How these South Asian women are finding their voice through podcasting
Professor says South Asian media landscape continues to be dominated by men
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sharon Sehrai sought out stories of fellow South Asian queer women in British Columbia.
The search didn't produce much hope.
That's when Sehrai took matters into her own hands and created a podcast that shines a light on the lives of B.C.'s queer South Asian women.
"I wanted to create a space where queer folks didn't have to search the web tirelessly to be like, 'Oh, there's Lilly Singh, or Jameela Jamil.' These folks are great and they're visible, but they're out of reach," said Sehrai.
Sehrai co-hosts the Sher Vancouver Podcast, which tells the stories of men, women and non-binary members of the local LGBTQ+ community.
WATCH | Sharon Sehrai joins other podcasters to discuss breaking down barriers in media:
Sehrai is one of many South Asian women who are using podcasts as a platform to have their voices highlighted.
Media still dominated by men, says professor
Tarannum Thind's career has spanned multiple local TV shows and radio stations. Now she has her own podcast, called Chai with T. She says podcasting has allowed her to have deeper conversations.
"Traditional media has its own rules and regulations that you're meant to follow, especially ethnic media," said Thind. "There's a lot of things that we can't openly talk about ... because of fear, because of controversy, because of sensationalism."
Satwinder Bains, an associate professor in the School of Culture, Media and Society at the University of the Fraser Valley, agrees with Thind about the limitations faced by those working at South Asian media outlets.
While these outlets are trying to diversify their content, Bains says there still are limitations as the majority of South Asian media are dominated by men.
"A lot of the media is owned by men and men continue to make the decisions, so diversity — while it's being accepted as a normal circumstance for our lives in Canada today, we talk about it regularly — but structurally the foundations continue to be the same," said Bains.
While there are some women leading South Asian media outlets, Bains says that does not change how the wider system operates.
Storytelling through spoken word
Milan Singh, a researcher and one of the co-hosts behind the Nameless Collective Podcast, which delves into the history of B.C.'s South Asian settlers, says podcasts allow for longform storytelling that is similar to traditional South Asian ways to tell a tale or pass on history.
"There's something about [podcasts] being almost like storytelling oral tradition 2.0 ... and to me, this is just a digital extension of some of that," said Singh.
Alysha Bains, a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University's School of Communication focusing on South Asian creative networks in Canada, agrees with Singh.
"In so many of our diverse South Asian cultures, storytelling through creative expression has always been a way that we have lived, how we have thrived, how we have shared knowledge. I do feel like there's an alignment there with the form of podcast."
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