De/constructing the Ableist Gaze

Dis/ability and Desire in Manik Bandyopadhyay’s novel Padma Nadir Majhi (The Boatman of the Padma)

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of Kuber-Kapila's extramarital love affair under the lens of disability studies in Bengali author Manik Bandyopadhyay's novel Padma Nadir Majhi (The Boatman of the Padma) (1936). The concept of "ableist gaze" comes from the ideology of ableism and gaze/ spectatorship. It is rooted in the social expectations of normalcy, a desire for attaining 'perfect' body. Ableist gaze or non-disabled gaze has a sexual underpinning; it prefers to see able-bodied people as sexual beings. Especially women with physical handicap or impairment are treated as sexually less appealing. The "to-be-looked-at-ness" of the perfect female body, as film theorist Laura Mulvey puts it, engages an ableist point of view. The ableist male gaze privileges 'able-bodied' women as they are seen to be capable of evoking sexual attraction. This gaze-based sexual ability, accoording to Kirsty Liddiard, is termed as "sexual ableism". Sexual ableism inferiorizes and marginalizes disabled people. The two women in Kuber's life - the 'able-bodied' Kapila and disabled Mala - complicate his family life because he prioritizes his ableist gaze towards Kapila. This paper argues if Mala's dis/ability is the core reason behind Kuber's extramarital desire for Kapila. The paper also addresses the fact that Kapila's 'able-bodied-ness' and Kuber's ableist gaze construct and deconstruct each other