KOCHI: From kindergarten to school, nothing changed. She was taught to be good, not to scream, laugh out loud or to be seen “too happy”. For, all these were meant for boys. She was asked not to name certain body parts. Too many taboos existed in her life. But, 24-year-old Aparna Gopan was not ready to give up.
She wanted to bring in a change. As a 2016 Kanthari fellow, she was trained in diverse aspects of social entrepreneurship, especially fund-raising, project management and impact assessment and evaluation. She was in Kenya for initial understanding of gender-related issues in East Africa in 2017, for a news project.
This led her to start ‘Elefant in the Room’, a provocative movement which runs theme-based campaigns on the various uncomfortable conversations people tend to squirm away from. “I believe that silence is the biggest thing that we face today.
So, I wanted to bring about a change in this first,” says Aparna Gopan, founder of ‘Elefant in the room’. She began conducting campaigns against taboos like gender, sex work, masturbation and mental health. This she did by organising branded events like ‘Elefant libraries’, ‘Elefant talks’, ‘Elefant poop graffiti’ and ‘Elefant freeze mobs’. Elefant libraries are sessions similar to human libraries, but deeply personalised and concerning taboos in one’s life, where everyone is a book and everyone is a reader. It is a half-and-hour session where two people sit and talk about the taboos that they have come across their lives.
They have conducted Elefant libraries in Bengaluru, Goa and have conducted initial research on gender-related taboos in Kenya. She says, “It was difficult for me to conduct campaigns in Kenya as religion was very dominant there but I was able to get the attention of few people towards gender-related issues.”
The ambassadors of the project, Rohan Mathews, Kaushik Tekur and Pragna Sekhar have conducted online campaigns like #themasturbatingElefant and #themenstruatingelefant.
In Thiruvananthapuram, they are working on ‘The Gender Elefant’ campaign, wherein a sex-ed curriculum for children and gender diversity training for institutions will be held. They are also planning a graffiti project and drag show. To talk about taboos, log on to www.elefantintheroom.org
