Good Girls Marry Doctors

Abstract

From the publisher that brought us Gloria Anzaldua’s classic work Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), now comes Good Girls Marry Doctors:South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion. AuntLute Books gives us this 2016 anthology of short stories edited by Piyali Bhattacharyathat, I envision, will strike a similar chord of deep resonance withthose who are living in the liminal spaces of mixed consciousness, mixed cultures,mixed religions – the South Asian American diasporic community andbeyond. The striking cover of the book shows a graphic illustration of a browngirl decked in traditional South Asian gold jewelry and a red sarhi, her handslipping underneath the fabric below her waist, leaving the viewer to imaginethat she is feelin’ herself.The style of writing and the range of themes allow this book to speak toa multitude of audiences. The book can easily be included in syllabi rangingfrom South Asian American studies, American studies, and Islamic studies towomen/gender/sexuality studies, cultural studies, and affect theory. WhatBhattacharya set out to do over a span of eight years in bringing this collectionto fruition is to create for herself and the women she knew a network, a community,a support system (p. v) – “we had to find our tribe” (p. viii). What Ifind interesting and useful in this collection is that it can be used as an illustrationof how gender and sexuality frame affective knowledge productionand world-making in diasporic communities ...