Cinema and Feminism

In understanding feminism, one needs to acknowledge the societal background in which one grows. The cinema industry, particularly the Bollywood cinema has not only refused to acknowledge the subaltern perspectives, but has also skewed gender identities.

Artwork by: Ishita Paul

The public outrage condemning the brutal murders and rapes of women has led to a wider discourse about sexualization of women in our country. It has sparked debate around the insensitive behaviour of the government officials towards handling this case. A narrative that has been put forward is the question of gender and caste identity of the victim. Questions have been raised that if the victim belonged to an upper caste background, would she have been given the same treatment.

While understanding gender and caste identities, what’s important to take note is the societal background in which one grows. The social context in which one’s understanding about identity is shaped is imperative to acknowledge. A very significant part of this environment which shapes our understanding about the society is the Bollywood Industry or the Indian Cinema.

According to Panna Shah, a doctorate in the field of Indian Cinema, “Cinema is an immense force which by the subtlety of its nature moulds the opinion of millions in the course of its apparently superficial business of just providing entertainment.” The evolution of the themes highlighted in the Indian Cinema can be understood in phases of societal changes that took place before and after the Independence period in our country.

Due to the paucity of academic literature about the Bollywood Industry, there has been a lack of critique about the themes that have been discussed through cinema. However, many scholars of Indian cinema have disregarded the narratives that have been put forward by the film industry. According to an article, the Indian cinema has majorly refused to acknowledge not only the subaltern perspectives of the poor and the underprivileged, but has also skewed gender identities. While tracing the evolution of the cinematic industry, one needs to understand that it has long been presumed as the harbinger of ‘modernity’ in the country. Historically, this class was produced through the interaction of colonial rule with the involvement of the traditional elite of India.

Furthermore, with the coming of globalisation, glamour and high consumerism descended in the Indian market and soon ‘designer commodities’ and page three parties became so popular that it led to an emergence of capitalism in the film industry. Dressing up like the artists from the industry became a common scenario. Television serials showcased gender patriarchy as ‘acceptable’, the role of a ‘housewife’ dominated by her husband was the common norm in TV shows. A woman playing the role of a mother, daughter, wife or a sister was generally more preferred than the role of a working woman. Culture, Values, Traditions and morals portray the norm of patriarchy in these serials.

The film industry has also engaged in portraying similar narratives about gender binaries and gender roles. The question that mainly arises is-Is it ever going to be possible to have mutually compatible public spheres and could these global media spheres thereby feed a progressive political process? For long, it has engaged in constructing, deconstructing or challenging ideals such as beauty, race, femininity, masculinity, color, civilisation etc. A strong influence of the mainstream movies leads to a skewed understanding of ideas of consent, gender roles, women’s opinions and their representation.

Objectification of Women

In mainstream cinema, we can continue to see a patriarchal representation of men’s sexuality. Men who are physically stronger and aggressive have been portrayed as the main characters in various movies. The pleasure elements of many song and dance sequences have gained precedence over any other narrative. In some movies, these sequences also sanction sexual gestures. Groping a woman, touching her or objectifying her through lyrics of songs has been normalised in these movies.

This form of retrogressive representation of women in a country where they are constantly fighting battles against eve teasing, harassment and forms of stalking, is alarming as it trivialises real issues that should be discussed extensively. Another consequence of portraying women in such light is the sexualization of women in these films. They have majorly been seen as ‘objects’ through the lyrics of these songs.

Along with this,consumer culture has led to the emergence of beauty norms. Media now holds a virtual monopoly over production and dissemination of beauty standards and norms about ideal skin color. There has been a concoction of beauty standards, by promoting fair-skinned individuals on the screen.

Beauty has been presented as a lure or trap, organised by the camera’s incitement to satisfy the scopophilic tendencies of the male gaze. Media-specific discussions that do not deal with the commodification and abuse of bodies is almost non-existent.

The Role of Avenging Women in Indian Cinema

Lalitha Gopalan in her essay ‘Avenging Women in Indian Cinema’ writes about rape scenes being structured through sado-masochistic pleasures. Even when the women have been given dominant roles to have an agency and push their narratives forward, their access to avenging power is largely predicated on rape. Even when the victim is pushing her own narrative forward, it is usually carried through a male character. The rape scene provides the narrative ruse for the revenge plan while providing the audience a range of scopophilic pleasures.

Therefore, Gopalan writes that narratives of rape do not sufficiently dislodge conventional representation. A very familiar example is the movie Pink, which had gained traction because it was portrayed as ‘feminist’, but those narratives were skewed because they were put forward by a female character, only through a male voice played by Amitabh Bachhan. Even though the women had an agency to voice their story, it was only when a representation through a male figure came in, was when the judge believed in their story.

Similarly, the narratives put forward by the movie ‘Thappad’ have been viewed by the larger audience as propagating feminism . However, it is only through a woman’s overwhelming investment in the restoration of the social imaginary that the movie develops the character of the victim. Therefore, even when women have been given the agency to speak about these issues, their characters have been developed by not providing enough agency to their voices.

Normalisation of Non-consensual behavior, Stalking etc.

Like the folk tale, classical drama, primitive story telling or medieval morality play, the film may be regarded as a means by which an individual understands the behavior of the society, understands himself and the social group. The motion picture is not a fixed pattern of meanings or ideas that are perceived by a passive mind. Rather, what the individual internalises is determined by his background and his needs. Therefore, he takes from the movies, what is usable for him or what will function in his life.

In the scenario of movies having a huge impact on the Indian audience, it becomes imperative to analyse the attitudes and behaviour changes in people and produce movies in an informed way.

Stalking, public harassment and eve-teasing are forms of harassment that have been constantly normalised by the Indian cinema. The stalker is usually a male character who continues to harass the woman, even when she has constantly said ‘no’ to him. It has been the common norm in movies like Ranjhanaa to stalk the woman and to gain her attention. The normalisation of this form of violence has been disregarded by various feminist critics as it feeds into the minds of the viewers who normalise this form of stalking and recognize it as ‘acceptable’ behavior.

Another idea is that of consent that has been largely skewed by the male narrative. In the Indian cinema, the male characters have hardly ever taken consent before engaging in a sexual activity with a female character. The understanding of consent has been skewed through lyrics of various item numbers. But more importantly, Bollywood movie scenes do not show any kind of consent between individuals before a sexual scene is enacted.

Toxic Masculinity and Physical Aggression

Bollywood has been seen as one of the most influential industries of India, gender roles have been defined, learned and followed through this industry. A large part of gender binaries have construed in the favor of what is masculine or feminine. Various male characters have been defined as physically aggressive with a certain strong physical appearance.R.W. Connell describes hegemonic masculinity as “practices that legitimize men’s dominant position in society”.

These practices have been often portrayed through the film industry by showcasing fight scenes in movies like Sholay, in which the woman is the damsel in distress. Although men’s roles have evolved from being physically aggressive to acting as supportive husbands, fathers or sons, Bollywood is still not free from sexism.

Movies like Kabir Singh, in which he claims a girlfriend and stays abusive is one of the most misogynistic characters portrayed in this decade. Similarly, in the series of Pyaar Ka Punchnama, women have been disgraced as ‘gold-diggers’ and irrational beings.

This affects women in many ways, the characters of men subjugating women have normalised the maltreatment. Young girls and boys watching the cinema are thus conditioned to behave in such ‘modern’ ways to be accepted by the society.

A lot has to be changed in the Bollywood representation of forms of gender, meaning of consent, objectification of women and glorification of physical aggression. The form of violence that has been portrayed through Indian cinema has largely affected the audience views about patriarchy.

Misconstrued identities have been established as part of conditioning through forms of media. Thus, a tangible change is required for representation of women’s voices, where idealistic norms of beauty and race are challenged.

This article first appeared on Project Micdrop

Article by: Shivangi Sharma