The Pamphlet Project Blog

This post is meant to be an archive of sorts of the new developments happening in the world of men, by the minute. File news stories about new urban trends, paradigm shifts in masculinity, representations of masculinity and other related stuff here.

‘The Pamphleteers Discussion Group’ is an informal forum to talk about the themes connected with The Pamphlet Project of Red Earth. Much as the idea was to explore the link between coffee and literature; the new coffee houses are horridly bourgeois, capitalistic, consumeristic sites, which hardly foster a climate conducive to thought. Hence, the discussion group, which used to earlier meet at a coffee house, has now moved to a friendlier place - the round the corner, unbranded, chai ki dukaan (roadside tea stall). Hopefully, this time around there will be no hassles, and the cops won’t come and throw us off the street, one of the few places where people of all kinds can assemble.

The theme of this time’s discussion is ‘Work, Play, and the New Male Body: Streetwise Metrosexuality’. Street metrosexuality reaffirms that metrosexuality is not just an elitist, upper class phenomenon; and that the rising culture of grooming and looking good, if not the other attributes of metrosexuality have percolated down to the not so ‘modern’ sections of the populace. Metrosexuality is not just the preserve of the elite, but finds manifestation in the (seemingly) unlikeliest of places - in around the corner, footpath barber shops which now offer facials, manicures and pedicures, and more.

We will be meeting some owners / managers of low profile beauty parlours from various localities of Delhi, as well as some of their metrosexual customers and talking to them, and others who have devised innovative ways to participate in metrosexuality.

The well known sociologist Sanjay Srivastava, a large part of whose work deals with narratives of ‘provincial’ modernity in the city has agreed to moderate the discussion. Some other areas that Sanjay will focus on are:
1) New techniques of the male body.
2) Whether or not this has similarities with older bodily techniques.
3) The rise of a transnational style that appears to be a prerequsite for new kinds of jobs to be had in the service industries: people working in bars, department stores, consumer goods industries, etc.

The session will take place on 8th April 2005, at 6:30 PM at Subhash bhai’s tea stall opposite NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), Hauz Khas, New Delhi. While it might be a bit uncomfortable compared to the plush coffee shop, it will also be exciting… I would greatly appreciate if you drop in a line confirming your presence at the session.

Cheers to the Pamphleteers !

Himanshu Verma
Director, Red Earth
Ph: 9818210894

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Though you might like to read this interesting article which offers corrosive satire on the modern coffee-house’s idea of ‘coffee culture’:

http://www.business-standard.com/general/storypage_test.php?&autono=183269

Cheers

Himanshu

Hello Folks!

‘The Pamphleteers Discussion Group’ is an informal forum to talk about the themes connected with the pamphlet project of Red Earth, over endless cups of that thought provoking beverage called coffee, started with venue support by The Village Cafe. The group is meeting on Thursday 27 January 2005, at 8 PM.

I have put together a visual presentation for the evening, called ‘Objectification / Commodification’ which looks at manifestations of masculinity in contemporary Indian advertising. While I have a large corpus of Ads related to masculinity, it will also be nice if you would like to bring your own Ads, and talk about them in the interactive session after the presentation.

I would greatly appreciate if you drop in a line confirming your presence at the session. And yes, please do buy coffee - not only will it stimulate your grey cells, but it will also ensure that The Village Cafe doesn’t throw us out for being an expensive nuisance! Here is the address:
The Village Cafe (Next to Subway)
C-16, Commercial Complex
S.D. Area, Opposite IIT Gate
New Delhi
Phone: 51657111 / 2

Also, please check out, and if you like become a member of The Pamphlet Project Blog, the online forum for The Pamphlet Project, on which we will also be posting reports for the discussion group. It’s on at www.blog.redearthindia.com

Cheers to the Pamphleteers !

Himanshu

Himanshu Verma
Director, Red Earth
A 39/3, SFS, Saket
New Delhi 110017
Ph: 011-51764054, 98182-10894
www.redearthindia.com
himanshu@redearthindia.com

Red Earth, with venue support from The Village Cafe has now started ‘The Pamphleteers Discussion Group’ to talk informally about the themes connected with the pamphlet, over endless cups of that thought provoking beverage called coffee.

The inaugural session featured a presentation by Diepiriye Sungumote Kuku-Siemons, on Metrosexuality and Consumerism, a work in progress, that will be published by Red Earth in February as part of the series ‘Besides The Pamphlet: Exploring Satellite Concerns’, meant to foreground themes related to the main theme of the pamphlet, in smaller, less voluminous genres like the broadsheet. The session was held at The Village Cafe, New Delhi on Thursday 13 January 2005, 8 Pm onwards.

Diepiriye presented a talk in which he argued that metrosexuality is tantamount to a cultural appropriation of some elements of gay culture by the straight men, and also that despite all this talk of redefinition of boundaries of gender metrosexuality was still heteronormative. The former point was perhaps the most debated one of the evening. He dwelled on several newspaper reports to highlight how metrosexuality is represented, and commented on what according to him was the ideal kind of metrosexuality (husband changing nappies et al). Another locus of focus was how capitalists and marketeers are devising newer strategies by the day to get men to buy more, and buy stuff that they didn’t buy till now, like cosmetics. Despite the many tangents that the discussants went on, the talk was followed by, let’s call it ‘interesting’ interaction.

I know I’m leaving out lots, but I trust others present at the discussion would add more.

Himanshu Verma

Discuss ‘The Metrosexuals: Exploring the Unexplored. Volume 1: Introduction’, Issue 1 of The Pamphlet Project. Talk about any aspect of the pamphlet (style, content, design) or explore any other theme mentioned in it - metrosexuality, and all about men, the way they are today, and the hows and whys of it.