<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[atomicrakshasi]]></title><description><![CDATA[Atomic Rakshasi]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 04:32:37 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Furiosa and the Clash of the Patriarchs  ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Brutality in Times of Plenty   “ It is certainly not difficult to find ethnographic and historical examples of trafficking in women. Women are given in marriage, taken in battle, ex-changed for favors, sent as tribute, traded, bought, and sold.   Far from being confined to the "primitive" world, these practices seem only to become more pronounced and commercialized in more "civilized" societies. Men are of course also trafficked-but as slaves, hustlers, athletic stars, serfs, or as some other...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/furiosa-and-the-clash-of-the-patriarchs</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698c5cc4636516a3166d1571</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Movies & Series]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ecology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 08:36:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_98f5a064a8e64c329fa7f7758ccee424~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_522,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tea with Bestie 2 - Prints Up for Sale!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Another in the series exploring the theme of friendships  in the vast isolation of space! A reel planned a month in advance  because the combination of the process and poem by Arundhathi Subramaniam  was absolutely perfect!]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/tea-with-bestie-2-prints-up-for-sale</link><guid isPermaLink="false">696f440f892cb3def4935deb</guid><category><![CDATA[Art]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:03:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_731ec7a4ac434a57bdc29523b5c9ebca~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA["Tea With Bestie"]]></title><description><![CDATA[A new artwork, the first of 2026! First in a series about relaxation, friendship, freedom, peace and quiet joy. Prints are available for Indian buyers  in my shop! Outside India the print is available at my FineArt America  page.]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/tea-with-bestie</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6969118328df29fb20b2d920</guid><category><![CDATA[Art]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 16:15:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_0372890b1f544e2387398b7ba17bed05~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pretty Privilege: Cosplaying the Ugly Girl]]></title><description><![CDATA[Liberal feminism can’t seem to shake off the disproportionate value it places on desirability.  When we ought to be telling girls that it’s okay to be conventionally and biologically undesirable, and that one’s worth is inherent, we’ve been bending over backwards to convince all women and girls that all women and girls are beautiful and desirable, and in addition to that, all desirable traits are marketable.]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/choice-ugliness-as-an-antidote-to-irrelevance</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6964b024768b848d27152dfd</guid><category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:36:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_9c5b7f2c6b634f1bad3391427439ff0c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[New Podcast Episode - Mean Girls: Unfair Portrayal or Anthropological Classic?]]></title><description><![CDATA[I've been off and on recording podcast episodes, hoping I cold expand my audience, however now I just do it because it's fun (and no, no major jump in views or listens). However I've improved at narration considerably and I know it's going to serve me somewhere, because I haven't exactly been the best talker all my life, more of an observer. This is literally another 'opposite' phase in my life, and has a lot to do with observing how people function (The Human Zoo: Anthropology, Patriarchy...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/new-podcast-episode-meangirls-unfair-portrayal-or-anthropological-classic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6940c76ed19d766cc63f8619</guid><category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2025 02:57:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_db44afb3d1a54313bc0db4dfdaf69574~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Father Archetypes in Guillermo del Toro's Films]]></title><description><![CDATA[While I’ve examined women’s roles in movies (because I felt there was such a dearth of complex ones), it jumped out at me how many men in Guillermo del Toro’s movies fit into archetypal fatherhood roles, their characters too being complex, sometimes contradictory.]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/father-archetypes-in-guillermo-del-toro-s-films</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692077bc9e2226b1d41dca72</guid><category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><category><![CDATA[Movies & Series]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 15:39:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_ea88a040e0c443ad8282f7670e4aea01~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_736,h_489,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[New Podcast Episode - How to Kill Time: Capitalism, Leisure and Productivity in Michael Ende's Momo (1973)]]></title><description><![CDATA[In this episode of Rakshasi’s Ramblings , I talk about German writer Michael Ende’s children’s fantasy novel,  Momo . In  Momo , the writer asks us to pause, to see time not as a resource to be hoarded, but as something we inhabit. Through the symbolic Grey Men and the innocent perception of young Momo, Ende unpacks how modern life’s obsession with productivity and efficiency corrodes our connection to the present. I explore how the book reveals the costs of our hurried existence, and what it...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/new-podcast-episode-how-to-kill-time-capitalism-leisure-and-productivity-in-michael-ende-s-momo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691ffba00acaec313275fb7a</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 05:45:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_57ca99ce3c494f2ab8842368d019bfb0~mv2_d_1920_1429_s_2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mean Girls: Unfair Portrayal or Anthropological Classic?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Should you come across a female narcissist, your safest option is to get away quickly; that is, if you even have the discernment to spot her. Not all of them are perched comfortably at the top and can’t always be identified by rank. ]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/mean-girls-unfair-portrayal-or-anthropological-classic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68c7c1596f5786621568750f</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><category><![CDATA[Movies & Series]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 08:23:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_db44afb3d1a54313bc0db4dfdaf69574~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Bear and a Hard Place]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why Choose the Bear?   The ‘Choose the Bear’ social experiment on social media, where specifically women were asked whether they would rather come across a bear in the woods or a man, caused such a reaction on the internet that it reached the news .   The question, farcical to begin with, places the hypothetical victim between two potential predators, one from the animal world and the other from one’s own world, that is, human civilisation, with its unwritten and legal rules for behaviour....]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/the-bear-and-a-hard-place</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68a5bb070937a192ff940522</guid><category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 20 Aug 2025 13:15:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_5f6f2e2b8dd74c00a3d0271e0a59434f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_750,h_515,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rakshasi’s Ramblings Is a Bimonthly Podcast Now!]]></title><description><![CDATA[I mean what's the point of all these posts if people don't hear my voice? Is it a wise move or a last ditch effort to get my voice out there? Will it do me any good? These are the questions I asked myself before I started. Anyway, it's here, hopefully to stay! Spotify Apple Simply go to any of these links and start listening. It's also available on this website.  To  follow you need to sign up. Comment Policy This space is for thoughtful, on-topic discussion. Comments that include links,...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/rakshasi-s-ramblings-is-a-podcast-now</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68612da1ccc85eb48d0f376e</guid><category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 2025 12:18:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_22ee7d5fbef843aca5f755ee13ff5ff2~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Appeal of Ephemera and the Risk of Kitsch]]></title><description><![CDATA[For me, the ephemeral and the under-appreciated---more especially, the realm of vintage matchbox designs, Indian kitsch, hand-painted signage, and firework art—are sources of creative inspiration and come from unexpected places.]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/the-appeal-of-ephemera-and-the-risk-of-kitsch</link><guid isPermaLink="false">685157e6d8437c49c9c9cc75</guid><category><![CDATA[Design]]></category><category><![CDATA[Art]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2025 12:55:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_a28de4f0c834491380f3b45d191d452b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_736,h_503,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Did Video Kill the Artist In You?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Making art is an odd experience. It's thrilling, annoying, messy, and occasionally it seems like you're simply fumbling aimlessly in the hopes that something amazing would finally come together. ]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/did-video-kill-the-artist-in-you</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6851005bd8437c49c9c8e23b</guid><category><![CDATA[Art Advice]]></category><category><![CDATA[Art]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2025 05:51:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cea6ce1029734103b164fb07bb36ed70.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Picnic at Hanging Rock: Fan Art and  Analysis]]></title><description><![CDATA[The monsoon decided to surprise us with an early entrance, and as much as I hate the weather for various reasons, especially for the poor lighting, one has to admit that we need the water. So thanks Monsoon, but be nice and let's not flood the hell out of the city, shall we? (huh, who am I to politely dictate anything?) Click  on the image to go to my new YouTube video  cobbled together with some garbage lighting. Read the original blog post here . Comment Policy This space is for thoughtful,...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/picnic-at-hanging-rock-fan-art-and-analysis</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6836cef581150f32c9f6e46d</guid><pubDate>Wed, 28 May 2025 08:57:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_ba4c81e7d2334ffbbd81678272282c4e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_815,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tom Cruise: Hollywood's Ageless Vampire]]></title><description><![CDATA[(Photo Creative Commons License, FMT) When the time came to put together our class magazine, I was sure to turn up with a few good portraits. I was the artist of the class, after all, and I wasn’t much good at anything else, so it was my time to shine. I basked in the quiet ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ that my skills provoked. Nothing, however, compared to the day that I drew Tom Cruise. Frankly, I didn’t know what the big deal was about. I had been reading a comic book (I don’t remember which one) and...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/tom-cruise-the-vampire-who-refuses-to-age</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67f91856e2fa4bec3f0f3593</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Movies & Series]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:40:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_a5a5d6a1554d4762a982661f967d3786~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_800,h_500,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[New Fan Art Video Just Dropped!]]></title><description><![CDATA[You can watch my fan art process video of You  and Baby Reindeer  here . You  the series has been one of my favs, but I delayed watching it because I thought it glorified stalkers. I was right, but without the nuance. After a four year delay I finally watched the series, then read the book and wrote an essay, with a little research on what makes a stalker a stalker. I hope that's good enough for a blog post  It helped me distance myself from any personal experiences with stalkers (which is...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/new-fan-art-video-just-dropped</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67cfa4186e313c4d425fe472</guid><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><category><![CDATA[Art]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2025 03:07:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_85cd743338d246ac9bce02f4e92b0a1b~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_609,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Get That Sketchbook Started]]></title><description><![CDATA[In art school lore there’s a story that commonly turns up about an art teacher who made all his students pile up their sketchbooks on a table and then, to their horror, poured a cup of coffee all over the pile. He was trying to make a point to his students about detachment, practice and the misguided urge to create the perfect drawing while learning. That is a great lesson in itself, but I’m not going to ask you to do that. I believe sketchbooks should be cherished because they serve more...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/how-to-get-that-sketchbook-started</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67c932a9704201787dbe5fb6</guid><category><![CDATA[Art Advice]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 2025 06:02:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_7ed99b8996da4d789dc0da6164af460d~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_880,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Great Indian Marriage]]></title><description><![CDATA[Everyone knows that the traditional Indian family raises its sons to be providers and daughters to be mothers, but the script of The Great Indian Kitchen  (2021) goes one further, insisting that even if The Husband is incompetent, lazy, egotistical and insecure, he still expects to be treated like a king in his house. He has an inalienable right to his wife’s body and her servitude. We needed this premise because his value in both his own and society’s eyes, regardless of whether he’s worthy...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/the-great-indian-marriage</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67b70541eaa414c11f73a8ca</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Movies & Series]]></category><category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:05:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_21bb4aeb5079450aaf9ed93c0869848a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_900,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Kill Time: Capitalism, Leisure and Productivity in Michael Ende's Momo (1973)]]></title><description><![CDATA[Vincent van Gogh, Withered Sunflowers , 1887 I had a classmate in college whose laid-back approach to work used to annoy me, but as I spent more time with her, her easygoing attitude began to rub off. I had chosen a stream that required an intense amount of labour, and putting one's assignments on a back-burner was a bad idea. After one year in her company, though, my approach to everyday life changed from an anxiety-ridden, forced discipline to an easygoing, placid existence. People ceased...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/how-to-kill-time-michael-ende-s-momo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67ad8ade1083ce95c43ea7fa</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 13 Feb 2025 06:47:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/adabd5501dc94a62a335728300650135.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Updates On My Youtube Channel]]></title><description><![CDATA[My YouTube channel  has resembled a tomb long enough and finally found its purpose. As mentioned in my previous newsletter, my blog posts have found new life combined with my fan art. Both forms of art and writing have taken decades for me to learn and improve, and have finally culminated in a form that I can convey with ease. I just took a while to learn to make decent videos, and speak halfway decently into a mike :) The road is long and frustrating, but it is a road. Thanks for taking the...]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/updates-on-my-youtube-channel</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6763ddb89da3ce087acbb7a0</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[My Videos]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 19 Dec 2024 08:57:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_ac3c57872dd14a108056b8369655305d~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_732,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Hanging Rock: Marianismo, Beauty and the Missing Girls]]></title><description><![CDATA[Beauty is important female currency in patriarchy, and everyone, consciously or unconsciously, advocates for it.]]></description><link>https://www.atomicrakshasi.com/post/marianismo-beauty-and-the-missing-girls</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6736e82bd88d349061858b45</guid><category><![CDATA[Books and Writers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Movies & Series]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 15 Nov 2024 10:28:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e36c6_850315537d6e4b7da217699cf4dd7a70~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>atomicrakshasi</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>