Archana Menon

Gudiya

Archana Menon

The female breast is an image charged with layers of meaning. It is seen as an erotic object that is then transformed into an object of torture and revenge. A survival object transformed into a commodity. The breast has been used by women as a form of feminine protest in the stories of Nangeli – who chopped off her breasts to fight the ‘Breast Tax’ (mulakarram) and consequently assumed an almost goddess like stature, like Kannagi, who hurled her left breast at the city of Madurai as a curse thereby setting it ablaze.