SHRUTI GOPAL'S PEFORMANCE OF SHUPRPANAKHI
Shruti Gopal, a Bharatnatyam dancer performed an interpretation on the story of Shurpanakhi. According to the interpretation, Shurpanakhi is a dark-skinned woman from Lanka who falls in love with Lakshmana. However on approaching him, instead of just rejecting her, he disfigures her by cutting of her nose and ears. Distraught and angry, she approaches Ravana, her brother for help. The performance ends with Shurpanakhi accepting herself and becoming the persona of Shantamurthi, a picture of internal and external stillness.
This performance challenges the existing notions of beauty of women that we have in every society. Shurpanakhi struggles with insecurity and doubts whether she will be accepted by the male she is in love with. She despises her identity as a Rakshasi which shows how she hates parts of herself. She is desperate to fit in and be loved and thereby, changes her body to that effect. Her new self conforms to the standards of beauty that the society has stipulated. However, when she she approaches her object of interest with her proposal she is rejected in an extremely brutal manner - Lakshmana cuts off her noes and years. She is punished for transcending her gender roles - a man should be the one to approach a woman he is interested in and not the other way around. This idea suppresses female sexuality and her freedom. By disfiguring Shurpanakhi, Lakshmana has made her an outcast - ostracized by everybody she meets because they cannot look at her disfigured face. This makes her hate herself even more and question her decisions. Lakshmana's actions are an extreme and brutal reaction to something that should have been normal. Ultimately, cast off by society, she finds acceptance in nature which does not care for her disfigurement. Nature accepts us for who we are. This is a contrasting image to the picture of nature as painted as brutal and dangerous. In this version, it is the "civilized culture" which is dangerous.
Shurpanakhi represents every woman who is struggling to accept her body. It is a desperate struggle for women trying to fit it. If they are not trying to fit in - they have to fight body shaming, name calling and many times, rejection.
