In Conversation: Maitree Muzumdar Part 2
Photo by: Boris Eldagsen (c) BOOTBLACK Maitree Muzumdar
What now for the sexually-liberated artist? Maitree and I talk about life after making nude poetry music videos with The KitKatClub founder, Simon Thaur, in Berlin (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, read last week’s post HERE).
Maitree’s focus is on BOOTBLACK, a compilation of the first and only feminist digital sexual archive in India. It is a self-documentation of and by real people exploring their kinks, fetishes, and sexuality. To sum it up, Maitree tells me BOOTBLACK is, “A playart of pleasure, rich with the concepts of consent, pleasure, and clear communication, that is constantly updated as the ideologies progress. The idea is to break the taboo associated with topics of sexuality and nudity, which is a direct effect of the patriarchal system.”
For Maitree, the archive disrupts the references so commonly available and gives opportunity to access fresh, new-age sexual references that are more in sync with how society could be as opposed to how it is supposed to be. It gives as much liberty and freedom one desires in exploring with multiple forms of relationships, touch and explorations with the mind and body.
Her efforts are about shifting the conversations around sex away from fear and morality and traditional social obligations. “Had I been born in any other conservative family, I might have been lynched by now,” she confesses.
As an artist in the alternative domain, she feels the need to detach from familial obligations. There is a delicate balance of keeping her family in the loop regarding her work, while still maintaining a sense of detachment; her family understands that as being necessary for her to explore. “Thankfully, I am privileged to have a family that remains open to conversations and is supportive. They try to understand and evolve and I keep reminding them that the best form of evolution for any Indian family is the one that is guided by the women in the family,” she shares with me.
Being raised in a conservative land, Maitree felt like clothing and colour schemes were another tool used to shame. “As a dark-skinned girl, I was once asked by elites donned in fairer pastel colour schemes why I wore white clothes with my skin colour. Wasn’t I scared of leaving my dirty colour on it?” She recounts the life lesson and then continued, “That was the day I understood how even colour schemes have so cleverly been manipulated. The elite Indians are still obsessed with fairer colour palettes and often it seeps from the ingrained ideas of wanting to be as far away from dirt as possible. In a way, associating fairer colour palettes with traditional norms of beauty and purity. With the ‘innocence of a virgin girl’ or ‘distance from the labour class’.” Now she sees the naked body as a canvas and clothing as a possible form of expression of personal politics.
“Even within the kink community, if the kinkster is not heavily aware and well-versed, there is the possibility of clever manipulation,” according to Maitree. For her, the result of such manipulation is that instead of using BDSM aspects to disrupt the power dynamics in the real patriarchal world, we end up enforcing the patriarchal pyramid structures inside the BDSM world. She tells me, “For instance, ideally, the dominant is the dominant because of the innate ability to guide and direct. Dominants prefer being teachers and submissives prefer being learners. When the submissive feels confident enough, the submissive also starts practicing dominance.”
We look at a dominatrix in porn content, as an example. “Often, the dominatrix will be seen as having typically manly behavioral patterns associated with dominating males, and is also adorned to please the submissive male or the male viewer. The dominatrix here is not the real dominant. One might say, look, the submissive man is submitting to her! As true as it may seem to the layman, the dominatrix might be physically topping, but in this particular scenario, she is not the dominant. The male viewer is!” She breaks it down thoughtfully.
Maitree continues, “Traditionally, a woman’s weakness lies in the fact that she can give birth. If today, Elon Musk manages to create a technology whereby men can be carriers of babies, we’ll celebrate him, seeing ourselves as above and beyond nature. When nature bestows women with unique abilities, we choose to see it as a weakness. Even the maternal idea of taking care of a child is not a weakness, it is the patriarchal parenting system that is the real weakness of the system! We are in no way superior than nature. Our knowledge is a function of the intelligence of the ecosystem we are a part of! Nature has not been unjust to humans. Nature just did its function. We humans have conjured the very idea of ‘motive’ in nature. The unique differences in each one of us should be cherished!”
Maitree is particularly interested in topping from the bottom, “I was surprised to see there is not much research on this topic. Even in the BDSM community, topping from the bottom is seen as a grey area where the dominant or submissive is not able to choose where they belong at that moment. But that’s in Berlin; in a third world country like India, it can be interestingly applied.” The recent anti-secular amendments in the citizenship act has led to widespread protests across the country. Muslim women have been at the forefront of these protests. In Maitree’s opinion, “Men would have created war. When a woman from a conservative family protests, she is topping from the bottom.”
So how is it for Maitree to be back in India? She sees her Berlin journey as her secret weapon.
For Maitree, directness removes the shock value. This is why her work building the BOOTBLACK archive is integral to achieve change. It is her understanding that, “Young and old people being able to see a plethora of versions of what is acceptable is what will build the foundation for a more inclusive, loving, intersectional society. Removing the shame around bodies and sex is fundamental to shifting the culture.”
The big issue that holds her back is a legal one. Pornography and content with nudity remains in the grey zone in India because of its censorship laws and the political regime. This makes it both difficult to get submissions and host the platform online. Then there are rigid familial values and morality regimes. “Our gods also become a party to the scene,” she adds.
Finally, funding… finding funders for a topic as controversial as this is not easy. Especially since she desires to not just restrict BOOTBLACK to the digital medium. With her background in law and her passion for a more open society, Maitree is working with lawyers in India and abroad to find the best platform to launch the project and work within the system to change it (feel free to chime in with ideas, sexy people).
Beyond the sexual archive, Maitree is exploring how to translate body positivity, choice, consent and fundamental rights into early childhood education. It’s tough because a digital platform in India is still elitist and not accessible for many. She is working on the right format through a more feasible option like new age bedtime stories, nursery rhymes and games.
What can we expect to see from her once the power-structures-that-be loosen their grip on the throat that is India’s sexual suppression? “Porn that is not classist, sexist, and that doesn’t look down on aspects of vulnerability. Porn needs to be made by an oppressed group; by the labour class and by the degenerates. I would love to direct porn someday!” Maitree is also interested in the psychological and spiritual aspects from a non-binary point of view. She looks at kink as a form of 'emotional release' from gendered expectations. “It's a great starting point for many mental and sexual health conversations!” she tells me, with the kind of love in her voice that is needed to get a project like this off the ground.
For Maitree there is more merit in mainstream operating. Growing slowly rather than trying to make it big, and creating something that lasts and is constantly updated, rather than just another fad.
Now that we’ve gone deep into the feminism and patriarchy themes surrounding this arena, let’s get back to the juicy BDSM goodness. I’m sure more than a handful of you reading this are thinking... How can I let my kinky side out? So I asked, for those of us with the good fortune to live in places where it’s accessible, what’s the best way to get involved in the kink BDSM scene?
According to this rising star, “Look for people operating on their own identities. Understand their principles and make sure you understand the nature of the experimental zone. It is based on trial and error. They will take time to trust you because they have already reached where they are after putting in a lot of blood and sweat. Consent and communication is very important. Do not look down on personalities playing in aliases. They are in the same mode, just using a different approach. We all are pushing in different ways and the beauty lies in the fact that the methods are different but the agenda is the same”. Simple, right?
For Maitree, the best research comes from experience and communication. For those of you who would like to start with some light reading before getting your leather on, her advice is to stay away from the classics and go for something more current, and ideally engage in practicals whenever possible. The underground level is heavy on experimental and needs a lot of trust to enter. There are kinksters who like it for its taboo nature and then there are the kinksters looking to make it more mainstream. Whatever be your approach, play it safe and consensually and with a lot of constant communication and kindness.
Maitree’s current reading list:
Xenofeminism : A Politics of Alienation by Laboria Cuboniks
A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway
Other cyberfeminist artists, writers, and works to check out include: Radhika Gajjala, Mary Maggic, VNS Matrix, The Old Boys Network.
The biggest takeaway... Google isn’t helpful in this instance (it’s okay, Millennials, there are just some things in life that are better left to the real world). Happy hunting, kinksters.