Website launch of Srishti Madurai

South India’s first Psychoanalysis course and India’s first Genderqueer course and New website for Srishti Madurai was launched by Human Rights Activist Anjali Gopalan and Internationally acclaimed Artist (Painter), Psychoanalyst, Bracha L Ettinger of European Graduate School.

Date: 24/12/2013   Time: 11am

It is one of the inclusive groups of its kind which has involved academicians, Independent scholars, Human rights activist, Environmentalists, Animal rights activists and genderqueer activists. 

Purpose/Aim :-

To establish a strong base for psychoanalysis in Tamilnadu

To rethink Biology, Medicine and other Natural Sciences in a Socio-Political and Economic background.

To redefine the definition of education

To convey that marks, jobs are not everything in education

To revisit the several significant facets of the world, knowledge, wisdom, Nature, education, gender and sexuality etc.

To reach different kinds of international philosophical consciousness in our Tamil society and to share our own philosophical culture on international level.

To further humanize the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, arts in South India

Unique Features:-

I. To offer various courses which are not included in the mainstream academics.

1. First time offering Introductory Course in Ettingerian Psychoanalysis

2. Gender and sexuality (Spcl.Genderqueer theory and Biology of gender and sexuality)

3. Indian Philosophy (spcl. In several extinct schools and philosophy of India like Carvakisim, Nyaya etc)

4. Interpreting Indian Mythology, Sculpture and Visual art in terms of Genders and Sexualities.

"II. Initiated by college-going students, www.srishtiglobal.org is one of a kind website in India, which is realized through Tinphar.com’s ‘Make My Website’ initiative to promote serious studies on net.

IV. World renowned scholars from Oxford University, European Graduate School, Bowdoin College-New England etc and scholars from India, will guide and teach students here without any commercial purpose.

V. Pedagogy: - To synthesize pedagogical discourses from ancient Greek, Vedic and psychoanalytical schools of thought.

About the Guests who launched the website:-

Bracha L Ettinger- Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger is a philosopher; psychoanalyst and Artist .She has been an influential psychoanalyst after Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Her theory of Matrixial Border space is a unique theory which discusses the role of maternal and preuterine subjectivity formation. Matrixial border space theory discuss about the possibilities of the existence of non-phallic route to the subjectivity. She works on the intersections of art, psychoanalysis, ethics and aesthetics. She has been the senior professor of Arts and Aesthetics at Leeds University, UK, Faculty of psychoanalysis at European Graduate School, and senior arts professor at Bezalel Arts Academy-Jerusalem. She is a senior clinical psychologist.

Anjali Gopalan-

Love for all life forms is spirituality for her, Chevalier, Anjali Gopalan is an Indian Human Rights and Animal Rights activist, and she was born in Chennai to a Tamil father and Punjabi mother. In 2012, Time placed Gopalan in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world Anjali was awarded the Commonwealth Award for her work with the marginalized communities. In 2005, she was nominated and short-listed for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work to bring harmony to those whose lives have none.Anjali was honoured as a Woman Achiever by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Gopalan is the first Tamil woman awarded with "Legion of Honour".

Message from Bracha L Ettinger for Srishti Madurai Website Launch:

The other and the earth need to be known through affective communicaring in self-fragilization. The knowledge revealed in this way, of the invisible chords to which our senses are not yet attuned, is at the basis of the ethical obligation to attend to the vulnerability of the other, human, animal, and even our shared earth, through care and compassion and in wonder and reverance. Let’s work together against retraumatization and toward an understanding of a human subject which is informed by feminine transubjectivity in all genders, and become sensitive to the particular Eros of borderlinking between each I and non-I, which is a kind of love.

Message from Anjali Gopalan for Srishti Madurai Website Launch:

"This is a very happy moment. It is incredible what a group of young dedicated people are capable of doing. I know you will keep up the good work. Congratulations"

Gender Is Not Biological, Find Sociologists - science20.com

Think gender is determined by patriarchal biological concepts like a chromosome? You'll never make it in sociology thinking that way.

Instead, the social sciences are slowly overturning concepts like genital and chromosomes and other science, and it is being replaced by self-identity. The criteria for determining gender now, say Laurel Westbrook, assistant professor of sociology at Grand Valley State, and Kristen Schilt, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, have changed and self-identity is paramount. Only sex-segregated spaces believe that biology determines gender, they conclude.

If that becomes policy, it means that every female record in sports is going to be overturned soon.  And that isn't the only way women will be impacted in society. Right now, the sociologists argue, transgendered people are not allowed in female locker rooms or bathrooms or sports teams due to legacy understanding of gender as biological. Westbrook said as a result of these fears, transgender rights policies are often discarded or altered in ways that force transgender people to conform to normative ideas of gendered bodies in order to access public facilities and activities that fit their identities.

"We explore the criteria for determining who is a 'man' and who is a 'woman' in sex-segregated spaces," said Westbrook. "We are at an interesting point in the history of gender, where people are torn between valuing self-identity and believing that biology determines gender. Our study explores that change in the gender system."

They examined case studies involving public debates over the expansion of transgender employment rights, policies determining eligibility of transgender people for competitive sports, and proposals to remove the genital surgery requirement for a change of sex marker on birth certificates.

"Transgender equality has never been more visible as a key issue than it is today, and with the development of every new trans-supportive law or policy, there typically follows an outbreak of criticism," said Westbrook. "In our analysis, we find that these moments, which we term 'gender panics,' are the result of a clash between two competing cultural ideas about gender identity: a belief that gender is determined by biology versus a belief that a person's self-identity in terms of gender should be validated. These gender panics frequently result in a reshaping of the language of such policies so that they require extensive bodily changes before transgender individuals have access to particular rights."

What is Androgyny ?

Androgyny is the concept that someone can be between genders and/or inlabelable and/or has aspects that can be attributed to the opposite sex. Brilliant really, you can go into any toilet you want and not bat an eyelid. An Androgynous appearance can indicate one of two things. One, that a person considered him/her/hir self to be between genders, that no label can be attached to him/her/hir, or that they just really REALLY like to confuse people.

How to spot an androgyn

Look at the person next to you. Can you tell what sex s/he is for sure? And I don't mean a passable transsexual, I mean REALLY you don't have a fookin' clue whether this person is male or female. NO! DON'T ASK IF S/HE'S A GUY OR A GIRL! S/he'll beat you to within an inch of your life.

Right, just watch him/her/hir. Look at the way s/he behaves, ok and...OH, s/he has a girl/boyfriend, but could s/he be a lesbian? I have no idea!!!! Right, s/he's going to the toilet ok...ok...ummm, DAMN IT IT'S A UNISEX TOILET! How can you tell what s/he is?!!! Right, s/he's come out the toilet. Now wha...Fuck s/he knows I'm looking. S/he's given me the finger, damn s/he's gone.

What to do when you meet an androgyn

First thing you must not do is ask 'Are you a dude or a girl', as s/he will either confuse you or beat you vigourously. You may talk to the androgyn but whatever you do DON'T MENTION THE ANDROGYNY.

Also, don't believe that you won't meet an androgyn, because YOU WILL, really, you will! Trust me!

Androgynous identities

For those who identify as androgynous, there are many of those who identify with terms within this large umbrella term. Before I start, imagine a spectrum with the most eye crushingly masculine man possible at one end, and the most Effeminate woman at the other end. Please take into mind though that these are just the percieved understandings of one rambling idiot and may not be how things are for most people (Well this is uncyclopedia after all). Ready?

• Gender Neutral (neutrois): Where one's gender identity is standing in the center, one foot on the male half, the other on the female half.
• Bi-gender: Where one's gender identity would be neutral, but would swing from time to time from male to female juuuuuust slightly.
• Gender fluid: Where one's gender identity would run up and down the spectrum like a hyperactive child on Red Bull.
• Genderqueer: Where the person's gender identity flips the bird at the gender spectrum and goes off to play with the light spectrum.
• Genderless: Where a person's gender identity doesn't appear on the gender spectrum and just sits at home reading manga.
• Polygender: Where a person's gender clone's itself and goes to two separate points on the spectrum.

Why Androgyny

There are several reasons for androgyny. These range from an expression of gender identity that is primarily neutral, or the opposite to his/her sex or because s/he FUCKING CAN! Nine out of ten times it's the former.

Famous androgyns

• Oscar Wilde
• The Stig (Lets face it, we don't know what he is).
• You
• Michael Jackson (Note, Not all Androgyns are eccentric pedofiles, just Michael).
• Brian Molko
• Tedd of El goonish shive fame...
• Scott of Ctrl alt del fame...
• infact...
• Think of any webcomic.
• There's bound to be a androgyn there somewhere....
• Any anime, manga, or Japanese video game is bound to have an androgyn as well. This, however, is known as "bishounen," which is Japanese for "Androgynous Boy," so these characters are almost always male.