What Will They Think: A Choreography of Feminine Surveillance

Abstract

This article theorizes feminine surveillance as a choreography of internalized ideology, where Indian womanhood is regulated not through overt discipline but through emotional scripts, sartorial cues, and social whispers. Drawing on Louis Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs), Judith Butler’s gender performativity, and Sara Ahmed’s feminist killjoy, the essay maps how everyday acts—dressing, thanking, menstruating, walking at night—become ideological performances. Through cinematic critique (Mrs., 2024), personal anecdotes, and cultural rituals, the article explores how the “bad girl” archetype resists normative femininity by refusing apology, embracing visibility, and disrupting ideological rhythms. It proposes a feminist methodology rooted in emotional resonance, aesthetic resistance, and lived witnessing