How real are the women characters in Hindi films? This is something to debate about because values, ideals, principles; morals have dominated the frame-work in which these films are placed. Thus, women rather than being depicted as normal human beings are elevated to a higher position of being ideal who can commit no wrong. Their grievances, desires, ambitions, feelings, perspectives are completely missing from the scene. They are really portrayed as the “other” because they are shown as not belonging to this real and worldly life.
Perhaps the epitome of this crazy portrayal occurs in Abhimaan (1973). This is the story of a singer who has a booming career, who meets a village girl who also sings, falls in love and marries her (notice the
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This can be illustrated by several films.
Two roles that are of particular significance in the Indian cinema are those of mother and wife, and there is a disparity in the representation of these roles. Indian reference to mother is loaded with religious significance and the country is conflated with the mother goddess, Shakti. Although the wife is represented in a number of films as a victim of social conventions and her individuality is severely limited, the word Shakti is used to describe the role of the mother. More appropriate to describe the wife may be the word Sati (extreme devotion to her husband).
The pure woman is the antithesis to the vamp. The mother must fight the battle with the whore for the body of the son/husband. This can be seen to manifest even today’s cinema. For example in Karan Johar’s Agneepath (2012). Priyanka Chopra, while apparently the leading lady, offers sympathy and sexual love to the tortured hero, while his soul is committed to the pure woman that is his mother, who is an extremely righteous woman that abandons her son when he takes to the wrong path to avenge his father’s death. While Priyanka Chopra is not boldly called the vamp or the courtesan, she does occupy the role which the Zohrabai’s of earlier films
After learning that a man by the name of Quamina Eddoo was declared not guilty of slavery, his young slave Abina Mansah tearfully proclaims that she might as well have kept her story silent; in writing Abina and the Important Men, a gripping graphic history that tells the tale of the court case between Abina and Quamina, author Trevor Getz and illustrator Liz Clarke hope to accomplish just the opposite, by giving a voice to someone who was once silenced (Getz and Clarke 77). To do so effectively, Getz and Clarke employ several historiographical and literary strategies that are evident throughout the work.
First, the film is associated with the concept of gender, which emphasizes the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that are considered to be appropriate for men or women. Males are expected to be strong, aggressive, and competitive while females should be beautiful, emotional, and especially sexually attractive. Many girls and women feel deeply depressed when comparing their bodies to the unrealistic models’ bodies on advertising which is edited by Photoshop in many hours or even in many days. Those female characteristics presented in daily TV shows, movies, advertising, video games have become normal and widely acceptable. Also, the film associates with the concept of patriarchy which believe in male dominance. According to the misrepresentation of female role on mass media, women often see themselves in the roles of mothers, workers, models, or gold diggers. Women are valuated via their beauty and sexuality rather than their capability. Conversely, the appearance of males in heroes, executives, or political leaders in mass media makes men more powerful than women. The media generates the gender stereotypes and makes people believe in their gender roles. Finally, the sociological relevance of Miss Representation is that the media plays an important role in shaping male and female’s belief in their role and value. As the result, it is understandable for gender behaviors and gender inequality in the
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
...ive. There is so much diversity between these films, but they each have characters that break the stereotypical mold of femininity. Cléo breaks with the cliché of femininity by becoming an active woman searching for her gaze and true self whereas Mona breaks with the cliché of femininity by being filthy, by defying all the social conventions attributed to a decent young woman. Varda empowers the women and gives them unconventional “women roles” rather than the conventional ones like the domestic, the mother, or the prostitute. Each character must overcome or ignore their societal norm to find their womanhood, their true inner self. Varda’s films are real reflections of society, but they also feature people who don’t quite fit perfectly into that real society. However, what is interesting about her approach is that it doesn’t diminish how real those characters 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
Some people might say that these movies provide entertainment and transport families into the lives of princes and princesses. Many critics have said that the films have amazing soundtracks and have detailed and interesting plots. Still, however entertaining the films may be, the way women are viewed and treated outweigh any enjoyment that a viewer could have. The subliminal lessons young women learn from these films have lifelong repercussions and negatively affect the female
Hannan Goodall, author of Media’s Influence on Gender Stereotypes, once said “If as a society we refuse to accept certain gender stereotypes as truth, then the media makes may not be as inclined to center their message on them”. Do you ever wonder why Windex commercials generally show women cleaning the windows instead of men? Or why beer commercials show men sitting around watching sports with their buddies while sipping a beer instead of women? Commercials, Movies and Television Shows are the vast source of gender stereotyping, because they are adapted to the specific, focusing on male or female’s gender roles as their main target. Deborah Tannen, the author of Sex, Lies, and Conversation, focus on addressing the different communicating styles between men and women and how it effects their relationships as a whole. Media’s gender role stereotypes have shown effect in the Hindu culture, work and family
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
In the novel This Earth Of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, discrimination against social structure, race, and gender is apparent. The setting is in the Indies, or now called Indonesia. At that time, there are terms for different races in the book, which are “Native” indicating someone who is pure Indonesian, “Indo” a half European and half Indonesian, and “Pure Blood” or “European” when someone is pure European. An Indo and a Pure Blood receives more respect in society than a Native. Furthermore, European or Pure Blood is at the top of this social hierarchy, people who are European or Pure Blood receives the utmost respect in society. Differences in gender is prevalent in this novel, where most women in this book have power in their own homes, but in society is looked down upon. Female characters experiencing these are Annelies, the main character’s love interest, Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies’ mother who is a concubine, and Magda Peters, the main character’s European teacher. Women in this novel are portrayed differently according to what race, social structure, and gender they are born in, which can be seen through Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies, and Magda Peters.
Vedic culture seems to have conflicting views regarding its attitude towards women, specifically its attitude towards a woman’s sexuality. This conflict can be seen by contrasting the ways in which women are treated in sacrificing rituals with how they are treated in a more intimate atmosphere, such as lovemaking, which is still often treated as a ritual in and of itself; ritual regarding fertility, love, and childbirth. To represent the roles of women in ritual, Stephanie W. Jamison has written “Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s wife, which is a description and evaluation of women’s roles in ritual and hospitality in ancient India.
As a common theme in society, politics, and books, gendering originated from mythology. Hindu mythology repeatedly reinforces gendering in Indian society, in which the males have a certain point to prove and the females are forced to sacrifice their own happiness. In the Ramayana, a ruthless villain Ravan kidnaps Sita. Her husband, Rama, saves her, but then doubts her chastity because she has lived with another man for so long. Sita is then forced to prove her innocence. Stories with this same archetype are repeated throughout the Mahabharata, another Hindu mythological text. In this story, the female character, Draupadi, is the common wife for a group called the Pandavas. The Pandavas pawn her as a prize in a game against a villain named Duryodhana. The Pandavas lose, and Duryodhana takes Draupadi captive. As a standard characteristic of Hindu mythology, the female sacrifices for the male's ego. Hindu mythology epitomizes the roles of males and females, which as a result, influences gendering in modern-day society by disadvantaging females.
Many people have considered gender to be a natural part of our lives, having its own roles and norms that are followed by the people within the categories of gender, male and female. However, these norms receive different views once put in action. In this report, I aimed to answer the question: in a male dominated society, how do female gender norms influence the way one perceives them self as well as they way others perceive them? The patterns, answering my question, which will guide my paper, resulting from the Hindi movie Kahaani, were that whenever a female was displaying feminine norms, she was given negative views by those of the male gender however those feminine roles show her positivity, allowing her to see that strength lies within those roles as well. Kahaani, based in a male dominated country India, is about a pregnant woman, who is actually a spy, in search of her “missing” husband but later finds out he resembles a terrorist. Due to the fact that she is pregnant, she was not viewed as harmful and thus was used and discriminated by the male police officers in order to lead them to the terrorist however she used her gender to her own benefit. In the following research report, I will outline the relations between the norms for a female and how they are perceived by others as well as the one characterizes by the gender, which is the pregnant woman. This will focus on the operationalization of the variables of gender roles, perceptions relating to actions, words and treatments the character receives. From these, I will explain the methods I used in order to obtain the patterns which answered my question after analyzing the movie.
...ality because everyone should have equal to do what they want. Popular culture spread the idea of nautaral which changed the position of female in the univeral. Women' knowlegdes and abilities seem to have rise a lot compare with 1990s. Woman would be a successful businessman, worker, fireman and so on. As mass media become the most important part of communication in the earth, the most infusive part to affect human's attitudes is the domestic or romantic drama. It spread the different concepts to the families, neighbors, friends etc by the interaction between them. Movie heroes are not spread one single-minded nowadays, the gender and sexuality of people or hero should all be equal.
Garg in ‘Hari Bindi’ discusses the story of a common woman and made it extraordinary by the active force she was experiencing in herself to live her life. The husband of the protagonist symbolises the power and control of patriarchy that had restricted her life in such a way
Most of socio-cultural and religious traditions in their original form regarded a comparatively low position to woman. Controlled by patriarchy, woman has suffered discrimination, subjugation, otherness either as a lesser being or as a super being. A number of social and literary movements have helped women attain equality and independence. 20th century has witnessed an increasing awareness amongst women about their sexuality, desires, discovery of self-identity and existence. The contemporary writers are striving to provide the desired liberation to women from the socio-cultural confines and the dictatorial myths. In order to achieve gender-equal epics, there has been a resurge in countless revisits/ re-tellings of The Ramayana and Mahabharata. Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik, Volga, Kumaran Asan, Vijaya Dabbe, Vayu Naidu and Kavita Kane are some of such authors who have attempted to re-visit/re-tell Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. These writers have emphasized on her humanity, they have perceived her indulging in day-to-day activities, highlighting her involvement in the ordinary works. Sita is portrayed as someone with agency. She is a resourceful woman and an inspiration to other women. She chooses her own actions instead of blindly following someone’s commands. Instead of being a passive character, she actively learns things from different situations and continues to find herself at different phases in her life. The study, for the detailed explication of its hypothesis, would focus on the following as primary