தமழப பண கவஞரகளன கவதகளல பண உடல மழ / Female Body Language in the Poems of Tamil Female Poets

In the ancient Sangam literature in Tamil, one can see that patriarchal thought is common in the Indian family system apart from the hunting social system that went beyond the tribal tradition. Various social rituals related to women’s bodies, women’s professions, beliefs and religious institutions oppress women. Femininity is constructed as someone who possesses qualities such as fear, tenderness, modesty, and chastity and who is submissive to the male authority in the family. Women are considered as the one who fulfils men’s desires, who is the object of desire, who ought not to question the male's knowledge, who do not uphold the authority of knowledge, who cannot leave the family system, who are subject to physical and social rules and who does not break caste rules. There is a common perception that if any female poet writes about female organs in their poems, it is called female body language. This study aims to re-read this and examine how the female body is recorded in the poems of Tamil female poets that transcend the boundaries of male-centric culture, by raising voices against anti-female concepts and values, and against the violence inflicted upon them.