A Feminist Analysis: Role of Media in Maintaining Patriarchal Society

Media has become an important part of our daily life which influences our cultures, ideas, opinions about world view. Media is also a part of our system of a regressive society called patriarchy but it is so normalized that we hardly recognize the misogyny that media propagates. Here I had done an analysis of an advertisement and a movie to show how normal it is for media to consolidate misogynistic culture in society. So, firstly start with analysing the concept behind an advertisement for a popular household brand VIM BAR. Vim Bar TV commercial while promoting its brand that is Vim Bar which is a dishwashing soap appropriated the patriarchal concept that looking after domestic chores is a gender role for women. A woman cannot abrogate her household work for her own career ambition. So, basically in this advertisement, there is a woman who makes fabulous cakes and her dream was to open her own bakery to sell her cakes. But she is not able to pursue her dreams because of being engaged in her domestic work. Her husband uses a patronizing tone to convey he is not against her wife opening her own bakery but he cannot absolve her wife from her womanly duties of being a good house-wife. The TV Advertisement very cleverly promotes their brand by showing that as she uses Vim Bar, she is able to save her time to work outside her domestic world and eventually she is shown opening a bakery and achieving her dream. The problem with this advertisement is that it is normalizing gender roles. It’s giving the message that if women want to work outside their homes then they can’t do so if they can’t learn to manage their time in their domestic work life. As being a woman she cannot be absolved from her domestic duties. The men cannot share the responsibilities at home to give his wife the equal opportunity of working outside the home as it will sabotage the strict gender roles. So, the woman should use the vim bar to save her time from her domestic duties to pursue her career or work outside. Excellent Advertisement! Is Vim Bar convincing that women are lesser humans that their career doesn’t matter much more than that of men? And who need feminist struggles for equality of opportunity and right to work outside homes, when women have Vim Bar to easily clean the utensils and then work outside? That's really a very disgusting message propagated by this particular advertisement. But there are so many advertisements like this that portray women in a helpless situation and in an undignified way and thus demeaning them. Next, let's analyse the movie: Kabir Singh. Last year a movie was released that made very huge in theatres – Kabir Singh. This whole movie was highly problematic and misogynist. In this movie, Kabir is portrayed as a very symbol of ‘machismo’. He gets attracted to his junior – Preeti who just got admission into the college. He then declares Preeti as his personal asset by saying – ‘Ye Meri Bandi Hai’ in front of college and warns other boys to stay away from her. Isn’t that suggesting that Kabir has marked a human as his territory? He then kisses Preeti publicly without her consent. He slaps Preeti in retaliation of Preeti’s father beating him and denying to accept their relationship. This shows how fragile Kabir’s Masculinity is. Who knows how he would have behaved if it were Preeti who denied having a relationship with him! There are many things that define Kabir as Misogynist, apart from this he is also a drug addict but what is the most problematic thing I find in the movie is Preeti liking his behaviour and eventually falling for him and marrying him. Because in reality that never happens. No woman likes being stared, stalked, catcalled or being harassed or molested for accepting a relationship proposal from a man. But such misogynist Bollywood movies suggest that women like being sexually harassed by men and this way a man can get women impressed. Forcing a female to accept a relationship proposal by stalking and molesting her is shown as a highly romantic thing in movies when in actual it’s horrifying and traumatizing for the women experiencing this. Such things are only horrific and creepy. You cannot ‘Romanticise’ such acts where a man uses his power and privilege to get a woman like him by forcing and molesting her. Misogynistic men who force a female to accept them as their partner are portrayed as ‘Heroes’ who get things his way. As those girls are shown falling for such behaviours and marrying such type of man like Preeti did. It’s not that films always show a man having obsessive behaviour to get a woman into a relationship. Films also show women having obsessive behaviour to get a man into a relationship. But then such women are portrayed as ‘Psychopath’ or ‘Narcissist’ whereas if it is a man he is portrayed as a hero who is the highly romantic and ideal man for the girl he has an interest in. Well, forced love or obsessive behaviour should be denounced in both cases because it's just not okay to act or make advances towards any person which is unwanted and uncomfortable for them. When there is a lot of news related to rape cases is coming, then the responsibility of those who can influence masses behaviour like media should work towards developing a culture of consent and not of coercion. Government is required to make strict laws for media regulations so that next time when people go into theatre to watch a movie like Kabir Singh, they don't see a man coercing a woman to undress by threatening to attack with a knife or to make any kind of physical contact or kiss someone without even asking for their consent. Mainstream media is actually responsible for cultivating, reinforcing and maintaining regressive patriarchal culture. It propagates misogyny in such a way that we hardly acknowledge that women are portrayed as lesser humans than men and how violence and creepy behaviour is made to look fine in movies and advertisements. Media influence on the masses is real and it should be ensured by both state and society that we don't let misogyny develop and normalize through the media and eventually develop a culture where consent does not exist in the name of machismo and heroism. Heroism is not inflicting violence towards someone or showcasing your physical strength it is your mental strength, virtue and respectful behaviour towards others that makes you a hero. And this is how the media shall present this concept in front of the masses to avoid people, especially youngsters, from getting morally corrupt and trivialised by getting inspired by a wrong character and story. It's high time stringent action towards the media should be taken to ensure that youngsters don't get a wrong message from them.

A Feminist Analysis: Role of Media in Maintaining Patriarchal Society

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