Hi Friends,
Going further and elaborating on my previous article on feminism, I am now going to discuss about how the notion of feminism has been corrupted now a days and how money is being minted in the name of feminism by certain shrewd individuals who play upon certain pre conceived notions and set values in the minds of people. I shall hence forth venture to call this brand of feminism as pseudo feminism and the people propagating this as pseudo feminists. These people have absolutely no idea about
what feminism actually is but continue to use this term and theset beliefs to their own advantage and are content in bending the rules whenever they deem fit.
Now you might think as to why have I chosen to talk about this obscure topic all of a sudden. I have been coming across this movie which has been splashed all over the popular media as to have been propagating modern day feminism. The name of the movie being “Veerey Di wedding”. It shows women screaming profanities and talking blatantly about sex in the entire trailer. Now I am all for equal rights and sexual liberation in the modern day society and stuff like that. Do not get me wrong. But the problem lies herein. The movie has been portrayed as uplifting and empowering for women and not just a casual chick flick as the poster says. The movie features a song sequence “Tareefan” where the actress Swara Bhaskar has been shown to casually slap and proceed to grab a man’s posterior in the washroom. Further in other sequences the female leads have been portrayed eyeing semi-naked men clad in towels and drooling over them while they take extended showers. Now, had this been a gender reversal and the same sequences had featured skimpily clad women instead of men or a woman’s posterior being grabbed in the song, then the media houses would have cried foul and called for the song being cut out citing objectification of women and what not. So it goes on to show the much skewed understanding of feminism in the
popular media. Blatant objectification of any gender, be it male or female, is not appropriate. Feminism is equality of genders as I have stated many a time; not allowing women a free reign to do whatever they like while we question men on having done the same thing.
My problem with the song is also the depiction of ‘empowerment’. The women attempt to embody characteristics of traditional masculinity, both through objectification and more. They are repeatedly shown as excessively in control, the centre of attention and affection of several men, treating others around as secondary and even physically fighting one another in a bar.
Why do we have to imbibe the worst of toxic, male behaviour to feel empowered? Why does our definition of fun and strength always come from the (low) standard set by men? Why can’t a softer, sensitive portrayal be powerful? We are actually celebrating masculinity, just putting faces of women to it.
Same thing goes with a skit or song that had been released a couple of years back showing a disgruntled Deepika Padukone yelling into the camera “Whether I have sex before marriage, in marriage or outside marriage it’s my choice, because its my life my rules”. Again, just because I am a woman, can I be condoned for cheating? Cheating in a relationship is not acceptable be it either of the genders. Are we, as women, okay with such blatant and mindless gender reversals?
The popular media houses could do well with an extensive education to help it distinguish better between misogyny and feminism. A sociology class maybe?
Food for thought.
Nice article.