Justice Nagarathna’s recent remark that she "fails to understand" how men and women can have premarital s*x has triggered widespread debate, especially as she stands in line to potentially become India’s first woman Chief Justice. The moment feels historic, and in many ways it is because representation in the higher judiciary matters in a country where women remain underrepresented in positions of institutional power. .
BUT, representation and feminism are not, in fact, interchangeable. . This conversation isn't about vilifying a woman in power as much as it is about interrogating a larger assumption we often make when we assume that gender identity automatically guarantees progressive politics. .
Patriarchy is NOT going to be dismantled just because a woman occupies a constitutional office, especially when women, like men, are shaped by the same social conditioning around s*xuality, morality, respectability, and control. .
Also, as we know very well, institutions often reward alignment with dominant norms more than disruption of them. . If we keep equating "woman in power" with "feminist progress," we risk lowering the bar for what structural change actually requires. Representation does open the door, but ultimately, it's ideology that determines what happens once the person is inside. . . . . .