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Women in Media and Movies

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by rvnachar, Feb 27, 2013.

  1. rvnachar

    rvnachar Silver IL'ite

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    Women in Media and Movies
    It was during my teenage that Jaya Bhadhuri came into the film land. I was struck by her simplicity, modesty and natural acting. She was pretty but not gaudy or showy. I saw many of her movies and liked the way she got involved in the roles that she enacted. One thing which really attracted me towards her was the choice of films. All her movies were decent and simple stories that were near real life and her costume was most often just simple cotton sarees. So, she looked like a girl next door. Her ‘Abhimaan’ influenced me very much and till today, I do not miss an opportunity to see snippets from this movie.
    Why did I say all this? I come from a very orthodox middle-class family, where movies were very rare and from an age when we could view movies only in theatres. Yet a heroine could influence me so much! Imagine the kind of impact today’s movie people can make on young minds! Visual medium has advanced so much that we get to see advertisements, movies, news, music and dance any time anywhere. Radio is almost dead these days! We have got so used to visual medium that just an audio does not interest us. Thus it is important that the visual media get more responsible and conscious of what is being projected.
    Whether we like it or not, a woman has become the point of attraction. Thus, any company or any medium that wants to attract more number of people, especially the youth, uses women to woo! Every advertisement has a woman irrespective of the product or service that is being advertised! Fine! But it is disgusting to see women also being used to bring in the topic of sex indirectly in most of the ads, be it an ad for a blade or a cool drink or a beverage or a car or a deodorant or suitings! There is an ad where so many women get aroused and start following a man who has used a particular deodorant, with lust! There is this ad which shows a woman displaying her clean-shaven underarms and proclaiming that she can now go with her partner without hesitation, while the partner is actually feeling her smooth underarms! This ad is being shown during prime time on Discovery Channel, a channel which is watched by every member of the family!
    Sex need not definitely be a taboo. But young minds need not get disturbed by such depictions of sex again and again, because they are not mature enough to make the right choices. Imagine what effect such ads will be having on immature, teen minds! Why should a car be compared to a woman’s body and explicitly felt by a man part by part? Is that of good taste?
    Of course a woman is free to choose her career and dress the way she likes. But models and actors have some added responsibility towards the society, because they are public figures and whatever they say or do are being aped by many in the society. ‘Item songs’ have become the in-thing today. These songs are mostly based on lusty men and sexy women gyrating to vulgur lyrics. But these songs are the part of all movies and are played on all channels day in and day out! There is really no meaning for censorship these days. In our days movies with A certificates were out of reach of the youngsters. But today, scenes that deserve A or something more serious than that are easily available everywhere. Because of this technological advancement, women in media and cinema have to be all the more careful.
    I was shocked when I went as a judge for a literary contest in a college fest. 90% of the students were participating or watching the dance competition, where groups of girls and boys were dancing to popular Bollywood tunes, many of them such item numbers. There was hardly any taker for literary contest. That is the power of visual medium! Thousands of girls aspire to become models and actors because of the glamour, money and fame that they can earn.
    In many of the rape, murder and burglary cases, the convicts say they did those things inspired by some movie. Not that all these things never happened in the yesteryears! They did happen. But they were far and few. We too read suspense thrillers and crime stories. But the influence that a visually descriptive scene has on our minds is much more intense than a scene described in print! Though so many of us read English novels where the heroines wore skimpy dresses, we could find none on the roads with such dresses. But today, you can find youngsters wearing dresses similar to those worn by cinema heroes and heroines, on the streets.
    Of course no man has a right to infringe upon my right to wear whatever I want and he cannot blame me for over-exposure when he rapes me. But biologically since a man has no control over his basic urge, a woman is always expected to not attract his unnecessary attention! But do men never rape in cultures where all the women are fully veiled? They of course do!
    Yet, for our own safety, women always choose to not attract a man’s unnecessary attention. Women in media should depict values that can be easily followed in life and not depict themselves as commodities that can be used by any man! Does any woman in real life follow a man dressed well or a man in undies or a man with a particular deodorant, with oozing tongues? How cheap can that be?
    Coming to women in serials and movies! There are hundreds of serials in all languages which depict women as evil vamps who break families, get their own family members murdered, harass their mothers-in-law or daughters-in-law or husbands and get away from the hands of law after committing the worst of crimes! Though a majority of us might view all these as mere stories, there may be a few sensitive minds which get affected by these depictions. What message are we giving to our youth? How realistic are these stories?
    There are a few reality shows which are worse than all this. Real people living together in homes and all their activities beamed to the world all the 24 hours! They quarrel, they talk vulgarly, they love and they physically fight- all in-camera!
    Two days ago, I watched a reality show, where tiny tots were performing in a competition. A mother of one child went out of control, happily enjoying a very romantic dance with a judge and literally kissing the other judge, all in front of her 10-year-old daughter and the entire world! Why should the channel beam such scenes? How responsible are they?
    Women in media can make a lot of difference in the society by giving the right kind of messages and protecting certain basic values for the good of the society, with the power they wield!
    Sudha Narasimhachar
     
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  2. AkilaMani

    AkilaMani Local Champion Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sudha akka,

    That was such a powerful and passionate wakeup call to women and media!! fantastic write up :)

    Akila
     
  3. plakshmi

    plakshmi Gold IL'ite

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    hi

    what was in my mind. you have written the same thing. But who will hear? no one !!!
    The actors and model must take responsibility that they wont act or give wrong message. But money speaks here. even if they avoid some xyz will be doing the same thing. we cant even control now the teenagers.

    The whole nation is getting spoiled.
     

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