যশোধরা রায় চৌধুরী
Consuming cultural products can reinforce existing societal structures, including gender roles, but it also offers opportunities for challenging and reimagining them. Cultural products, whether media, art, or fashion, often reflect and perpetuate dominant cultural norms, including gender stereotypes. However, they also provide a platform for individuals and groups to express alternative perspectives and challenge those norms. Through critical engagement and participation, consumers can both reinforce and subvert the deep structures of their culture.
However, there's an inherent complexity in directing attention towards women within the socio-cultural sphere, integrating them with new perceptions. Emphasizing the importance of education, literature and art have begun, exploring the representation of women and men in the field, breaking down the stereotypes. A recent phenomenon is that the dualism from which the concepts of woman vs. man, nature vs. culture, or knower vs. knowable come, is now being questioned in all spheres around the world. Male subject, female object, male knower, female known (also the concept at the root of the very popular saying "Stryascharitra/ Deva na Jananti Kuto Manushya"), male cultivator, femaile being like nature, like earth, like soil, pleasurable and malleable - this duality pervaded all spheres of creative pursuits. The attempt to break down this ancient duality, that is, to break down the authoritarianism or the hegemony within it, lies in the changing the perspective, through making women the subject of the sentence, giving her agency, empowering her.
The first proponents of feminism, while accepting the binary, advocated for women to be equal and parallel to men. This demand sometimes required the dissolution of their own femininity. Subsequent waves of feminists shifted their focus, believing that feminists no longer want to depict women as oppressed, just under the rule of men, but want to build a separate world for women. And it's here that the attempt to focus on women is centered.
Regarding the subject, however, we tend to see women superficially. Popular literature and art have taken this issue for granted. Regardless of the consumer being female or male, they are provided with the amusement, the entertainment of this female form. This is the easy form in a society dominated by men. Women become the muse of men, their inspiration, and the subject of their desires, the object of consumption, and the product of acquisition.
She is simultaneously a goddess and a demoness, or perhaps neither a goddess nor a demoness. Urvashi and Lakshmi, the two most dominant stereotypes of women in the tradition of art, can be called in the parlance of Western discourse, the angel - whore dichotomy.
This is similar to the interpretation that Laura Mulvey, in her essay 'Visual and Other Pleasures', 1973, has come to regarding cinematography. "In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female form which is styled accordingly."
Mulvey's essay introduced the idea of the "male gaze," highlighting the imbalance in the pleasure of looking between the active/male and passive/female perspectives. It suggests that the dominant male perspective projects its fantasies onto the female form, which is then styled and represented accordingly.
This theory, derived from the concepts of Lacan and Freud, became a prominent concept in feminist analysis of popular Hollywood films, depicting women as objects of desire or as objects to be possessed by the male gaze—often vacillating between voyeuristic and fetishistic themes.
Women are treated in two ways. Either voyeuristic object or fetishistic object. She is a female goddess, a Madonna, a mother. The text also refers to the representation of women and how they are perceived, seen, and projected, emphasizing the importance of understanding these dynamics within their context.
Three films from three decades of Bengali cinema. All three are considered blockbusters in today's language. First, the fifties film 'Sade Chuattar'. The second picture is from the 60's 'Galpo Holeo Satti''. The third film is ‘Boshonto Bilap' of the seventies.
In these three films, there is a clear transformation of the portrayal or image of women of bengal over three decades. In the dialogues of these three films, they depict the societal 'viewing' of girls in Bengal of three decades.
One - 'Sade Chuattar'' (1953), directed by Nirmal Dey from a screenplay by Bijan Bhattacharya. This film requires extensive social analysis. A story of a residence or hostel for men or "mess-bari".
Suddenly, a family arrives, a couple and their college-going daughter. The role of the daughter was played by Suchitra Sen. She wanders aimlessly with ribboned braids, turns her umbrella, and heads to college, also going to the cinema with her college friends. On the flip side, socially, there's the expected 'backwardness' of all the residents of the mess who are male. So, the entire story revolves around the tension of having an object of desire among a typical bunch of rowdy bachelors. It gets heated up when, without hesitation, she picks up the phone from the mess/hostel asking, 'Whom are you asking for, please?' where Uttam kumar is on the other side of the phone and has a serious doubt that its the phone of his mess being answered. He says "what nonsense! " and In response to the annoyance shown, Suchitra calls him stupid. And in the evening, in the neighbor's room, she turns the tables, asking Uttam, 'You didn't call me nonsense, did you?' As a result, she gets commented on by the boys, saying "What a bold girl!" The mother confronts her, 'What was the need to compete with boys in their conversation?' But the girl remains stubborn in her protest.
This pattern of quarrel leads to love, many other boys' greedy glances, etc., shown in many other films of the 1960s starring Suchitra Sen. The scene of rescuing Uttam from the male mess is also featured in the film 'Shapmochan' showing that the arrogant demeanor of an educated girl is a thing of wonder that time, and it is a very popular trope to attract attention of the viewer who are both male and female. The astonishment of the male hostel residents in that image is pure comedy. Or in the movie 'Indrani,' her success, taking a job before her husband, the essence of her personality, creates distance in the relationship - which is the reflection of the general psyche of the audience. The deep structure of perception of women has been reflected successfully as a drama element, though in the beginning it has been liberal and empowering for the woman character. The first generation of working women did face social taboos, though after partition and independence, women had to go out for jobs in Bengal. The perception of refugee girls going to work has been normalised; the barrier of home has been broken. The compulsion of being a bread earner of the house hold has been reflected in the most realistic and poignant victimhood we have seen in Ritwik Ghatak's 'Meghe Dhaka Tara.'
And in the popular movies of the mainstream, the attempt to portray the girl a little victorious as a 'heroine' was a bit far from reality but not altogether absurd. In Uttam kumar movie "Ekhane Pinjar” the heroine Aparna Sen has been depicted not as an innocent bread earner but a smuggler who provides for the family out of compulsion .
In Sare Chuattar, there is a famous phrase, on the lips of Bhanu Bandopadhyay. "Nowadays, Battiwala girls don't wear vermilion". Battiwala means enlightened. The friends of the mess call Suchitra Sen “Janhabaz” (Bad-ass?) as she retorts back every time Uttam criticises her.
Afterward, in quite a few films, the term ‘Janhabaz' has stuck us. The male characters around a bold woman character are not able to accept the girls' boldness .They are being compelled to accept. "What a bold girl!" is used in a pejorative way.
The second film 'Galpo Holeo Satti' (1966). A masterpiece by Tapan Sinha. The story primarily revolves around male characters, but the commentary on women and the portrayal of some of the main female characters is very important. There are two serious female characters of two Bahu-s or married women, which Chaya Devi and Bharti Devi depicted credibly .They are not 'Battiwala' women. The representative of common people, or better said "Chaphosha" Bengali middle class - who the cinemagoing audience resonates with the most. These are housewives, house arrest characters with their unrest, displeasure, bickerings and sense of dissatisfaction. And that's why, it is the most relevant when the boss of elder brother's office commented on the subordinates family structure: Sir, you have imprisoned a great power in your house. But Times are a-changing. You cannot keep them restricted any more.
There's the opposite in two younger female characters, the daughter in law, joyful and protected, and the vulnerable, exploited teenager Krishna, whose parents are dead, so she has to serve as a maid at home. Krishna is beaten badly for hanging out with her male friend in an attic room. Eventually, due to the divine favor and good deeds of Dhananjay i.e. Ravi Ghosh , Krishna's condition becomes like a pawn of chess. The family's head, dadu, stands by her. Tapan Singha does not deviate from the popular mindset of the patriarchal society even once and plays to the gallery , I would say, consciously. He did not want to preach but to entertain his audience.
But the ever so watchable Galpo Holeo Satyi is consciously male-centric, having some gems of wisdom about women representation thrown in surreptitiously. Dadu's grandson works at an advertising company and the boss depicted by Rudraprasad, directs the visual artist to make female bodies even more exposed while drawing an ad of a tie, meant for male use. The product is not that urgent he says. Showing the flesh is important. This film holds a critical view of contemporary cinema, a rebellious section, and the neo-novel's perspective. There is talk of shock therapy movies called shockumentaries. This explains that this film is, through passing references, responding as a mainstream film to Satyajit-Hritvik-Mrinal's art house genre of films.
Another Tapan Singha film 'Jatugrhiho' brings out the independent female character much more subtly. In this other masterpiece he has shown with elan, an upper middle class women being independent and unhappy, reaching the point of a broken marriage. Even though the actress leans slightly towards breaking the norms of society, her distress and consequent emotional pain exist due to the fundamentally patriarchal societal concept.
The third movie, 'Bosonto Bilap' (1973) directed by Dinen Gupta, depicts the backdrop of a much mainstreamed women workforce in a small town. It is evident that women employment has become normalized. However there is still resistance to bold working young women staying in mess or hostel accommodations. As a social critique, this film holds immense importance. The most significant point is the portrayal of a new generation of working girls who are not victims but give it back. Those glamorous girls have emerged since the late '60s. A new depiction is emerging here, which is pinpointed in the song sequence "ami miss Calcutta". The image of Bangali girl in shirts and pants with a cigarette in their mouth is being created. The girls are strong-minded. In the movie, repeatedly, the boys make various comments about the hostel ‘Bosonto Bilap,’ but the girls aren't portrayed as victims. They stand equal with the boys here, as if following Newton's third law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
In this film, Aparna Sen's character Anuradha counters the elderly's patriarchal dominance. When the tough Haridhan tells her, 'Why don't you pay rent if you don't want to leave?' She responds that he will first fix his will and then try. The roof of the house is leaking, doors and windows are breaking. Basically she threatens him with dire consequences. Anuradha slaps Shyam ( Soumitra Chattopadhyay) on the street accusing him of dropping a cigarette on her expensive saree. Soumitra, disguised as an old man. She comes with a pincer to break his teeth. The residents of Basant Bilap are a cooperative of self-confident, independent characters. They are steadfast and self-reliant characters here, who sing, dance, and tell stories at various gatherings. They fall in love, too, but, love isn't their only support in life. Marriage isn't their sole salvation. At least in the portrayal, it's not the essence. Even though it is a romantic comedy, these independent, self-earning faces of the girls in the film truly depict freedom to me. Then, fifty years have passed. I see how much development has been made, how much change has come in the women's depiction.
But still now, even in the 2020s, the women who break barriers are still seen as too bold and dangerous for the society. It's back again now, that sight. Gazing crookedly at the girls. In reality, it hasn't returned. It has always been there.
The terms like 'brave', 'courageous', 'fierce', 'rebel', 'quarrelsome' (Janhabaz, Jandarel, Khandarni) all these adjectives are deeply embedded within our psyche. Let's look at the very recent events. The mindset expressed towards women in the field of politics is very suggestive. The way Bengali culture had pushed women forward in the past century, why should we put it fifty years back, even a hundred years back? Reverting the evolved perception of women over these years puts us in shackles, dragging us back to the era of dinosaurs.
Translation Assistance: Sabarna Chattopadhyay
Images used are made by using artificial intelligence