Gender and Sexuality Studies

Abstract

Margarita with a Straw, a 2014 Indian Hindi Language drama film directed by Shonali Bhose depicts how the protagonist, Laila, a girl with cerebral palsy, embarks on exploring her own sexuality.The movie highlights the idea of sexual fluidity through the conspicuous symbol of the straw and the motif of abrosexuality with the metaphor of the cocktail drink. The movie highlights that sexuality is not a dichotomous phenomenon, but a spectrum. Majority of research proves that female sexuality is more fluid than male sexuality.In keeping with the idea of abrosexuality, research over several decades has demonstrated that sexual orientation can be at any point along a continuum, from exclusive attraction to the opposite sex to exclusive attraction to the same sex, as the shape of the straw in the movie suggests. Laila becomes confused regarding her own sexual orientation as she plays between various dialectical pairs like abled/disabled,heterosexual/homosexual,visual/tactile in the quest to complete her sexuality. Interestingly there is no hardened polarization between the opposite sexes, diluting the idea of heteronormativity. The idea of being abled is treated analogous to the notion of heteronormativity, with all antithetical dispositions of being differently abled/divergent sexualities treated as deviant. Also homogenous entities that have evolved from the same mass are purportedly seen to be in conflict as opposed to heterogeneous masses. This idea is metaphorically foregrounded with Khanum, Laila’s love interest being of Bangladeshi-Pakistani descent.

Biography

Dr. Rukhaya Mohammad Kunhi is an award-winning writer who has published her works in national and international anthologies and journals. In 2016, she was listed as IWI’s Incredible Women Writers of India. She was catalogued among the best late 20th century Indian essayists like Arun Shourie, M.J. Akbar, Pankaj Mishra , Arundhati Roy, Amit Chaudhuri, A.K. Ramanujan, etc. in the American site humanitiesinstitute.org. She was recently awarded with the Gifted Poet Award 2020 by Women-Empowered India (WE). In 2021, Dr. Rukhaya was awarded the Reuel International Prize for poetry. In 2022, she was listed amongst 100 Inspiring Women of Kerala by RBTC, a global initiative. She currently works as Asst. Professor of English at Nehru College, Kasaragod, Kerala. She completed her PhD from the Central University of Kerala