Want to pursue a girl? Let’s take some tips from our very own Beloved Bollywood. First, start by asking her out on a date, if she refuses, the second step would be to stalk her, harass her and touch her without her consent until she magically falls in love with you or maybe you can protect your damsel in distress by saving her from goons (as if you aren’t one already). Follow these steps and voila! You will for sure get the girl of your dreams.
Sounds bad, doesn’t it? Then why does Bollywood portray and glorify such behaviour. One can see the same in almost every classic Bollywood love story. Now, some may argue that one should not dig into everything and take some things as they are but what we don’t realise is that what may seem like just another harmless movie scene can impact people in real life. Such movies impact our subconscious mind and can make a person believe that it’s fine to harass someone or to behave in the way as shown on the screen. If we were look at the ever rising cases of eve teasing or sexual harrasment, it would come out as no surprise if half of these harassers were inspired by the Bollywood way of pursuing a girl.
Another popular practice in Bollywood is the objectification of women through the concept of ‘item songs’ which are meant to entice men and thus, attract a large male audience to generate more profit. In my opinion, using women as an item of objectification by the male gaze for earning money is the lowest any industry could stoop. Filmmakers may consider it as just another tactic for profits but what they don’t realise is the disastrous impact it has on real lives of women and the minds of men. Suppose a man with no moral values who grew up watching these lewd ‘item songs’ on television would now see every woman with the same lens. Think about all those women who get objectified by these men as an ‘item’.
However, the real life of the women who portray these roles on screen is no better, it somehow directly impacts their personal lives as well. Actresses for no reason get trolled and abused on social media. We see actresses who perform those ‘item songs’ get slut shamed or even threatened with rape. The irony in this case is that the people, mostly men, who judge these actresses on social media are the very same men who watch and enjoy their songs.
The subjugation of the women of Bollywood to disrespectful and unfair treatment does not end here. You must have seen that the male actor who plays the role of a Hero can start from his early 20s and still be playing the lead role even when he is in his late 50s while generations of female leads beside him keep changing. This is the concept of ageist sexism. The actress once reaching the age of her late 30s is only eligible to play a supporting role while the male actors can play heros until hair dyes are no longer able to cover the whites on their head. Can you really blame Bollywood though? I mean, we all know that the only importance of a female lead in Bollywood movies is to add some ‘glamour’, they are useless otherwise. You can literally replace a Bollywood female lead with a pretty table lamp and it would make no change in the storyline. So it is understandable that Bollywood would want a fresh and young item, I mean female lead.
However, what surprises me the most is how we as a woke and feminist generation of teens do not question this disgusting portrayal of women on the screen and unjust treatment with women off the screen in Bollywood. In my opinion, patriarchy is so deeply mixed with the blood in our veins that we do not even notice how strongly male dominated our favourite industry is. I think it is high time that these misogynistic elements of our film industry must be replaced because they impact real lives as well. Bollywood has to change and the lives of women of Bollywood on and off screen must be reformed.