Mahua Moitra when she says the PM is catcalling the CM whenever he drawls “ Didi-O-Didi”. In this case, Narendra Modi is heckling a political rival and the rest is unfortunate culturally misplaced intonation. That does not, however, change the fact that in this frenzied grab for Bengal, our politicians have predictably and generously traded in gendered slights. Everyone knows, when pushed to a corner, society will berate women for characteristics /roles/physiognomy/instincts, typically in the absence of which you wouldn’t be able to tell apart one gender from another. No less than the great Aristotle said in his Physiognomonics that some aspects of womanliness, such as her high pitched voice, can be equated with evil. In The Gender of Sound, Anne Carson writes, “Aristotle tells us… creatures who are brave and just (like lions, bulls, roosters, and the human male), have large deep voices.”