Feminist Synthesis Essay

Historians say that art of a particular era reflects on how the society thinks and functions during that time. Any form of art- be it music, paintings, sculptures, poetry and movies (tech generation right) form part of the legacy we leave for generations to come. If some soul, say two centuries later, sees Indian media content today, here is what they would think of women: materialistic, shallow, opportunistic and with a skewed sense of morals.

Any average Kollywood (even Bollywood, but let’s just focus on Tamil) follower can easily rattle of a list of songs which curse women because they refused ‘true love’. It can also be a case of ‘misogynitis’ where all women do is use boyfriends for their money. A clear example of this can be seen in

A recent jewellery advertisement was in the news for all the wrong reasons. The ad had stated that young women were a source of tension to their parents. However after a court case was filed, the ad was altered due to public pressure.

News is not immune to this trait too. Read this article in Firstpost which gives a clear picture as how even news reporting varies with gender bias, with the recent cases of drunken driving reported in Mumbai:

Students need a set of skills to ask important questions about what they watch, see, listen to and read. Often called media literacy, these skills include the ability to critically analyse media messages and the ability to use different kinds of communication technologies for self-expression and communication.”

Sadly, Indians share the same state. The problem is that the media sphere has misogyny everywhere, implicit in segments like news and marketing, explicit in cinema and other online content. All of such content is accessible to people across ages and other demographic attributes. But the entire society cannot disseminate it objectively and frame individual opinions. As the spiral of silence theory suggests, we remain silent if our view doesn’t match with the predominant view or just agree with the