India might be the land of Kamasutra, but the Asian community is still hush-hush about sex, menstruation and pleasures that women must seek. To discuss some of those taboos, Asian Voice spoke to Sangeeta Pillai, Founder of Soul Sutras South Asian Feminist Network, award-winning podcaster at British Podcast Awards, who is also the Speaker and Creator of Masala Podcast and Masala Monologues. She revealed her approach towards strategising podcasts around the Asian community and its taboos.
How do you think the approach towards taboos has evolved over the years since the inception of Soul Soutras? Do you see a major paradigm shift in this?
It’s heartening to see more open conversations around taboos thanks to Masala Podcast and Masala Monologues. Tackling taboos however is life-long work for me. Like so many other South Asian women, I grew up surrounded by shame and taboo. Particularly, shame around my body, my sexual self, periods….the list was exhausting. I have personally experienced the damage that is done by taboos in our culture. With Soul Sutras, I wanted to create safe spaces for South Asian women to tell our stories, to express our pain and to connect with each other and explore our common cultural identity. As well as tackle taboos in our culture. Not just those around sex and sexuality but around getting our periods, growing up, sexual harassment, mental health and more. I’m hoping that young South Asian girls can see the work we do and no longer feel that sense of shame or taboo that I felt growing up. That’s why it’s important for me personally to keep doing the work that I’m doing.
If you were to list 5 dominant taboos in the Asian culture, what would they be?
Top 5 taboos that I’ve seen in my work are: sex, self-pleasure, periods, mental health and colourism.
In the age of social media where women are finally getting a platform to speak their mind, they’re still threatened and trolled with backlash for having an opinion. What’s your take and advice to women who use social media as a tool to express themselves?
My first bit of advice is: don’t listen to the haters!Secondly: you’re clearly hitting a nerve, hence triggering a backlash for having expressed an opinion. So keep doing the good work that you’re doing. My take on this is simple: being trolled for having an opinion is incredibly difficult. But if we don’t stand up for what we believe in and challenge things that don’t work for us – nothing will ever change. So it’s important for all the incredible women using their social media for advocacy, to keep believing in the power of their voice. And keep doing what they do. Change is coming.
What’s the most recurring taboo that keeps coming to your notice while you conduct workshops, podcasts, webinars and theatre shows? What do you think is the root cause of our community’s myopic vision towards scientific outlook?
Sex & shame are probably the most frequently recurring themes that I find in my workshops, podcasts, webinars and theatre shows. This is because our culture or upbringing teaches us that our bodies are somehow “dirty”. This means periods are hidden. That concepts like self pleasure are shameful. Also because we are told that showing our ‘wounds’ makes us somehow seem weak, we as a community tend to only share the good things in our life. Whereas it’s sharing those bits of ourselves that are human & fragile – that’s what truly connects us. The root cause of all this? I think we’ve internalised a lot of old belief systems that no longer work in the modern world. And because our culture and cultural beliefs are so intertwined as British South Asians living outside South Asian, change can be difficult.
Can you share some numbers, data or case studies with us from your journey at Masala Podcast and Soul Sutra’s projects so far that made a difference?
Masala Podcast has had the most incredible journey. Season 1 only had 9 episodes on Season 1, which has had over 10,000 downloads. Masala Podcast was nominated for two British Podcast Awards 2020. Best New Podcast. Best Sex & Relationships Podcast. And we won silver in the ‘Best Sex & Relationships Podcast‘ category. (British Podcast Awards are sort of like the Oscars of the Podcast world so it’s a huge boost to my work.) But more than numbers or awards, the incredible feedback I’ve received from South Asian women listening to my podcast has been truly heartening.
