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https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/great-indian-kitchen-review-brilliant-take-family-religion-patriarchy-141538?amp
Haven't seen the movie yet, happy that it is rightly getting rave reviews. In my understanding , recognition of house work, domestic and care work has always been a central feminist demand. It is about the division of labour, in which caring labour has not been given any thought in our economic arrangements or social. Why is house work not given the status of productive work? Why is it still the domain of women? Why is it that the wealthy are able to outsource care work to predominantly women - why are they mostly immigrant, marginalised and poorly paid? Because our basic societal premise is that caring labour is not work- it's duty, it's love, it's fun, it's leisure, it costs nothing. But it never is.
In my view patriarchal violence and control of women and their bodies is also tied to this that care work is not work and it's only women's domain. Where else does the phrase a women's place is at home (or the kitchen) come from?
Would recommend watching a series called mrs America too - a very interesting take on the housewife and equal pay legislation in the America of the 70s.
@peekayty exactly! In the movie, a man tells a housewife ‘what you do is more important than what any man does in the office...’ to dissuade her from finding a job...care/housework seems to have immense value, yet no one will pay for it or suggest it deserves remuneration!
The 2021 movie The Great Indian Kitchen is one of the most extraordinary movies to come out of Kerala because it is so honest about misogyny. This is a particular kind of misogyny, the one that is gentle and that comes from soft-spoken men. These men are not getting drunk and beating their wives; rather, they oppress them by keeping them confined to the kitchen where they must slave over dishes morning noon and night.
‘Did you make this chutney in the mixie? Ah dear that is not good...it must be ground by hand.’
Thus speaks the patriarch father-in-law who makes more work for the new bride of the house. This is the kind of expectation laid on her- she must have fresh new dishes for every meal (leftovers are not allowed) and serve at least four courses. What the men of the movie don’t realise (or perhaps more accurately, don’t care about) is that they are effectively keeping her in solitary confinement in the kitchen.
All this plays out against the backdrop of the Sabarimala case that rocked Kerala when it occurred. But it feels so timely that it could have been in any age.
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