Films, Television and Women

Bravo !
A well written and thought provoking piece, this is a really serious subject
wish to read more good stuf from U
keep it up
well done

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You have your basic two kinds of people who protest the `portayal of women in films`. The first is your typical Shiv Sena `shakha pramukh` type, who goes and vandalizes theatres and roughs up artists for anything remotely antithetical to ``Indian culture``. This is the type that protests Fire, Water, GirlFriend and the other examples that have been quoted here.

There is another type of person who protests against the portrayal of women in films, a quieter type, rather less media-hungry than the type above: these are the people who object to women being depicted as objects of male condescenscion, those who are offended by the sight of a man smugly proclaiming ``Is becharee ka kya dosh``(What`s the fault of this poor helpless creature?) before grabbing a widow`s hand in public view (on film). Movies that end with the female protagonist ``realizing`` her folly of harbouring ambitions and a career, and returning duly chastened to her happy homemaking. Televsion images of dolled-up saas-bahus engaged in the only thing they know- bitching and gossipping- while the `men of the house` wear smart pinstripes and bring home the bacon, occasionally putting in a stern sensible word to resolve disputes among the silly womenfolk.

This is the kind of person who will rarely, if ever lay claim to being ``auratzaat ke maryaada ka paalankarta`` (protector of the virtue of womankind) someone who probably if you crossed in the street would not even strike you as the sort of person who refuses to patronise ``his woman`` just because he probably can.

The exact opposite, in short, of people like the author Ramanujam here.

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Very well written Ramanujan, completely agree with you. This is not about flipping channels, it’s more about freedom of living in a free society.
#7 by nikki7777: Totally agree “every thing is big and beautiful in Texas”. But even there, they didn’t allow bare naked boobies in public.

soundmeister- excellent post. I voiced similiar views in another forum in a different context- of rape and death penalty.Rape is made more heinous than it already is by the condescending pity of patronising males.I will try to post the whole discussion here
But perhaps the author is not the exact opposite,just confused.
I have never been able to understand the hoopla over objectification/commodifying, and why is it painted as a gender issue? Why are women always blackmailed into this drama of chastity? Why do women fall for it? When Salman Khan takes off his shirt in every movie ,thats ok.But when a woman wears a bikini for a beauty contest,that is objectification commodifying and what not.Why not let the woman look and feel sexy and use their sexuality? Why not sit back and let her take her own decisions without whining?
This whole patronising sham is designed to hoodwink the woman to be forever a saas bahu type.And does not every feeling requires an object? If she can be the object of my love,respect,affection,why not lust?
And now about obscenity vulgarity porn. First and foremost,again why paint this as a gender issue? Men and women are both in it together.Is there any unisex porn?Then why whine just about women? Are all the moral standards just for women?
You dont like Balaji telefilms,you change the channel.You dont like vulgarity obscenity sex,change the channel.Something of what you want to avoid wil be pushed down your throat,and you can complain about that,but that does not put you on any higher moral ground.

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Here are some simple rules for men to live by:
1. Never hit a woman
2. Never abuse a woman. Especially avoid gender specific invective like b*tch or wh*re
3. Never patronise a woman. Terms like ``the wife``, ``the little woman``, ``just a housewife``, ``bimbo`` etc. if used need to be injected with just the right bit of irony to make them funny
4. If you watch porn or go to strip clubs, enjoy yourself. Agonising over the exploitation of womankind that has to pander to our degenerate male tastes...blah blah... is a waste of time and frankly, everyone knows you enjoy it so do us all a favour and shut up ok?
5. Holding a door open or offering your seat to a woman on a bus is not patronising, it`s just good breeding. If the woman turns your offer down, be graceful. Thoughts like ``I offered the b*tch a seat and she made me look like a fool`` are of your own creation. She probably thinks better of you anyway, just wants to show that she doesn`t need special treatment. Appreciate that sentiment.
6. Find a girl, settle down....whoops wrong post

I agree with the idea of this article--as a woman, I`ve almost stopped watching any television because you can`t change channels without coming across scenes of half-naked women being dragged across the screen by their hair, women of all ages gyrating in bikinis while being called `role models`, and women in the ever-popular on-her-back-with-her-knees-in-the-air pose, now adapted to show them screaming in the throes of birth too. But that isn`t all that`s put me off--you also get treated to people being shot, stabbed, burnt, electrocuted, maimed, mutilated, hanged, and tortured, and I think that although I find the portrayal of women offensive, I find the latter more disturbing.

Male and female nudity mean different things because the status of men and women, particularly in our societies, is different. In Lahore, it`s not uncommon to see boys and men taking a dip in the canal in nothing but briefs while burka-clad women scurry by lest the boys decide to have a little fun with them. Women are `supposed` to be good little bastions of purity, while men can roam around nearly nude and be as crude and loud as they like. I`m sure the majority of the men are there just for the chance to cool off in the water, but the lot that chooses to harass passerbys are also present and far more visible than the former.

Female behavior is `marked` while male behavior is not. It really doesn`t matter how a man chooses to dress, for instance, but if a woman chooses to dress up, she`s noticed, if she chooses not to dress up/wear makeup that fact is noted, if she wears traditional clothes it is noticed, if she decides to go for `western` gear, it is noticed. A woman on public transport is fair game for harassment because she should be at home, a women in her own car is the target of stupid comments on female drivers when male drivers make the same mistakes and misjudgments without eliciting comment, a woman walking through a market is the target of pinches, slaps, comment, and spit....and the list goes on. Every single step a woman takes is judged, weighed, examined, commented on, and is supposed to be indicative of her character, her morality, her values, her upbringing, her race, her religion, her nationality...good grief, people! Is it any wonder that when `society` decides to re-evaluate itself, women are the battleground?

Ideally, nudity shouldn`t matter, but I don`t think it`ll stop being an issue until we accept both men and women as people first and male and female second. At the moment, our sex determines our social fate to a large extent, and I don`t know if we`ll ever get past that--I don`t see it happening any time soon, unfortunately.

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Do we really want censor morality, like the pakis, and regress? Indians are more or less uptight about sex anyway (the pakis are neanderthals). With liberalization and globalization, market forces tell us that the indian consumer (men and women) want a little more of sex in the air, in movies, tv , advertising, everywhere. Thank Goodness, we are aping the west! Who else would we ape, the pakis who cover their women in burlap sacks ?

More westernization the better, in India atleast. Kudos to all those women who dress skimpily in india, they have courage.

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I apologize.