Patriarchy In Mean Girls

Third, at a later time in the movie, Jagan (Arul’s younger brother) develops feelings for Ponni who has now become a mother. Interestingly, he proposes to her, saying that he can be a better husband and father than Michael, when Ponni is in great distress because of Michael’s conviction and arrest. The movie makes it seem that Jagan is empathetic towards the plight of Ponni in her boisterous marriage. But, his actions must be contextualized within patriarchy- Jagan hails from a superior class and Michael works for their family. His idea of being able to take better care of Ponni is defined largely in material terms. Therefore, this reinforces Lerner’s (1986) concept of women having access to class, and the privileges it entails therein, only

After Michael is arrested, Ponni takes up a job that requires her to work late into the night. The separation from her husband exposes her to the threat of being perceived as sexually available. When Jagan proposes to her, Ponni, without responding with her answer the next day, simply flees the town overnight. This is her passive resistance to the advances of a man who wants to give her access to his class privilege through a sexual relationship. Later, when Michael confronts Ponni about her alleged affair with Jagan, she strongly asserts her refusal to answer such a question that doubts her chastity. She also tells Michael that she had known of his sexual relationship with Malar in the past. Here too, she is resisting the double standards of patriarchy, where a man’s sexual deviance is condoned by blaming it on the woman’s inefficiency as a wife, while a woman’s sexual deviance is met with severe condemnation, and even legitimizes physical coercion to chastise her (Chakravarti, 1993,

When Michaels learns upon his release that he has become a father, he sets out in search of Ponni and tries to win her over by declaring that he shall not engage in illegal activities anymore. She disagrees to go back with him until he tells her what alternate livelihood he plans to pursue to rebuild their life. Michael is perpetually disappointed with his two year old daughter referring to him as ‘uncle’ instead of ‘Appa’ (father). When he tells Ponni to teach the child the right word, she tersely tells him that her child will call him Appa when he fulfills his duties as one. Ponni has clearly subverted the patriarchal appropriation of a woman’s reproductive labour (Lerner, 1986). Furthermore, within the Brahmanical patriarchal framework which legitimizes the male control of female sexuality in order to maintain the purity of caste, motherhood is misappropriated (Chakravarti, 1993, p.582). While the child empirically belongs to the mother, the father is given ideological legitimacy through patriarchy to claim the child as the extension and perpetuation of his lineage. Ponni subverts this notion and proclaims her motherhood by not allowing the child to recognize his fatherhood until he empirically proves it by being a responsible material provider. Iraivi, by painting on a broad canvas, exploring the lives of these different women brings a lot of nuance to