CHENNAI: A fabricated sexual video can be created in minutes, but the damage it causes can follow a woman long after it has been exposed as fake. In her latest novel, Fieldwork as a Sex Object, Meena Kandasamy examines this disturbing intersection of technology and gendered violence through the story of Amrita Chaturvedi, known as Amy, a young Indian woman in London targeted by a deepfake sexual video. The novel explores how online harassment, misogyny and political extremism turn fabricated content into a tool of public humiliation and patriarchal control.

Speaking ahead of the novel’s Chennai launch, Meena says her interest in deepfakes grew out of a broader concern with the post-truth world, where propaganda, misinformation and fabricated narratives increasingly shape public perception.

“I think, like a lot of people, I was very interested in what is happening as a consequence of what we call post-truth, in which lies are peddled, narrative propaganda is peddled, and a lot of people start believing things that are not actually happening,” she says.

While discussions around post-truth often centre on politics and misinformation, Meena wanted to examine how women are particularly vulnerable in this environment. Advances in technology have made fabricated sexual content increasingly convincing, easy to circulate and difficult to remove.

“The spread of AI/technology makes them look absolutely real. It's indistinguishable from what is actually real,” she says, adding that the speed at which such content spreads and the difficulty of getting it taken down compound the harm.

For Meena, the violation does not end when a video is exposed as fake. Its circulation can renew the humiliation each time it resurfaces.

“I felt it was something very essential to target because it is a violation on a continuous loop,” she says.

She also sees a close connection between misogyny and political extremism, particularly in the online harassment directed at women who express outspoken political views.

“A majority of the digital harassment online is actually coming from well-organised political quarters,” she says. “For me, political extremism and misogyny are absolutely inextricable.”

Such attacks, she believes, are intended not merely to humiliate women but to discourage them from speaking out. “The aim is to silence these women,” she says.

The culture of online consumption adds another layer to the problem. Meena points to how smartphones and social media have made ordinary people accessible to vast audiences, exposing them to scrutiny once largely associated with celebrities, actors and politicians. Intimate material, whether genuine or fabricated, can then become a spectacle for strangers.

“No one who's watching someone perform intimate acts online, a leaked clip online, or a fake clip online is looking at it with any element of sympathy or feeling that someone's privacy is being invaded,” she says. “The viewer is always a voyeur in these cases.”

What troubles her is the extent to which this behaviour has become normalised. “The people who are consuming this are not considering themselves as perverts. They are taking part in what is a very broad and very normalised ecosystem. That's highly problematic,” she says.

Fieldwork as a Sex Object is the first instalment of what Meena describes as a digital trilogy examining the online public sphere. As relationships, communities and political conversations increasingly move to digital platforms, she believes literature must engage with the changes they bring.

“Our lives, our friend circles, our audience, our political discourse have moved online, and I think it's inevitable that we have to write about it,” she says.

For Meena, however, the online world is not separate from everyday life. It has become another space in which patriarchal control is exercised, from monitoring whose photographs women like to policing what they post on social media.

“The online world has become another battlefield of patriarchal control,” she says.

Addressing digital sexual abuse, including revenge porn and deepfakes, requires more than technological fixes or legal intervention, she argues. It also calls for a wider cultural shift, beginning with how families respond when women become targets of such attacks. “Parents should just tell them, ‘Please, it does not matter. We are with you. We're going to see you through this. Young women are absolutely vulnerable, and I don't think we are doing enough as a society to protect them," she says.

The book launch, organised by Prakriti Foundation, will feature Meena in conversation with Manasi Subramaniam at 7 pm on October 10 at The Lab at Shanta, T Nagar.