How Is Women's Empowerment Represented in Bollywood Films - Literature review Example

Literature review Gender equality problem is currently a topic of constant scientific interest. While recognizing social injustice caused by systematically weak position of women, modern societies seek for the best solution to such a problem. In this context, Indian government is developing numerous incentives in order to neglect traditional cultural attitudes towards women in the society. However, the final aim of women’s empowerment is still in progress for India. The difficulty is that it is a part of Asian cultural space that traditionally eliminates women from social life. In this context, the appearance of Bollywood as the globalized phenomenon has the potential to accelerate the resolving process of gender inequality. In particular, the wide popularity of its cultural products among the local people indicates of Bollywood’s authority in contemporary society. And so, the way women are represented in Bombay movies can transform cultural ignorance into tolerance. Therefore, in this chapter literature on feminist theories, Indian society and phenomenon of Bollywood is presented in order to provide the theoretical background for the further analysis. To start with, several materials from Journal of Research on Women and Gender (JRWG) were used in order to clarify the theoretical background of the current research. In particular, the clear connection between movie as the part of unified media space and the society should be indicated. In this context, Byerly and Hill in their finding on theoretical framework concerning feminist media mention McCombs and Shaw’s agenda-setting theory (2012: 4). In fact, it can provide a basis for investigating linear connection between specific series of events within the media space in order to define social and political dynamics in the country. In other words, the role of media products is crucial in order to understand the social transformation. In this context, feminist radical theory building stresses on the feature of social transformation that contain each phenomenon of women’s empowerment; in particular, it is changing the traditional vision of relations between genders and, as a result, leads to different social relationships between sexes in practice (Byerly and Hill, 2012: 2). Hence, gender equality o inequality in the society is dependent on its representation in media (or movies as particular media products). And so, it is reasonable to state that Indian movies are not independent insignificant elements in social structure but narrative constructs that shape culture of the whole society. In this context, Hawkins agrees that gender problems are always deeply rooted in the social, political, economic, and cultural background of the country (2012: 2). And so, current situation of women’s weakness in the society and lack of self-respect is dictated by cultural expectations on female role in the community. In this case, the cultural background of collective values in Asian societies creates the phenomenon of deeply entrenched gender roles in connection with religion, myths, and legal system of a country. And so, women’s rights get secondary roles in comparison to cultural values and traditions (Hawkins, 2012: 12-13) that can be defined in most of Indian communities as cultural ignorance of women. Therefore, Asian countries cannot be investigated on the progress of women’s empowerment without determining their cultural expectations on gender roles. However, all the above-mentioned sources are solely theoretical works with no illustrations on practice. And so, in this research agenda-setting theory is applied in order to illustrate the connection between narratives in Bollywood movies and their social appreciation. In this context, questionnaire on feminism in Indian movies will be offered for the students. Moreover, the idea that cultural expectations cause gender issues is taken for granted in this research. Another important element from materials in JRWG falls within the Western impact on Indian society. In particular, Deepak analyzes global neo-liberal program popularized by Western countries. In his opinion, it is burdensome for women in poorer countries due to the social exposure and health problems with their family members (2011: 12). Moreover, in the modern conditions of population growth, India as the second most overcrowded country in the world participates in global programs of population growth control that is aimed on women and caused numerous problems with their health (Deepak, 2011: 10). And so, gender inequality is still a significant issue for India in the contemporary globalized world. But, in Deepak’s work the influence of Western countries on Indian cultural industry is neglected. However, the gap between program documents and their actual management is stressed by the researcher. That is the reason why current analysis is concentrated on the gender inequality perception in Bollywood in order to comprehend the perspective of correspondent women’s empowerment on the grassroots level. The point that this research should cover all the time of Indian independence is induced by the social dynamics in the history of this country. In Dasgupta’s opinion, the very appearance of Indian state was supplemented by the Freedom Struggle while new community wanted to combine the Western ethic system and traditional morality (2013: 8). In this context, rise of national consciousness in the society is reflected in the literature as it transformed India significantly. For instance, the important shift caused by Indian nationalism is happened in the process that “representation of India [is] no longer cursed by the reality of “untouchability” (Mishra, 2002: 18). Moreover, in the events of national empowerment, women played significant roles as active nationalists and symbols of “Mother India” (Upadhyay, 2013: 12). In this context, the appearance of Indira Gandhi proved this thesis. However, the representation of female nationalists in Hindi cinema and its transformation in gender terms is not appropriately reflected in the above-mentioned literature. In fact, researchers tend to investigate female’s ignorance connection with political, economic and social environment of India by neglecting its cultural aspect (Upadhyay, 2013; Dasgupta, 2013). However, ineffectiveness of governmental projects on gender equality can be explained by the national worldview of Indian society formed by cinema in particular. And so, it is the subject of scientific interest for current research. Nevertheless, some writers paid their attention to the Bollywood’s activity in the period of national movement. As Dwyer (2010) mentioned, Hindi cinema all of the time told stories about great past and heroic events rather than represented the accurate moment on the stage of transformation. That means that the reality of Indian social life was not shown accordingly in this cultural industry. And so, it concentrated on creating ideal images of the country that should be inspiring and emotional. Therefore, the power of Indian myths in the society is dictated by the necessity to create nation in the young country. In this context, Dwyer noticed the popularity of historical films that provide new narratives of national rise and modify self-representation (2010: 393). Hence, the motive of nation-building is presented in the analysis of selected movies in order to provide the full comprehension of narratives they create. Collaterally, the reality the liberalization and privatization of Indian economy occurred. Since 1991, India had chosen this way and, consequently, has become one of the contemporary global powers (Dwyer, 2010: 382). Actually, only the process of globalization turned Bombay cinema into a wide notion of ‘Bollywood’ (Sarkar, 2013: 206) – the industry placed in Bombay producing the greatest number of movies in the world (Dwyer, 2010: 382). And so, recent worldwide legitimization of the term Bollywood (not Hindi or Bombay cinema) has actually reflected the success of social change occurred in India (Pao, 2010: 3). In social context, these processes encouraged women from the middle class to start working; however, even such an economic empowerment is still accompanied by caste, class, religious, and ethnic peculiarities (Upadhyay, 2010: 9). Accordingly, it becomes evident that Bollywood had transformed into the global phenomenon and women’s empowerment can be analyzed in its context. Moreover, in the analysis chapter the contemporary Bollywood movies are presented in order to demonstrate the shift in perception of women in contemporary Indian society. Furthermore, several analyzed works on Bollywood are dedicated to its comparison to Hollywood as cultural phenomenon. Both have become the important elements of global popular culture; therefore, Bollywood should tend to create a universal space of narratives for different societies in order to maintain its expansion. Notwithstanding this, Mishra mentions that specific feature of Indian movies (especially in comparison to Hollywood ones) is that they do not reflect the social reality but simply create cultural narratives in their sentimentalist forms (2002: 17). In addition, Sarkar agrees on that after Indian movies had become globalized their creators tended to save their own “Indian at heart” component by keeping narrative structure, morality, sound and acting, principles and other features (2013: 211). And so, Bollywood as the phenomenon is analyzed separately from Western values as it represents completely different attitudes and technics. In fact, presented phenomenon is called ‘glocalization of Bollywood’ (Pao, 2010). This term reflects global popularity of Hindi movies that tend to save traditional local peculiarities in clothing, music and other elements. In this context, Indian stars are usually bearers of the particular ideology and moral worldview; unlike them, Hollywood stars are “very much like players in a baseball team” (Dasgupta, 2013: 9). And so, Bollywood differs significantly from Hollywood in representation of the real life in general and gender relations in particular. Concerning the way of specific representation, the details of imaging are peculiar. Actually, Sarkar labels Indian myths as “plastic mythologies” (2013: 206) meaning that they serve as contemporary popular culture that affect both society and political environment. In terms of music, this component of Bombay movies has long served as the distinguishing feature of national identification (Lawrence, 2013: 192). However, by now Bollywood music was changed to some extent by Western influence (Rao, 2010: 11). Notwithstanding this, in lots of aspects Hindi movies are unusual for spectators from the West. Concerning specific elements that distinguish Bollywood films from the others, Sarkar mentions not only classical set of specific vocabulary, body language, music, dancing and rituals but also manipulative editing, color and sound corrections, and spatial changes (2013: 219). And so, by appreciating some features from abroad Indian directors tend to transform them to their local conditions. And so, Bollywood, by taking into account all the complexity of relations in global media space, transforms all the perceived information within their own morality (Sarkar, 2013: 224). In this context, Dwyer mentions that realism is not an essential feature of Hindi films; on the contrary, as oriented on entertainment, Bollywood is associated with escapism and fantasy (2010: 383). In other words, Bollywood create motives that can be explained as “representation of vanishing ways of life” (Dwyer, 2010: 392). And so, the role of Indian cultural industry is determined by repressing totality (in terms of Theodor Adorno (1997)). It fact, it is shaping the ideal future of India by showing its heroic past, traditional features or moral laws. Thus, analysis of Bombay movies should also represent the current moral views in Indian society. Therefore, in spite of Hollywood blockbusters that are made in standardized manner to fit the tastes of the majority, Bollywood is locally-oriented and reflects in the first place Indian culture. And so, in Indian context investigating Bollywood is crucially important in order to understand social processes and political perspectives in Indian state. Concerning Indian cinema’s role in the society, Susmita Dasgupta (2013) constructs a theoretical framework of its researching. In particular, she pays her attention to the feminist theories of Western countries and their appliance to the Indian case. In general, feminist theories see the role of a woman in the presented duality: on the one hand, female imagination represents social perception of woman; on another hand, it reflects her body as an erotic object (Dasgupta, 2013: 2). However, female body’s appearance on the screen should not be necessarily taken in negative connotations. In fact, it can be considered as the constitution of women’s liberation from her social sexuality’s constraints (Disgupta, 2013: 12). However, Disgupta by raising this subject does not give the clear answers what is prevailing in Indian example. Moreover, above-mentioned researcher does not reflect the evolution of the concept of female body on the screen. However, the writer recognizes the importance of gender motives in Bollywood movies. In the context of Indian society, the issues of gender inequality and cultural negligence are evident. In particular, research conducted by The Asia Foundation on women’s empowerment shows the disconnections between declared political incentives of Indian government and actual women’s involvement in all the levels of social life in India (Upadhyay, 2010). In particular, female Indians lack social mobility, access to schools and hospitals, ability to influence their private lives; moreover, they suffer from numerous violent acts (Upadhyay, 2010: 1). In addition, the level of empowerment differs from upper to lower class and from urban to rural location (Upadhyay, 2010: 2). Facing such a social challenge, the state established the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Commission for Women; hence, certain incentives in legal documents including rape laws and Indian Penal Code were created (Upadhyay, 2010: 5). That is the way social reality was tried to be transformed by political incentives. However, if a woman is a representative of poor lower class being a member of a tribe, she is still at the extremely high risk nowadays (Upadhyay, 2010: 7). And so, on the grassroots level intolerant appreciation of social reality is presented in order to define the attitude towards gender inequality. Consequently, in this research it is assumed that cultural negligence of women remains a key obstacle for contemporary women’s empowerment. In the context of gender inequality, rapes appear to be the part of current analysis. In fact, the National Crime Bureau indicates that there is a rape every less than half an hour even in Delhi (Upadhyay, 2010: 7). In this context, Karen Gabriel (2009) presented an essay that deeply connects attitude towards rapes on the screen and its social approval or disapproval. In her opinion, crime is always measured by means of social institutionalization: “the way in which violence is organized, assessed, and encountered in a society” (Gabriel, 2009: 148). In particular, she examines the movie Bandit Queen that is also analyzed in this paper. In fact, she noticed that the real prototype of the main heroine (Phoolan) did not appreciate her representation on the screen. In fact, she rejected numerous rapes and involvement in massacre (Gabriel, 2009: 155). As Gabriel defines the rape narrative, it is “…[to] manifest the importance of visibilising women but silencing them and absenting their subjectivities” (Gabriel, 2009: 161). And so, the problem of truth again appears as the key contradiction in Hindi cinema (Dwyer, 2010) showing its narrative but not realistic culture. In case of Bandit Queen, Phoolan still does not agree with the film story of her own life (Gabriel, 2009: 156). Moreover, the contemporary protesting reaction in the society on rape cases corresponds with the reaction of Phoolan on the movie, showing the low level of approval to the current gender inequality problem. In the context of presented research, Gabriel’s work is useful in order to represent the rape aspects in gender inequity problem of Bollywood; however, the women’s empowerment background is neglected by her research. Summarizing all above-mentioned, presented works have one feature in common: they do not investigate closely gender relations in Bombay cinema. However, they present comprehensive analysis of either gender problems in general (Byerly and Hill, 2012; Hawkins, 2012) and in India in particular (Deepak, 2011; Upadhyay, 2010) or Bollywood’s role in national building (Dwyer) and narrative construction (Mishra, 2002; Sarkar, 2013; Gabriel, 2009). And so, all these ideas are used in order to provide theoretical background for the current research and apply it to the phenomenon of women’s empowerment in Hindi cinema. Finally, only several authors mention the evolution of women’s perception in Hindi cinema. As Mishra noticed, in Indian films there occurred transformation from the concept of Mother (in presented in a given paper Mother India) to even more radical figure of Woman who has in its structure both sexual and divine desires (2002: 7). However, it is assumed that even when the subject matter changes, the context of feminine in Bombay films remains conservative and traditional (Dimitrova, 2010: 69). In addition, in the context of music presented in Hindi films, Lawrence noticed that women’s corporality is always put in the set of existing traditionally ritual, cultural, and social relations (2013: 196). Actually, Lawrence’s research presents a good comprehended analysis on the Hindi musical soundtracks exactly in evolutional order. But, the transformation of the gender imaging is not noticed by researchers on the Bollywood. Moreover, in Lawrence’s case the object and the sources are completely different from the current purpose. However, such a vision serves as a good example of methodology and analysis as he also chooses cinematic stories from different epochs in Indian history in order to present the perspective analysis. In order to sum up, the literature review shows that Bollywood phenomenon and gender inequality in the world in general and in India in particular are significantly researched in the resent years. On the one hand, the importance of Bollywood in Indian life is recognized by the scientists as it exists from the first years of Indian independence to the present times. Moreover, in transition periods of national revival and liberalization Bombay cinema transformed with the country into the global actor on international stage - Bollywood. However, by saving local features in its content Bollywood can be taken as specifically Indian phenomenon. On another hand, cultural aspects of gender problems are vitally important on the stage of steady women’s empowerment in India. Despite the fact that political will of establishing gender equality is evident, women’s self-respect is neglected by cultural traditional worldview that allows numerous rapes, violence, and ignorance. And so, researcher is going to combine this two topic – Bollywood and gender inequality – within the one theoretical framework. As a result, the research question is stated as the women’s empowerment in Bollywood movies. And so, by reflecting peculiarities of three chosen movies (Mother India, Bandit Queen, and English Vinglish) in terms of self-respect, gender equality/inequality, and cultural attitude towards women, researcher is aimed to demonstrate the evolution of social perception of women shaped by popular Bollywood cultural products. References: Adorno, T.W., 1997. Aesthetic Theory. London: Continuum. Byerly, C. and Hill, M., 2012. Reformation Theory: Gauging Feminist Impact on News of Violence Against Women. Journal of Research On Women and Gender (JRWG), 5 (October). pp. 1-16. Dasgupta, C., 2013. Towards a Theory of the Indian Popular Cinema – Exploring the Need For Moving Beyond Western Film Theories [online]. Academia.edu. Available at: [Accessed 13 August 2014]. Deepak, A., 2011. Sustainability and Population Growth in the Context of Globalization – A Postcolonial Feminist Social Work Perspective. Journal of Research On Women and Gender (JRWG), 3. pp. 1-22. Dimitrova, D., 2010. Religion and Gender in Bollywood film. In: D. Dimitrova, ed. 2010. Religion in Literature and film in South Asia. NY: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 69-82. Dwyer, R., 2010. Bollywood’s India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Modern India. Asian Affairs, 41 (3). pp. 381-398. Gabriel, K., 2009. Reading Rape: Sexual Difference, Representational Excess and Narrative Containment. In: Manju Jain, ed. 2009. Narratives of Indian Cinema. New Delhi: Primus. pp. 145-166. Hawkins, C., 2012. Women’s human rights: The global intersection of gender equality, sexual and reproductive justice, and healthcare. Journal of Research On Women and Gender (JRWG), 4 (March). pp. 1-26. Lawrence, M., 2013. India. In: C. Creekmur and L. Mordad, eds. 2013. The International Film Musical (Traditions in World Cinema).Reprint edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 189-212. Mishra, V., 2002. Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire. NY: Routledge. Rao, S., 2010. “I Need an Indian Touch”: Glocalization and Bollywood Films. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 3 (1). pp. 1-19. Sarkar, B., 2013. Metafiguring Bollywood (Brecht after Om Shanti Om). In: M. Sen and A. Basu, eds. 2013. Figurations in Indian Film. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 205-235. Upadhyay, R., 2010. Women’s Empowerment in India. Analytical Overview. The Asia Foundation. San Francisco: The Asia Foundation. Read More