Caste and Gender: A Question on Women’s Sexuality in a Brahmanical Patriarchal System

Abstract

In this paper the primary focus is given on the question of women’s sexuality. Women as a gendered category are never free; while the sexuality of the upper caste women is controlled by their male counterparts in the name of maintaining caste purity, the lower caste women are exploited sexually by the man of the upper caste. It has always been an existence of dominance on women’s sexuality whether she is in a position of upper strata in the caste system or in a lower position of the same. In a patriarchal society the domination on women’s sexuality is legitimized by the notion of ‘purity and pollution’ which is regarded as a central feature of the caste system. This paper is dealing with the primary concern on women’s sexuality; how being a woman (despite of their caste position) face subordination, discrimination throughout her life in a patriarchal society.