“Meet the Patels” is a hilarious comedy that exhibits the issues of race, culture, love and family. The humorous, eye opening documentary is based on a Hindu family whose son, Ravi Patel tries to find his life partner. The 30-year-old Indian/American actor and comedian is fresh out of a breakup with Audrey, his confidential lover and is pressured by the rude awaken that he needs to find a life partner. On his trip to India, his home country, Patel decides to put serious effort to change his relationship status by the help of his parents. The Los-Angeles based actor basically puts his love life under the domain of his parents who plunge him in a matchmaking system. This involves him embarking on dates with Indian-American women from the Patel clan to find his perfect Patel woman. Regardless to his efforts and continuous lamenting of his parents, Ravi, discusses his increasing frustration and his experiences with his sister. Without much success from the process he recognizes a lot of indecisions on his part consequently ending the process. This essay seeks to illuminate how sexuality is discussed in the documentary and illustrates the positive and negative issues portrayed. …show more content…
However, the aspect of sexuality is largely concern with the way individuals express themselves sexually through physical, emotional and social feelings as well as behavior. The documentary clearly showcases that in Indian communities it is not all about a person’s sexuality and their concept of love but mainly about the common understanding shared in their society and the capability of a family to come together. At the beginning, the piece focuses on the Patel’s quest to for love. However, as the filming prolonged, it became more about commitment and compatibility. This depicts that the sexual orientation of Ravi Patel or any other member of this community should consider all aspects of the tradition and the family
During the time in the 1950’s, the escalation of mass media with the use of television shows had greatly emphasized the idealist family standards: a white nuclear family standard of living within conventional gender roles that stresses on family hierarchy that became a societal norm as a “perfect family” today. In Gary Soto’s “Looking for Work” and Roger Jack’s “An Indian Story”, bother short stories contest against familial customs. Soto describes how the media shapes the idea of a “family” to the young narrator that inspires him to push his family and himself to assimilate into the while culture. Roger conveys a story of a young Indian boy defying against both his Indian and familial ethics. Together, these stories share a common theme. Both
The romantic comedy, Today’s Special, expressed the worries of Indian parents becoming at ease. Also, expressed the struggles a parent faces in search of a better life, the passion and dedication going unnoticed in the work field, and the connection between friends, a lover, and family. However, the film centered its attention more on the development in Samir’s “cold” cooking within the Indian food, with the help of Akbar.
An extremely pivotal exosystem that exists throughout the documentary are the boarding schools. Many of the boarding schools in India will not accept children who come from brothels. This decision from the boarding schools is a decision that Kochi is powerless to. Kochi does not participate in the schools’ decision process and yet the process has an immeasurable effect on her. This powerlessness is a primary factor leading to impaired development and psychopathology.
Meet the Patels is an hour and twenty eight minute documentary following the life of Ravi Patel as he goes on an expedition to find love. However, ‘love’ for Ravi is not ordinary in the slightest way. Finding love in Ravi Patel’s case is an extraordinary adventure around the world to find his Indian match. Imagine going on many dates set up by your parents and Indian Marital websites in hopes of not just finding a relationship, but a marriage. A commitment you are expected to make for the sake of your culture and family.
Marriage and Sexuality Marriage is a ritually recognized union in our society and in some cases a legal contract between spouses. The ultimate definition of marriage defers according to culture but principally it is a universal institution that consists of a bilateral decent system. According to the Webster’s dictionary, sexuality is an organism’s preparedness for engaging in sexual activity in other words, a human’s readiness to begin having sex or exploring sex. The nature of marriage and sexuality has had a solid influence on different cultures round the world even from pre-historic times. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the nature, taboos, requirements and social impact of marriage and sexuality within the Dobe Ju/’hoansi and the
India has a reputation for being a very “sexually tolerant society”(Nanda 1999:49) . The reason for this is the roles that Hijra play in Hindu religion but also because Islam and Hinduism are both sexually positive. This means that both of these religions have a particularly wide range of sexual expression and acceptance compared different to western cultures(Nanda 1999:50). More specifically for Hinduism, “humans achieve their goals-salvation, bliss, knowledge and (sexual) pleasure”(Nanda 1999:50). This is different from western cultures because many westerners view sexual expression in very strict categories and contractions to these categories causes discomfort to certain people. Hinduism allows for more options in sexual expression which allows for “celebrating the idea that universe is boundlessly various, and that all possibilities may exist without excluding each other”(Nanda 1999:53). Indian people are very tolerable, embrace social exceptions, and endless different personalities to the point where Hijra are
A traditional extended family living in Northern India can become acquainted through the viewing of Dadi’s family. Dadi, meaning grandmother in Hindu, lets us explore her family up close and personal as we follow the trials and tribulations the family encounters through a daily basis. The family deals with the span of three generations and their conflicting interpretations of the ideal family life. Dadi lets us look at the family as a whole, but the film opens our eyes particularly on the women and the problems they face. The film inspects the women’s battle to secure their status in their family through dealing with a patriarchal mentality. The women also are seen attempting to exert their power, and through it all we are familiarized to
The community plays a key role when it comes to erotic plasticity, and the person’s sexual identity. Women’s sexual identity is seen as be adventures. Exploring ones sexual attitude, desire, decisions, and behavior. There sexual acts do not defined them, and can go through life without their high sex drive decreasing. However it is different for men when it comes to exploring their sex drive. Male sexuality is evolutionary and biological factor playing key roles in their life course. When a man experience sex with another man it is assumed they will always be gay. The so called deviant act, unlike to women defines their sexually identity. (McElwain, Grimes, & Melissa L. McVicker, 2009, p.
... However, with investigation into the visual elements of this film, meanings of this film expand beyond the literal dialog and -- existing in the film. Works Cited Desai, Jigna. 2004. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon “Homo on the Range: Queering Postcoloniality and Globalization in Deepa Mehta’s Fire,” in Beyond Bollywood.
Hess, Linda. Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man's Cruel Treatment of His Ideal Wife. Vol. 67. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.
Meeting the Patels is a 2014 romantic, comedy documentary directed by Geeta V. Patel. The film depicts the journey of Ravi V. Patel on the search for an adequate Indian wife that meets the criteria of his family, and who he can also feel a personal connection with. In the film the depiction of two countries: United States and India played a role on Ravi’s decision on finding a wife, and how each country portrays the role of marriage and the laws surrounding it.
In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.
The behaviors of the Pokot wives and husbands illustrated in the article “Human sexuality in cross-culture Perspective” show the norms of sexuality behaviors that are different from the U.S norms. The Pokot wives believe that their behaviors are right things to be done or are the appropriate sanctions given to a husband who is not able to sexually satisfy his wife. However, the US perceives these behaviors differently. In the US perspective, it is considered to be a deviance that is against the law within the society. It is considers to be domestic abuse which might lead some individuals involved in this behaviors to be given a negative sanctions like sending them to prison.
Nanda, S. (1998). Arranging a Marriage in India. In P. DeVita (Ed.), Stumbling toward truth: Anthropologists at work (pp. 196-204). Illinois, U.S: Waveland Press.
As time goes on a gap is created between the past generations and the current generations. This gap between men in the 1950s and the men now (2009) are similar and different in terms of the roles they play, their attitudes towards society, women and work, and their identities. The root to the generation gap in India is due to the influence of media especially television and movies have caused people to look up to the characters and strives to act like them, which reinforce gender stereotypes and identities. For example, Love Aaj Kal, an Indian movie released in 2009 is a contrast of couples in the 1980s and present day. In the movie one of the actors says, “Aaj ke ladke bauth modern aur independent ho gaye hai. Hum aare zamane mein baath hi kuch aur thi” (Veer Singh). In translation, it means that, “Boys these days are very modern and independent. In our time things were different”(Veer Singh). The following are many different ways to interpret what the actor was trying to say about men then and now in regards to roles, attitudes and their identities.