Beloved Bollywood and Rape Culture of India - Part 2

A few days ago I had written a post titled Beloved Bollywood and Rape Culture of India and as the name suggests I wrote about how our Bollywood industry promoted the rape culture of our country. Most people disagreed with my point of view, some misunderstood while others misquoted the blog post and thus I realized that I could have done a better job of presenting my views and that’s exactly what I hope to do today, clear the mess I created while justifying my point of view.

I never said that Bollywood is “the sole reason” for the rape in this country. However I do believe that Bollywood does play a crucial part in inspiring the rape culture of our nation. Rape and rape culture my friends are two different things. While the former can be roughly described as forcefully having any form of sex with a person without their proper consent, the latter is a culture in which dominant cultural ideologies, media images, social practices, and societal institutions support a misogynistic society and condone sexual abuse by normalizing, trivializing and eroticizing male violence against women and blaming victims for their own abuse be it for cat-calling, eve-teasing, molestation or rape. Bollywood doesn’t actively support rape; nobody does. But Bollywood too is a part of the massive crowd that unknowingly becomes party to the rape culture.

Let us consider an example. Let’s say that I am a perverted man (this is not a gender bias, just the fact that a majority of Indian eve-teasers are men). Like most people I do what I think is right and in my constricted opinion there is nothing wrong in “harmlessly flirting” with girls I see on the road even when they show their disinterest and let me know that I’m causing them discomfort. I mean, why should I back off? Girls love attention and I’m just giving them that; they should be thankful and return the favor! And then I turn to beloved Bollywood which always understands me. Not just one or two but I’ve come across quite a few movies where I can relate to the male characters as they too desperately pursue the prettiest girls they can lay their eyes upon and they relentlessly keep coming back till she eventually falls in love with them, the “heroes”. What more does a man like me want other than to be portrayed as a hero in a fantasy world where girls also fall in love with men like me? Bollywood doesn’t ask me to back off. On the contrary it encourages me.

Let us take another example. Now I am an impressionable young boy (again, not a gender bias). My father is the man of the house and at times he misbehaves with my mother; I’ve never seen it happen the other way around though. In the evenings, almost every Hindi entertainment channel intermittently shows the newest item numbers where women are scantily clothed and dance provocatively. They literally “ask for it” through their body language and by mouthing obscene lyrics and all that is deemed fit for watching with family. On the other hand a couple in love, sharing a kiss or making out is considered outrageous and is either censored by the censor board or the channel is changed by the parents. What do you think a boy like me will grow up to be with Bollywood to look up to? I’ll never really learn to respect a woman. For me, a woman will always be just a body meant to be objectified and whose sole purpose is to feed the lust of men because no matter what my parents say or do, Bollywood is the shiny toy I look up to.

For now, I’ll just resume my role as a blogger and get out of the role-playing session. It is true that Bollywood doesn’t create rapists. But do not tell me that it doesn’t even add fuel to the lustful flames already burning among the horny Indian men. We all look up to it for its multifaceted uses. Bollywood dictates our choices of fashion, our tastes in music, our lifestyle, our choice of holiday destination and sometimes it even tells us who to fall in love with (in a good way). An industry so vast and easily available for every person is bound to have certain disadvantages. When I am out on the streets lots of men who I do not know approach me. Do you know what they call out to me as? If you are guessing Simran, Rani, Naina, Meghna or Ayesha (who happen to be some of the greatest iconic Bollywood female characters), then you couldn’t be more wrong! However if you put your money on Chikni Chameli, Sheila or Munni (our beloved item girls), then you are bang on target! More than once strangers on bikes have abruptly stopped in front of me to make small talk (something they have seen our beloved heroes do) and have shamelessly followed me even though I did not show the slightest bit of interest. If you still think Bollywood doesn’t have even the tiniest role to play, then you are either stubborn or in plain denial.

It’s true that Bollywood mimics society but society mimics Bollywood on a much much larger scale. It’s sad when today’s directors and producers decide to uphold the wrong things (which just might be a form of escapism for their unfulfilled desires) and glamorize them, making the wrong look like right and sending the wrong message. When music directors make songs, they do not think that it’ll become an eve-teasers’ anthem (or maybe that's exactly what they want) but that’s what, they do not think at all. All they want is an immediate hit and what better way than to cater to the audience’s basic instincts? The industry people act like the mere businessmen that they are; instead of trying to make good films which will stay with the audience for a really long time, they make substandard films which will simply not run without the skin show. And guess what? These movies also make huge profits because of the simple fact that sex sells and so does vulgarity.

Bollywood at times tries to ape Hollywood and the results are hilarious. In an attempt to make bold movies, they end up making soft porn not realizing that even that can eventually cause trouble. Unfortunately the creativity of our beloved directors have dried up somewhat. Once in a while good movies are made; the ones which do not need unnecessary skin show to leave an impression. I do not expect Bollywood to make only women-centric films but at least give the audience strong female characters that not only Indian girls but also men look up to. Stop using women as mere props to sell your ideas. As powerful people it’s the industry’s responsibility to promote gender equality by at least portraying realistic female characters. Unless this industry unanimously promotes women safety, it will keep playing its passive role in promoting the nation’s rape culture.

I recently read a few other articles for research and this one by Bollywood columnist Proma Khosla: Bollywood has the responsibility to challenge rape culture caught my eyes. This one titled Bollywood's culture of rape indeed captured the theme very well. I am glad that my previous post was able to start a conversation. Remember when you empower women you can't have a selective approach and decide to empower just a small section. You have to proceed taking everyone into account.