Stripping Away at Respectability: #MeToo India and the Politics of Dignity

We have shown our naked bodies to the producers, the directors, and you name it, to everyone in the film industry. This is not new to us. Now I am showing my nude body to the public too. This is the only way I can show how degraded the Telugu film industry is. I cannot smash their buildings or set them on fire, so I am removing my own clothes to protest.

—Reddy 2018b

Telugu women are very proper! Who is going to give her [Sri Reddy] roles now as akka [elder sister], chelli [younger sister], or vadina [sister-in-law]? Do you think that she is going to get roles in Telugu films after stripping in public!

—Movie Artists Association 2018

On April 7, 2018, Sri Reddy, a lesser-known actress in the Telugu Film Industry (hereafter referred to as TFI), protested semi-naked in front of the Film Chamber of Commerce office, which houses the Movie Artists Association (MAA) in the Southern Indian city of Hyderabad. As her protest was being live streamed into the homes of Telugu speaking people, she addressed questions from the journalists who surrounded her. Besides the denial of her membership in the MAA, which was the immediate reason for her protest that day—it is alleged that her public remarks against sexist practices in the industry were the reason for this denial—Reddy spoke frankly and fearlessly about widespread sexual harassment and the common practice of the "casting couch" in the TFI, where aspiring actresses are compelled to offer sexual services in exchange for roles.¹ She also expressed her outrage against colorism, casteism, and lineage-based casting preferences in the industry. Reddy's protest not only brought to light the underlying misogyny, sexism, and caste politics that dominate the industry, but also encouraged junior artists (including trans women) to speak openly about their experiences for the first time. Her protest also galvanized feminist groups in Hyderabad to organize and denounce sexual and economic exploitation in the TFI.

In this essay, I focus on Reddy's protest and the responses that it generated to shed light on marginal and fringe voices in the MeToo movement in India. Even though Reddy has been recognized as an important voice for the movement in India by both national and international media (The New York Times covered her story as a part of MeToo), her protest was dismissed by local media outlets and members of the film industry as a desperate media stunt by a failed actress trying to bolster her career. Because she has refused to adhere to conventional norms of victimhood—helpless, voiceless, needing rescue—she is regarded neither as an "ideal" victim nor a "reliable" advocate against sexual violence. Her refusal to adhere to the politics of respectability of both mainstream media and mainstream feminism along with her sexual politics (she speaks from the margins of marriage and monogamy and has forged alliances with LGBTQ groups) likewise set her apart from other voices in the MeToo debate. It is precisely because she inhabits and speaks from these in-between spaces and "grey zones" that she was able to shed light on the complex intersections of sexism, casteism, and colorism that marginalize both cisgender and transgender women in the TFI. I argue that engaging with marginal and fringe voices, such as Reddy's, helps decenter the politics of respectability that undergirds mainstream conversations around sexual violence in general and MeToo in particular.

In what follows, I first provide a background for the MeToo movement's popularity and growth in India. I describe its marked difference from other periods of feminist advocacy against sexual violence, as it was the first time that powerful men were made accountable for their behavior, and survivors of sexual violence felt that they could be heard. Next, I turn to Reddy's activism and examine how her protest, using her semi-naked body, was able to draw attention to systemic sexism, casteism, and colorism in the TFI and consequently bring previously marginalized voices into public view. I also discuss how members of the TFI...