Kahini Iyer, Author at Arré

“I’ll Be There For You, When a Pandemic Starts to Rage”: Don’t You Have At Least One New “Covid Friend”?

A new category of friendship has emerged during the pandemic: The Covid friend, someone whom you connected with over the last year and is now more than an acquaintance. I’ve a bunch of Covid friends – women I met at an online book club, a man I met via a dating app, and a host of home cooks who had joined a Mumbai foodies’ Whatsapp group during the lockdown.

Kahini Iyer July 12, 2016

Gender

Why Transpeople Are Upset with the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019

The trasngender community’s frustration at the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill is understandable, as their campaign to have a say in the Bill has gone largely ignored for months.

Kahini Iyer July 10, 2016

Gender

#MeToo: How to Return from Shame-Leave, the Alok Nath Way

Alok Nath might return to the public eye after a self-prescribed sabbatical, in a film about the #MeToo movement. A society that welcomes harassers back after a short time-out ensures that they are shielded from meaningful consequences.

Kahini Iyer July 9, 2016

Gender

Is the Google Walkout the Way Forward for the #MeToo Movement?

Over the past year, women have done enough talking, outing sexual harassers with courage. But despite that, powerful men get away with million-dollar severance packages. Google Walkout seems to be the answer.

Kahini Iyer July 9, 2016

Pop Culture

Why Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther Will Always Be More than Just Another Superhero Film

Black Panther transcends the stereotype of being “just” a superhero blockbuster, which is becoming an art Marvel films have started to perfect. It’s a post-colonial sci-fi saga with something important to say.

Kahini Iyer July 9, 2016

Pop Culture

The Life of a Journalist in Four More Shots Please! (and Other Chick Flicks) is Fake News

Four More Shots Please! treats Damini no differently from the women journalists who have come before her in the chick flick genre. Like Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, Damini is not just an unlikeable character – her many flaws are framed as aspirational.

Kahini Iyer July 8, 2016

Gender

Hidden Figures: Should Homemakers Be Paid a Salary?

The lockdown has placed many homemakers in the unenviable position of having to cater to their family day in and day out, without the respite of seeing them off to school, college, or workplaces. It has also forced many working women to quit their jobs to tend to their homes. Shouldn’t they all be compensated for their labour?

Kahini Iyer July 8, 2016

Pop Culture

Trevor Noah and the Lazy Art of Mistimed Racial Stereotypes

Reducing India to outdated jokes about Bollywood dancing and funny accents is what American pop culture does best. Even as we see marginally better representations thanks to stars like Mindy Kaling, it’s still rare to see desis outside the context of “funny”. Trevor Noah is no different.

Kahini Iyer July 7, 2016

Pop Culture

How the Oscar-Winning Laura Dern Made Us Fall in Love With Unlikeable Women

Laura Dern is everywhere. In Marriage Story, for which she bagged a Supporting Actress Oscar, she’s effective as the ruthless divorce lawyer Nora. In Big Little Lies, she’s the rich and manipulative Renata Klein, who threatens neighbourhood moms. What Dern does so often is flip an unlikeable woman on her head and reveal what lies beneath.

Kahini Iyer July 4, 2016

Culture

Half Girlfriend, Complete Moron: The Anatomy of a Chetan Bhagat Heroine

It’s not just real-life women with whom Chetan Bhagat seems to share a tetchy relationship. The author’s heroines are always one-dimensional, unattainable college girls. They are quite stupid when it comes to matters of the heart — which is why they inevitably end up with one of Bhagat’s douchebag protagonists.

Kahini Iyer July 2, 2016