Aastha Gupta 18010026 Week 12

Gender Policing in Mainstream Hindi Cinema: A Decade of Central Female Characters in Top-Grossing Bollywood Movies

Everyone loves watching movie but the question that arises is does it promote violence, sexism, or stalking?

This article talks about how Bollywood movies have impacted the way women are looked upon. This article also talks about how some movies show women as independent and strong figures. On the other side, it talks about movies like badlapur which is highly violent and promotes patriarchy in some sense. The other movie of such kind is Kabir Singh, which promotes toxic masculinity. It also shows that teasing and stalking are okay and that it means you like someone. It's not that it promotes stalking. Regardless of the time of discharge, all motion pictures that incorporated a CFC delineated that character following some type of prescriptive sexual orientation standards. CFCs in old just as new films were remunerated when they clung to sexual orientation standards and rebuffed when they disregarded sex standards. Examples of discipline were higher in old films than in new motion pictures; infringement of prescriptive sex standards was not identified with discipline in new motion pictures, and new motion pictures additionally needed recognizable female heroes on normal contrasted and old motion pictures. Discoveries are clarified in the setting of Hindi standard film's job in advancing considerate sexism. In a casual study of Bollywood motion pictures discharged during 2006 and 2009, the depiction of ladies was seen as progressively Western (e.g., Western garments, delineation of sexuality), adjusting less to conventional sex job desires for ladies in India (Anujan et al., 2012).

Even though the MeToo development began some conversation on the profoundly dangerous industry, it was advantageously ruined and smothered as fast. With entertainers like Kareena Kapoor saying that they aren't women's activists yet rather put stock in equity, one begins to ponder whether anybody in this industry even really comprehends what women's liberation is? The article proposes that the issue could be settled if ladies were given more portrayal behind the screens and composed the female characters, however with the pervasive obliviousness about the F word in the business, it isn't sufficient. The appropriate response lies in an intensive sexual training gave at a youthful age.

Rahul Desarda: Week 10

Forced to Choose: Beyond the Voluntary v. Forced Prostitution Dichotomy

It is disturbing to note that there is a widespread misconception regarding prostitution and sex workers: that those women who do the work of prostitution always do it voluntarily, with their consent and apart from getting paid, they also “enjoy” this work. On the other hand, there are studies which suggest that more often than not, women are forced into the work of prostitution due to their socio-economic background. The author discusses the distinction between two beliefs and argues that this contradiction does not help in ensuring rights for these workers. Further, the author claims that we should go beyond this dichotomy and the need of the hour is to change the mindset of the society and make everyone realize that this is just another job and should not be looked at with prying eyes.

To get the women who are forced into this business out of it, we have to understand the abuse and violence associated with this work. Only after recognizing this violence, we can ensure the rights for them. I believe merely banning prostitution or regulating it through a law is not a sufficient solution. What is required is a systematic assessment of various cases and devising a method that is victim-centric so that the sex workers can choose for themselves the life they wish to lead.  

Durlabh Agrawal Week 13

Gender Policing in Mainstream Media

In this post, I'll be talking about Subuhi Khan's article on how media and entertainment sources in our daily lives maintain an informal policing role of gender in our lives.

For the media possess an illusive power to influence the mind and morality of the populous, content it showcases have a formidable and undeniable effect on the mind of its viewers, to legitimize and set a trend which would be later consider normalized even in a conservative society.

Media and entertainment sources mainly Bollywood and Dailysoaps, over the past decade has set an unspoken standard to our lives, in terms of fashion, fooding, living as well as gendering; by creating certain gender stereotype through images, caricature, clippings and advertisement. Historically, through these means sexist and biased conscious has been created to ascertain people value and objective in the society. In the past, products and advertisement in the USA, can be taken as an example where women and daughter are seen in the kitchen or doing house chores while men is doing the considered to be burdensome task. 

Not so similarly, but in the same line, Indian media has kept on defining the 'ideal women' and projected it as the "upholder of moral". As argued by Subuhi Khan, Indian media has created a web on belief of an expected outcome through prescribed gender norms by them will lead them to a respectful life. This "benevolent sexist" approach of the bollywood is propagation of an unspoken yet interpretative message to uphold gender norms and moral code. 

Amal Sheheen Week 13

Gender Policing in Mainstream Hindi Cinema:  A Decade of Central Female Characters in Top-Grossing Bollywood Movies 

Bollywood films enjoy a global audience. Bollywood’s globalization has arguably affected the portrayal of Indian women in Bollywood films and has given media and the advertisement industry the power to influence the minds of its targeted audience. They can establish and normalize traits by mere portrayal, from associating colours and certain fragrances to a particular gender to the type of role that gender supposedly needs to perform in the society. This creation of gender stereotypes can be traced back to the printed images, caricatures, advertising propaganda, and even written content of the 1950s in the United States of America. 

Critical assessments of women in film have suggested that narrative structure in many films depends on the passive role of women and the active role of men. This stereotyping is heavily concentrated on defining and redefining who exactly the “ideal woman” is.  Bollywood, has become just another source to reinforces these stereotypes. This is argued by the Subuhi Khan in her paper and after thorough data analysis, have come to the conclusion that, “Women in Bollywood films experienced better life outcomes when they complied with prescriptive gender norms.” The message that Bollywood is sending to its audience is that modern Indian women should not be punished for occupying white-collar jobs or enjoying freedom as long as they continue to uphold traditional Indian gender norms. Hindi cinema is evolving in its depiction of female gender norms, but only in terms of eliminating hostile sexism. Benevolent sexism still remains a component of mainstream Hindi movies.

Paras Gupta, Week 14

The article aims “No Safe Refuge” at reflecting upon the culture of asylum for LBGT asylum seeker when Stonewall and UKLGIG conducted in 22 depth interviews with the asylum seekers. The key finding of the interviews were LGBT asylum seekers face discrimination and harassment in detention centers and those who come openly about their sexuality were the most oppressed ones. There was oppression by the staff member as well and open threats were being given by the staff and threats for violence were being given to the asylum seekers. Whenever crimes were reported to officer for the violence there was the response on behalf of the officer that there is nothing that can be done for the misery to be solved. Mostly interviewees tried to commit suicide because detention has serious ill-effects on
the mental health of LGBT claimants and the challenging and unsafe detention environment causes constant stress and severe anxiety. Trans people are deprived of health care by the staff appropriated to them which leads to not emotional distress but harms the physical and mental well-being of the asylum seeker. 

People respond that the origin country as the ones who kills them as in those countries where same-sex relationships are criminalized or where discrimination against LGBT people
is widespread, lesbian, gay, bi and trans people are often excluded by society and may face prosecution, discrimination or harassment. Even when individuals are not prosecuted, the state fails to protect them when exposed to violence by their own communities, and may even support such treatment. Harassment and violence are a common experience for many lesbian, gay, bi and trans people. They are many asylum seekers are detained in Britain and sometimes government lose the tracks of detainees in the detention camps. 

There should be a ban on the detention camps and an alternative to detention has to be found. Legal service should be avail to every detainee and there should be no solitary conferment of a detainee. The emphasis should be made on how to administrate the support from the staff of these camps to ensure that the detainees are not deprived of their basic needs. It is the high time that the government should make laws and take further steps in favor of the LGBT community.

Paras Gupta, Week 13

Sacchi Bhatia in the article “What is Norms” talks about the disturbed culture of the representation of heteronormative relationship in Bollywood. At first, he picked the movie “Fire” which was released in 1996 when BJP was gaining power among the masses and the main agenda of the party was to promote Hindutva. The movie talked about the sexual desire of a lesbians and the character which were promoted as lesbians were named as Radha and Sita which led to the heavy backlash by BJP. After that there were hardly any attempt by movies to portray stories in which heteronormative relationship is involved. In India, Cinema plays an important role in forming and maintaining “cultural identities and representation” and there the movies portray gender discrimination and how there is mockery of heteronormative relationship.

In Hindi Cinema queer communities are considered as “hyper visible” and this can be elaborated because of the representations of homosexuality in Bollywood fail to demarcate the lines which separate between- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, questioning, inter-gender, and asexual identities.

The article further focuses on the complexity in the manner of gay and lesbian and which can be explained this reason, firstly that gender is constantly reinforced due to the performance of conventional sex roles. Secondly, same sex relationships contest the entire “matrix of heterosexuality” which includes not just “two bodies of the opposite sex” but a set of desires tied together through “rituals and socio-spatial practices and thirdly, the divides between heterosexuality and homosexuality are formed due to the established personal/national and traditional/modern constraints, which confounds sexual representations even further

Though this paper Sacchi Bhatia analysis certain common features were noticed of cinematic representations which showed implications of a compulsory heterosexuality: 1) Hindi movies were committed to a nationalist project and depicted patriarchal values as a superior practice, 2) social institutions especially family and marriage were a constant regulating factor, 3) lines between different sexual identities were converging and misleading, and 4) prevalence of discourses of race, class and ethnicity routinely strengthened the position of heterosexuality.

Namrata Goswami- Week 11

The Abducted Woman in the House. 

In this article, light has been drawn onto the question on how safe or how secure women are, in India. In the Indian society, Rape has been associated with the way women conduct themselves, standardizing conducts a measuring scale on how immune a woman is against rape. The author of the article validates her point associating the marital status of a woman to her immunity against rape- meaning to establish ta fact that a married woman in India associates herself with dignity and wears modest clothes, thus making her immune to the crime. The core mentality of Indian society needs to be questioned when they indulge in victim blaming. They have more often than not remained blind to the wrongful acts exercised upon women by men. Infact, numerous studies have shown us how wrongful sexual abused have been exercised again people of the LGBTQ+ community, thus not promoting 'Equality' under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. Thus, thinking from this perspective, India as a society has a long way to go.