Opinion Where the girls are
Its Womens Day,so you switch on the TV set,eager to witness history being made. You expect to watch the Womens Reservation Bill being passed in the Rajya Sabha.
Its Womens Day,so you switch on the TV set,eager to witness history being made. You expect to watch the Womens Reservation Bill being passed in the Rajya Sabha. All you see are men kill Bill. You expect to see happy women smiling; all you see are grim disappointed faces. You expect to hear cheers; all you get are boos. And when all seemed lost,when you expected the man whose one film had made more money at the box office than any other film ever,to win the ultimate film accolade,Kathryn Bigelow snatched Uncle Oscar away from James Cameron. The director of Avatar had to be satisfied with three Academy Awards and two billion dollars,poor fellow.
On Womens Day,you expect to see affirmative action. Since every single TV serial is about women,you expect to see something positive and rousing. Well. On Sajan Ghar Jaana Hai (Star Plus),a woman is tied to a stake and as the drums beat faster than her heart,buckets of Holi water lash her body like whips. Meanwhile,Balika Vadhu (Colors) does a Slumdog Millionaire on us with young children,including girls,being auctioned off by goons to the highest criminal bidder. The goon boss,reclining on his bed with an ugly leer on his face,asks them to perform a mujra.
That should have brought out the child activist in each of us. But before we crowd the streets,shouting,nahin chalegi,nahin chalegi, Jamunia (NDTV Imagine) has something more in store for us. The channels description of the serial says,poor humble girl finds her life in turmoil when she moves in with her husband to live in a haunted house. But that is not what we see. We see the pretty young heroine deliberately thrust in front of a bus so that she is injured and her beastly male relative can claim compensation from the bus driver. Then a carrion bird flies over her home and her family blames her for bringing them ill luck. Whereupon,her Mamiji advances upon her with a piece of burning wood. To the unconcealed amusement of her female relatives,the girl stumbles,falls. Nahin Mamiji, she pleads. Held down by two young female cousins,she is then impaled by her aunt and the last sound you hear as you hurriedly switch channels,is the scream of her pain.
From one scream to another. Ma,mujhe bachcha de deejiye,screams the young girl in Behenein(Star Plus). But Ma slams the door in her face and says she can never have the child back. The girl collapses against the door in tears and loud wails.
Its enough to reduce you to tears. Female characters are abused,neglected,mistreated by men and women. Not one soap at prime time celebrates a woman who is not labouring under the terrible burden of being born a woman in India. The misery is never lightened by anything remotely positive. These women have been stripped of everything except their garish clothes and gaudy jewellery. The characterisation of women as perpetual victims is a terrible crime,as bad as any the female characters suffer.
There should be 33 per cent reservation in serials of female characters who are positive role models; we need women who smile,not those who weep,women who are not oppressed by men just as we need men who do not oppress women. Otherwise,young viewers,girls and boys are growing up with negative images of the iniquitous relationship between women and men. Its time to change that.
Just as it is time that shows like Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega (NDTV Imagine) undergo a complete makeover. It is ridiculous to have a show in which the bride is chosen on the basis of her ability to dance,sing,walk the ramp or whatever. While it is difficult to make such shows intelligent,they could avoid insulting our intelligence and that of the participants. Why do the girls lend themselves to such demeaning exercises?
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
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