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Chauvinism

Nandhu observes that the frequent portrayal of female leads in the recent movies as brazen and daring in matters of sex to gratify the male audience is worrisome. The society is nowhere near running out of rogues who pass lewd comments on school/college girls and now this nasty trend in movies where girls actually take a liking for that rugged unshaven uneducated raw man just aggravates the cancer. Movies already are doing a disservice to the society by approving sexual harassment (hero and his friends make fun of girls) which gets treated lightly under the banner eve teasing. Now, as if this isn't enough, stories showcase girls as waiting for their man to show up, chase him if he doesn't look their way and sing ludicrous songs all night yearning for his presence by their bedside. Now, we've had our share of chauvinistic guys from S.Ve.Shekhar (he never proposes to a girl, it's always they who fall behind him) to Vijayakanth (women have been falling for his manliness, whatever that is!). In their cases, the screenplay is over-the-top and nobody takes it seriously. In case of something like '7G Rainbow Colony' where the youth identify themselves with the hero, the effects could be disastrous.

Many screenplays take the easy commercial way out - they just want to build platforms for the dreaming men who form the bulk of their revenue. Producers feed them the ugly thought that the girl in the next street actually likes you, not inspite of your black skin, but because of your black skin. And the director goes on to set-up scenes that emphasize that love is beyond status, caste, logic and intelligence. Actors who know that they have a mass following utter utterly stupid words that denigrates women, impose inane dress codes that would take our women back by a couple of generations and institute idiotic cultural values that belong to the 18th century. There is also the political appeasement factor in movies, which essentially tries to turn the clock backwards. The emotional impact movies leave on the young minds in our society is already on an all time high. If the trend continues, a considerable chunk of the next generation under-educated men will view young women as sex toys who need to abide by the rules enforced by men.

A brilliant line from Kurudihippunal: "Cinema pathu valandha koottam, government avangala velaikku vangidum".

4 Responses to “Chauvinism”

  1. # Anonymous Anonymous

    i would not say i am worried by the new stereotype - the female who finds the porukki attractive. it's just boring and predictable. 7G was relatively new when it came out, but with E, Nayantara's character seems to have no sense of self preservation, which is bizarre.  

  2. # Blogger Prasad Venkat

    Nandhu,
    I realize that I've read too much between your lines. But the stereotype that you have pointed out worries me, and is detrimental for the reasons I've pointed out.

    I don't complain when I see men/women without any self-esteem as long as the screenplay demands such characters. But extrapolating the behaviour very frequently and providing generalized guidelines of do's and do not's for women is bad for a society progressing towards gender equality.  

  3. # Anonymous Anonymous

    Prasad,girls dont like Karuppu men for being karuppu? All girls? Karuppu pidicha thappa?
    Karuppu=anti-social?
    P.S: I am not karuppu, though I dont take pride in that :-)  

  4. # Blogger Prasad Venkat

    Raj,
    I should've dwelt on that point. Filmmakers take advantage of some of the misconceptions that undereducated, immature youth suffer: like girls only fall for white skin. While we expect the writer/director to educate and disabuse the misguided youth of such false assumptions, they revel in deepening the hole further.

    Addressing your specific point, I think it's neither the karuppu factor nor the affluence nor the suavity that a woman is attracted to. I know it first-hand.  

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