Film review : Do our bodies belong to us.

Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus is a visual and intellectual feat, one that is able to ask fundamental questions about our relationship with our bodies in the modern world. The film reveals how the maintenance and management – under fast-paced scientific innovation – of the able body that sees, resists internal degeneration and replaces defunct organs to live for as long as possible is more under medical control, and under the control of capital, than we think. This is a world in which organs are a part of global traffic and circulate within a system of capital flow. Gandhi raises deeply philosophical questions against the background of this material context, exploring issues related to ethics, political action and choice.

Gender bending, gender testing: reflections on the Pinki Pramanik case.

The arrest and subsequent humiliation of Indian athlete and international medal winner Pinki Pramanik has violated her right to privacy, bodily integrity, and basic human dignity.It has also raised important and often sidelined questions about gender, sports and the way the world is organised.Twenty-six-year-old Pramanik was accused by her live-in partner of repeated rape and torture, and of being a man. She was arrested on June 14, 2012. She was not granted bail for 26 days, which she spent in a male cell in a West Bengal jail, and she had to undergo three gender determination tests at different state hospitals, because the necessary facilities were not available at a single hospital.