that made very clear indications to sex and pleasure. We were also reminded of the lack of conversation at home and in the community about what these songs actually meant.
Tamil Movie Industry, Gender, and Labour
In addition to song sequences, we spoke about the connections between gender and labour. The Tamil movie industry is known to be a demanding working environment, especially for Tamil women. Despite not being featured in leading roles, many Tamil women work behind the scenes. Working conditions for women on and off-screen remains an issue today. This brought us to the conversation around male-dominated workplaces and how that manifests in and outside of the Tamil cinematic universe.
Silk Smitha was known to have faced a lot of discrimination off-screen, despite her being a celebrated actress who brought in a lot of revenue for the industry. Read more about Silk Smitha here.
Collective Action and Decolonial Media Futures
A question from a participant in the room regarding colonization revealed that while we may be inclined to point to colonization for conservative views in our community, especially the Eelam Tamil community, we can never know for sure to what extent colonization played a role in shaping our community’s views on intimacy and pleasure.
It was pointed out that it is not as black and white as we may want it to be and rather we should look towards what decolonial media futures may look like for Tamil cinema and entertainment.
To this end, our conversation came to a conclusion with questions around whether Tamil cinema can be ethically consumed? If not, what are some ways to demand better? The answer: collective action.
Our goal is to form a community and create safe spaces to talk about issues around sex and intimacy in ways that break intergenerational curses and strengthen our relationships with each other and most importantly with ourselves. If any of the above topics from our first Clubhouse conversation has sparked the inspiration for an article, please pitch us!
We accept pitches on a rolling basis, so please feel free to send us an email. Information on how to pitch can be found here: FAQ.
