Mithu Sanyal Explained

Mithu Melanie Sanyal (born 1971 in Düsseldorf, Germany^[1]), also known as Mithu M. Sanyal, is a German academic in cultural studies, a journalist and author. Her main focuses are on feminism, racism, pop culture and postcolonialism.

Life and work

Mithu Sanyal was born Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1971 to a Polish mother and an Indian father. She studied German and English literary studies at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, where she went on to do a doctor's thesis in cultural history on female genitalia. In 2009, she published a book called Vulva. Die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts, which translates to Vulva. The uncovering of the invisible sex and is based on her dissertation.

Since 1996, Sanyal has been an author for radio programmes and audio books for the WDR, a public broadcasting company. Among others, she has also been writing for the NDR, BR, Frankfurter Rundschau, taz, junge Welt and the Federal Agency for Civic Education.^[2] Ever since her second book was published, Rape. From Lucretia to #MeToo, Sanyal has continually been invited to speak publicly on panels, readings and TV shows.^{[3] [4] [5]} The book Rape, the original being German, as well as Vulva, have been translated into several different languages.^[6]

Sanyal was somewhat critical of the

1. metoo

movement, arguing that accusations of sexual assault or harassment were irreversibly stigmatizing to the accused. Feminist media in Germany condemned this statement as a trivialisation of rape and sexual violence.^[7] Right-wing blogs and websites misrepresented Sanyal's argument as resulting from her Indian heritage, with some falsely claiming that rape was legal in India.^{[8] [9]}

On 17 February 2017, an article by Sanyal and the journalist Marie Albrecht published by German newspaper Die Tageszeitung sparked a controversy. Having conducted interviews with people who had experienced sexual violence, they suggested an alternative, additional term for self-identification of "Opfer", "victims", namely "Erlebende sexualisierter Gewalt", which translates to "people experiencing sexual violence". A right-wing German blog called Politically Incorrect published Sanyal's private e-mail address whereupon she received rape and death threats. Her article was widely discussed in mainstream media and even the German Feminist linguist Luise F. Pusch commented upon it in her blog.^[10] Hundreds of people also wrote e-mails to Sanyal showing her solidarity.^[11] In July 2019, the investigative journalism newsroom Correctiv published a statement about what happened titled No, Mithu Sanyal did not tell victims that a rape could be an experience (original: Nein, Mithu Sanyal hat Opfern nicht geraten, eine Vergewaltigung könne "auch Erleben sein").^[12]

In 2021, Sanyal published her first novel called Identitti. It is about a professor of Postcolonial theory, who named herself after the Hindu goddess Saraswati and falsely claims to be of Indian descent. When she turns out to be German and to have darkened her skin, the following scandal is told from the perspective of one of her students, Nivedita, who like Sanyal has a Polish mother and an Indian father. Using the pseudonym Identitti, Nivedita is the author of a blog and several social media accounts, on which she comments on topics such as racism, migration, sexual identity and orientation as well as identity politics. The character Saraswati alludes to the case of Rachel Dolezal. The novel has received mostly positive reviews.^[13]

In October 2021, Sanyal was admitted to the PEN Centre Germany.^[14] When the organisation split due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sanyal was among the members leaving the association and was elected to be on the board of the newly founded PEN Berlin.^[15]

Sanyal and her husband live in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk, Germany. They have two children,^[16] a son and a daughter.^[17] She told the magazine Stern that she has had several abortions.^[18]

Awards

Among other awards, Sanyal has received the Dietrich-Oppenberg-Medienpreis by the foundation Stiftung Lesen three times for her radio features about cultural history. Her novel Identitti was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2021.

Publications

Books published in English

• Rape. From Lucretia to #MeToo, Verso Books, Brooklyn (NY) / London, 2019, ISBN 978-1-78663-750-5 (German original: Vergewaltigung. Aspekte eines Verbrechens.).^[19]
• Identitti, Astra Publishing House, 2022, ISBN 978-1-6626-0130-9.

Books in German

• Vergewaltigung. Aspekte eines Verbrechens. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-96054-023-6.^[20]
• Vulva – die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts. Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8031-3629-9.
• co-authored by Jasna Strick, Nicole von Horst and Yasmina Banaszczuk: "Ich bin kein Sexist, aber ...". Sexismus erlebt, erklärt und wie wir ihn beenden. Orlanda Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-944666-00-6.
• Identitti. Roman. Carl Hanser Verlag, München 2021, ISBN 978-3-446-26921-7.
  • Über Emily Brontë. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2022, ISBN 978-3-462-00366-6.

Audio books

• Sternenkinder sterben schöner, later called Aliens sind auch nur Menschen, Director: Leonhard Koppelmann (WDR 2009)^[21]
• LoveArtLab Rules, Director: Ulrich Bassenge (WDR 2010)
• Post Porn Panik, Director: Leonhard Koppelmann (WDR 2012)^[22]
• Gott ist tot. Wirklich. Director: Martin Zylka, 55 Min. (WDR 2015)^[23]
• Identitti. Director: Eva Solloch, 52 Min. (WDR 2022)^{[24] [25]}

Articles in newspapers, journals and anthologies

• Zuhause. In: Fatma Aydemir, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah (Hrsg.): Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum. Ullstein fünf, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96101-036-3.
• From 2017 to 2019, Sanyal wrote the column Kolumne „Mithulogie" in Die Tageszeitung (taz)
• In 2019/2020, she wrote for The Guardian.^[26]

Links

• • • Website von Mithu M. Sanyal

References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20170301070235/http://www.sanyal.de/dr-mithu-sanyal/ "Dr. Mithu Sanyal"
2. https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/frauenwahlrecht/279361/ist-nun-gleichberechtigung Die erste Kanzlerin. Ist nun Gleichberechtigung?, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 12 November 2018
3. http://fudder.de/mithu-sanyal-spricht-heute-ueber-die-tiefengrammatik-von-sexueller-gewalt--168288590.html Kommunales Kino Freiburg: Mithu Sanyal spricht heute über die Tiefengrammatik von sexueller Gewalt, 12 March 2019
4. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/vorwuerfe-gegen-asia-argento-eine-person-kann-nicht-eine.1013.de.html?dram:article_id=426285 Vorwürfe gegen Asia Argento: "Eine Person kann nicht eine Bewegung diskreditieren". Mithu Sanyal im Gespräch mit Marietta Schwarz, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 23 August 2018
5. https://www.frauenrat.de/mithu-m-sanyal/ Deutscher Frauenrat: Mithu M. Sanyal, Video 16 January 2019
6. Web site: 2021-04-30. de-DE. Vergewaltigung. EDITION NAUTILUS.
7. Web site: 2019-03-29. 2017-02-18. Offener Brief gegen die sprachliche Verharmlosung sexueller Gewalt. Die Störenfriedas. Web site: 2019-03-29. 2017-02-21. Opfer sollen nicht mehr Opfer heißen. EMMA.
8. Web site: 2019-03-29. 2017-02-22. Gutmenschin meint Vergewaltigungs-Opfer sollten mehr Erlebende sein. halle-leaks.de (Blog).
9. Web site: 2019-03-29. David Berger. 2017-02-23. Unglaublich: Opfer von Vergewaltigung sollen ab jetzt "Erlebende" heißen. Philosophia Perennis.
10. https://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/frau/comments/vergewaltigung-als-erlebnis/ Vergewaltigung als Erlebnis?
11. Web site: 2019-03-29. Mascha Drost. 2017-03-03. Kulturwissenschaftlerin Mithu Sanyal – "Die Supermarkt-Verkäuferin fühlt sich vom Mainstream-Feminismus nicht repräsentiert". Deutschlandfunk.de.
12. Web site: 2021-02-22. Alice Echtermann. 2019-07-18. Correctiv. Nein, Mithu Sanyal hat Opfern nicht geraten, eine Vergewaltigung könne "auch Erleben sein".
13. Web site: 2021-04-29. Tobias Kniebe. de. "Identitti", Roman von Mithu Sanyal: Chaos der Identitäten. 17 February 2021 . Web site: 2021-04-29. de-DE. Mithu Sanyal: "Identitti" – Debatte im Schleudergang. Web site: 2021-04-29. Ronald Düker. 2021-02-13. "Identitti": "Literatur muss freundlich sein". Die Zeit.
14. Web site: 2022-02-11. 2021-10-28. PEN nimmt neue Mitglieder auf, darunter Mithu Sanyal, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Jo Lendle und Benedict Wells. PEN-Zentrum Deutschland.
15. News: 2022-06-14. Andreas Platthaus. 2022-06-10. FAZ.NET. Nach Abspaltung: Wie begonnen, so zerronnen.
16. Web site: 2021-04-09. RP ONLINE. 2016-11-19. de. Mithu M. Sanyal: "Vergewaltigung ist kein Frauenthema".
17. Der ewig postpubertäre Typ. Ruprecht (Heidelberger Studierendenzeitung), 15 June 2018.
18. Wir haben abgetrieben. Mithu Sanyal: "Zu meinem Leben gehören Kinder, aber auch Abtreibungen". Mithu Sanyal ist Kulturwissenschaftlerin und Autorin. Die 49-Jährige hat dreimal abgetrieben und wünscht sich, dass in der Gesellschaft offener über das Thema gesprochen wird. Ein Protokoll. Der Stern, 7 June 2021.
19. https://www.versobooks.com/books/2922-rape Rape. From Lucretia to #MeToo, by Mithu Sanyal, Verso Books, 2019
20. Christiane Florin: Narrative der Gewalt: Über die Kulturgeschichte der Vergewaltigung. In: deutschlandfunk.de, Andruck – Das Magazin für Politische Literatur. 21 November 2016. (24 November 2016)
21. Web site: 2023-03-16. WDR. 2023-03-13. de. Hörspiel "Aliens sind auch nur Menschen" von Mithu Sanyal.
22. Web site: 2023-02-18. de. Post Porn Panik – Detektivin trifft auf Sexualtherapeutin.
23. Web site: 2023-02-18. de. Gott ist tot – wirklich! – Der Messias ist zurück. Oder?.
24. Web site: 2023-06-14. de. Identitti (1/2): Skandal um gefakte PoC-Identität.
25. Web site: 2023-06-14. de. Identitti (2/2): Fake-PoC möchte Identität frei wählen.
26. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mithu-sanyal The Guardian, Profil von Mithu Sanyal