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 A nerd’s deeply personal take on social media vilification of the nerd archetype across pop-culture . Read on for more. 

Humour is tricky business. Tracing back to the rasa theories of sentiments and emotions, every humour has an origin and the origin of our laughter too can be traced to different causalities. It can either be sourced as a something that makes us laugh through the display of deviance in an attempt to domesticate something that is wrong with society, or in what I wish to term as humour of a low order, it can emerge from a need to make a standing example of a non-conforming entity, who happens to stick out due to a deviance inherent to their character.

Such humouring of identities of “other” often unconsciously result in vilification of archetypes in popular culture which fuels social media content which on the grounds of generating humour to run their dubious algorithms end up putting on sacrificing social responsibility at the altar of parodying the non-conformist – in the case of this article the figure of the nerd. The nerd figure has long been relegated to a realm of marginality in popular imagination, one which has resulted in social media content creators to repeatedly generate humour at their cost. The normalisation of the same has become so exceedingly widespread that the archetype of the nerd figure now borders on the level of almost being a villain despised by one and all.

Take for example the widely popular film from recent years of Indian cinema – 3 Idiots. The supposedly antagonist in the film is the typical nerd figure as seen through the character of Chatur Ramalingam is repeatedly made to be the butt end of jokes due for no fault of his. He simply has a vision of academic achievement which is not in concurrence with that of the protagonist and in order to prove the point of the protagonist the nerd figure is not only made an example of the in the most vile ways possible but also made to take part in one of the most insensitive dramatisations of a rape joke in recent cinema history. Even in a film like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani or something as cult as Kal Ho Na Ho the heroines are nerds who have their hair tied in buns and wear glasses and spend their days engrossed in books and academia. In order for them to be desirable by the hero, they have to shed their persona of the “typical nerd” and have hair flowing, while sequin dresses grace their lithe bodies. There is no room here for appreciation of a life spent behind the pursuit of knowledge – be it out of individual will or out of societal pressure, a deeply pertinent argument which is often relegated to non-existence.

Social media pages dedicated to generating humour based out of educational spaces and the lives of people involved in academia thrive on humour which emerges at the expense of nerd archetypes. Meme carousels take great pride in criticising students who spend hours devoted to studying and suffer from severe bouts of depression and performance anxiety by reducing their issues to the simplistic phrase – they are a topper and they always lie about the preparation. The truth of the after more often than not is different. The idea of the nerd as someone who deliberately gaslights their own readiness in order to feed off the mediocrity of others is a problem which completely exterminates the immense expectations – familial, societal and professional – the students have to cater to. To be someone who chooses to win and internalises winning comes at the cost of knowing that one is consciously ascribing an identity of marginality to oneself – an ascribing which should be free of any sort of shame or stigma.

Such humour further perpetuates a cycle whereby these students not only end up doubting their own self worth but are never allowed to take pride in what they believe to be a philosophy of life that must be adhered to. Humour for the sake of entertainment is of course something that should be and must be encouraged. But humour that is indulged in without realising the exact impact it has on marginal identities in society is something that should be shunned especially in our largely current virtual world where a single meme transcends time and space and more often than not does more harm than good when left unchecked.

Anwesh Banerjee

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Education is the foremost right of all people. Wanting their representation in books shouldn’t be a privilege. This piece aims to highlight the importance of Inclusive Curriculum in modern day schools.

As a society, we’re constantly refusing the ideals of patriarchy and discrimination. It’s imperative to realise, that those ideals could be illustrated in books as well. The curriculum students are taught at colleges or schools act as a medium for to resonate with the world. However, the curriculum taught hasn’t been changed since past many years.

The book assigned to my mother is the one I still have to study now. Curriculum should be periodically updated to ensure its reflecting the current state of society, not how it was a century ago. There’s a huge part of modern day relationships, identities and choice that is completely ignored in this course.

Inclusive curriculum is defined as an approach to course and unit design, and to teaching-learning practice which aims to improve access and successful participation in education of groups traditionally excluded from tertiary education.

This is to show students that there are people just like them in this multicultural society, so they feel better engaged with their schoolwork and can better relate to course materials. If there is no representation of their identity, race, sexuality, religion or nationality embedded within the course, many end up feeling disillusioned and demotivated.

As per the Times report, more than 63% of students cannot relate to the subject being taught in school and feel demotivated instead. For example, its like opening a brown magazine with an extremely fair cover girl with European features. After seeing that magazine, there’s a high chance you might find yourself less beautiful. Just the same way students who are from oppressed communities do not see themselves in the course they study, yet are still expected to comprehend it.

An inclusive curriculum helps them see that all walks of life are relevant and important, and that they are in a safe environment where everyone is not only accepted, but celebrated. People all over the world, are starting to recognise this, and many have started implementing a more inclusive curriculum. They are already seeing positive changes in students, reporting higher rates of achievement and better engagement.

The other aspect of Inclusive Education is to make students familiarise with modern complexities like social media management, financial literacy, scientific temperament, and political ideologies that affects them. It’s an attempt to give an exposure of real life situations to students in these institutions to make them informed citizens.

For you to understand the concept much better, here are few examples of good teaching practice in an inclusive curriculum. Introducing students to LGBTQIA+ literature, about regressive Transgender Bill,supporting female Muslim students in physiotherapy education, teaching capitalism to students of economics, rural geography, auto-ethnic profiling, co-creating the curriculum for fine arts and, history, and faith, spirituality, and social work.

Inclusive curriculum will be a revolutionary tool in modern day education. It will help raising sensitive, kind and socially aware students than cramming expert robots. The education will go far beyond than just acing exams, it will result in informative classroom discussions and will make students more accepting of their flaws and other people. Inclusive curriculum is a great way to raise awareness about and then eventually solve many social evils prevailing in the society.

Feature Image Credits: Vaibhav Tekchandani for DU beat

Chhavi Bahmba 

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A look at the controversy and the arguments surrounding the decision to field an all male panel during Day 1 of Kirori Mal College’s Women Conclave, organised by National Service Scheme unit’s Women Empowerment Cell, Sahas.

The annual Kirori Mal Women Conclave was held on the 23rd and 24th September in the college campus. However, when the speakers for the panel discussion to be conducted on Day 1 was revealed, it turned out that an event which claimed to celebrate ‘Women and womenhood’ did not have a single female panelist, with the only one keynote speaker being female, Ms. Ira Singhal. The speakers announced for the panel discussion on Day 1 were Mr. Kanishk Priyadarshi and Mr. Pavitra Paruthi from Scoopwhoop, and Mr. Ankush Bahugana from MensXP. This decision was heavily criticized profusely on social media, as many came forward with the irony in representation in an event organized by the Women’s Develpoment Cell, and on the topic “Women and womenhood”

The repercussions of this event were felt on Day 1 itself, when Mr. Bahugana backed out from the event, citing that the panel discussion should have had female representation. Alongside this, the event was also met with protestors holding up banners during the panel session protesting against the lack of female representation. On speaking to one of the protestors, Adrija, a first-year student, she said, “In every panel, every field around the world, men are the dominant people who are part of these discussions, so I feel that in places like women conclaves which is on women’s issues, women are severely needed, So kya point hai discussion ka (What’s the point of a discussion).” She also stated that the discussion got derailed because the panel didn’t talk about major issues. She mentioned that there was no representation of transwomen or the queer community in this year’s event.

On 23rd September, the instagram handle of Sahas uploaded a post reaffirming their ideas, and justifying their decisions.


View this post on Instagram

We have witnessed a certain backlash regarding our all male panel for the day 1 of the Women Conclave 2019. Yes, it is true that the panel consists of all men but we took this subsequently intentional and bold step to convey and put forward certain views. Firstly, we believe that it is not only women who have the responsibility to empower other women. Voices of women are heard. But is not only the duty of other women to echo those voices. Next, Women Conclave is simply about celebrating womenhood and supporting hardworking women. Is women empowerment so sacred that only women have the right to talk about it? We certainly disagree. Furthermore, we did try to contact certain women we thought would make this panel even more admirable than it already is. However, due to certain reasons and their prior commitments, it could not happen. We cannot ignore the fact that for the past 2 Conclaves, we have had only women talking about women’s issues. This year also, majority of the sessions are dominated by strong women. The all male panel is indeed a controversial step but we do not regret it and are rather excited about it because at the end of the day, everyone has something to say. Nevertheless, we do have a female panellist who will be moderating this panel. So we request you all to kindly attend the session. We promise to answer all your questions. Yours sincerely, Arshita Chaurasia Head Coordinator

A post shared by SAHAS (@sahas_wec) on

On speaking to Arshita Chaurasia, the head event coordinator for the event and the treasurer of the NSS unit, it was mentioned that women speakers were invited for Day 1, but they weren’t available.  She stated that the idea of all male panel was taken to the Convenor and the Principal and they felt there was no such issue, as men should speak on these issues and be educated as well on women empowerment. Dr. Benu Gupta, the program officer for NSS said “What we are looking for is of course women empowerment and capacity building of women. But ultimately society is made equally by men and women so if we only keep on empowering women and not sensitizing the men and we won’t hear men about what they are experiencing, then it doesn’t make any sense. You are biased if you are not taking men on board.” It was also pointed out that six of the ten speakers were women, when taking into consideration both days of the event. To strengthen her argument, Dr. Gupta also pointed out that for something like the keynote session held by Mr. Rakshit Tandon on Day 1, on the topic of cyber security, expertise and knowledge was the determining factor and not gender.

Feature Image Credits: Stuti Srivastava for La Voice KMC

Prabhanu Kumar Das

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