Reading Notes: Week 5, Sita Sings the Blues Part B

Reading Notes: Week 5, Sita Sings the Blues Part B

(Ravana Doesn't Fully Trust Sita, Source: Feminism in India)

Source: Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

• I really don't like Dave he sucks
• This first song has more girl-power vibes rather than damsel in distress vibes from Sita's songs. I'm wondering if this music represents the modern portion of the story
• I kind of dislike Rama in this version more after sympathizing with Sita as the main character. I definitely sympathized with Rama more in the written action story. Who exiles a pregnant woman into the forest?! This makes Rama seem less like a hero to me. He might be virtuous but after everything Sita has been through with him I can't believe he would do that just because people are gossiping about him. People love him anyways, I don't think Sita would have changed that much. Plus Ravana was a rakshasa I thought, wouldn't they know if her kids were rakshasas?
• This actually really shines a light on the unequal treatment of women in this story. It wasn't Sita's fault she was captured, yet Rama is still punishing her
• 1:01:20 Sita thinks karma from past life is what is causing her grief
• This really highlights that the Ramayana is basically Sita's rendition of the story since Valmiki is the one who wrote the Ramayana down based on what Sita told him
• I don't understand why Valmiki and Sita would want the twins to sing praises of Rama since this story portrays him as not caring about them or Sita after Ravana held her captive
• Sita's story shows that women were supposed to only care about their husband. She contemplated suicide every time he didn't want her back
• 1:07:30 Sita didn't go back with Hanuman and caused hundreds of thousands to die
• I love that Nina's story is entwined in this, because it really demonstrates how we hate Dave in her story, but for some reason we still love Rama in the Ramayana
• I can see why they downplay the romance in the Ramayana because it makes it hard to root for Rama when he is so heartless towards Sita at the end
• It is almost like Sita is supposed to be a hero in this version, but Sita did start a lot of trouble by wanting the deer
• This version somewhat demeans Sita too by making it seem like the only emotion she feels is love for Rama