{"product_id":"the-law-of-desire-rulings-on-sex-and-sexuality-in-india-9789354472145","title":"The Law of Desire Rulings on Sex and Sexuality in India","description":"\u003cp\u003eDescription\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCan a woman choose whom to marry if her father disapproves of the match? Does sex\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eremain sex when it becomes work? Can a man become a woman because he feels like one?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIs it the law's task to ensure heterosexuality? Does reproduction need to be regulated?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe State attempts, with law as its instrument, to answer these questions for\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eus, through legislation and, when contested, through court judgments. This\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebrilliantly insightful and superbly argued book calls into serious question the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewisdom-indeed, the intent-of our lawmakers and the judiciary. Though\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndia's laws and courts claim to know what they mean when they declare an\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eexpression of desire immoral or criminal, obscene or unnatural, upon inquiry, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethey turn out to be building on very weak and often casteist and patriarchal\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eassumptions. Thus we have the law struggling to 'rescue' 'fallen women', for\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esex work cannot be work, but a sign of immorality; a Supreme Court judge\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecan exonerate the artist M. F. Husain on charges of obscenity, but also claim\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat 'obscenity lies in the eyes of the beholder', leaving us wondering how, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethen, the law can ever define what's obscene; and while a court may declare\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat the 'third gender' has fundamental rights, no one really knows what\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efundamental rights have to do with gender in the first place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTeacher and queer theorist Madhavi Menon-author of Infinite Variety, a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecelebrated study of desire in India-shows us the 'conundrums and paradoxes'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat result when the law is entangled with sex and sexuality-and why we\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'need to play with, rather than stay with, the Law of Desire'.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Madhavi Menon","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":52152139088155,"sku":"9789354472145","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0723\/8392\/2459\/files\/img_d4948b39-19eb-4e70-b45b-75f1f93196e3.jpg?v=1777745301","url":"https:\/\/sapphicsociety.com\/products\/the-law-of-desire-rulings-on-sex-and-sexuality-in-india-9789354472145","provider":"Sapphic Society","version":"1.0","type":"link"}