The International journal of analytical and experimental modal analysis ISSN NO: 0886-9367 The Cinematic Gaze, Addressing the Genesis of Sexism and Gender Related Transgressions in Hindi Cinema Dr. Kanwal Jit Singh Associate Professor and Head, School of Media and Journalism MIT World Peace University, Pune Mobile Number: 7973136315 Email: [email protected] Abstract Background: The #meetoo movement has brought in limelight the sexual harassment practices that have been going around for quite a some time in TV, Film Industry and Media. A lot has been said about the degrading nature of the Cinematic Gaze and its various spin offs but the latest happenings attest to the fact that despite the sensitization measures on these issues, this objectification has increased and has continued to move beyond the screen and percolate inside the professional work sphere where women have been subjected to sexual transgressions. Purpose: The intent of this research is to join the debate on Cinematic Gaze in current context and investigate the continuation in the trend of objectification of women in Cinema and Visual Media. Design/Methodology: This is a qualitative study, taking into account recent inputs in the area of Cinematic or Visual Media depiction of women. Findings: The research done has thrown up credible data on the growing objectification and trivializing of women’s portrayal on screen which has undeniably led to an increase in acts of sexual transgressions particularly in professional spheres. The study also highlights the attempts to desexualize the Gaze in the context of the work of prominent filmmakers. Key Words: Cinematic gaze, Male gaze, Sexual harassment, Objectification Volume XII, Issue I, January/2020 Page No:2589 The International journal of analytical and experimental modal analysis ISSN NO: 0886-9367 Introduction In her groundbreaking paper, Visual Pleasure and, Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey (1975) developed the concept of the “Male Gaze” that has become one of the, dominant paradigms in feminist film theory. Mulvey, explained that she had used psychoanalytic theory as "a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of, patriarchal society has structured film form" (Mulvey, f, 1975, p. 6). Mulvey noted that fascination with the cinema could be explained psychoanalytically through the notion of, "Scopophilia", the desire to see, which is a fundamental, drive according to Freud (p. 8). Sexual in origin, like, all drives—the curiosity to see is the elemental, fascination of cinema. Mulvey states that Cinema, stimulates, the desire to look by integrating structures of voyeurism, and narcissism into the story and the image. Voyeuristic, visual pleasure is produced when the spectator gains, gratification from indulging in unlicensed looking at an, image, typically of a woman. Again, Mulvey pointed out, that narcissistic (mis)recognition of self in an idealized, figure on screen, typically the male hero, is the other, visual pleasure. Mulvey (1975) analyzed Scopophilia in cinema as a, structure that functions on the axis of activity and, passivity, a binary opposition, which is gendered and is, signified, through sexual difference: "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 on to the female form which, is styled accordingly" (p. 11). Mulvey noted that, in traditional cinema, the narrative structure clearly, establishes the male character as active and powerful for, he is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds and, the look gets organized (1975). Her essay showed how, narrative and filmic conventions in classical cinema make, voyeurism a male prerogative. The Patriarchal Mindset in Bollywood There has been undoubtedly a tremendous amount of improvement in the women’s representation vis-à-vis Cinema in India and Mulvey’s findings have been basis of numerous approaches to improving the malady of female objectification. But the latest studies show that we are far away from reaching at a satisfactory point. In a special study over a course of ten months by Dhriti Nadir, Ishan Mehandru and Navya Sara Monson at the Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 30 landmark Bollywood films were studied for the total number of scenes displaying sexual relations, a staggering 74 percent were categorized in near sexual harassment. Their sample size was selected by choosing films based on critical acclaim and box office figures besides those having state recognition like national awards, to represent popular cinema for the Indian audience. From Karan-Arjun, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham to Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The study, done by taking up the time period of ten years from 1995 to 2015 threw up the following results. Volume XII, Issue I, January/2020 Page No:2590 The International journal of analytical and experimental modal analysis ISSN NO: 0886-9367 The number of credited characters in case of males were almost twice as that of females. The distribution of dialogues among them was also skewed with females getting only about one third of dialogues. The male to female ratio of dialogues distribution of supposedly path breaking films sampled were pathetic like 83:18 in Karan-Arjun, 82:18 in Lagaan, 83: 18 in Three Idiots while scoring a 42:58 in Devdas (Mehandru, 2018). Mahendru states that rampant sexism has been normalized in our daily lives by bollwood. In 1995, in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the character of Raj was aggressively pursuing Simran travelling in Europe with her friends, even after she rebuffs him. The study takes an exhaustive look at the next couple of decades as well. She states that whether it is Rahul in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Rancho in 3 Idiots (2009) or Barfi in Barfi! (2012), a woman’s personal or professional space is often taken for granted. She further justified their statistical pursuit of the systemic scopophilia and pandering to the “popular” and “dominant” male view to demonstrate and cut through the rhetoric to present hard facts which will unequivocally lay bare the patriarchal mentality of Bollywood creators. According to Mahendru such acts of harassment, however, are not singular instances of a skewed male-female dynamic. Once they analyzed gender and sexuality through a host of different parameters, they saw how we systemically discourage women representation and make caricatures in the name of queer representation. It might be a ubiquitous fact that male characters get a lot more space onscreen than their female counterparts but they wanted to buttress their claims with statistical figures (Mehandru, 2018). Mahendru makes a demonstration by stating that In the movie Stree, actor Pankaj Tripathi tell other men that the female ghost would call out her prey’s name, but claims her victim only if they turn around to look at her, thereby perhaps, consenting to the ghost. She compares this to the media anointed pragmatic male of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), the character of Akshay stalks and clicks pictures of the heroine, even after she asks him to stop. Mahendru sarcastically comments that in Bollywood, ghosts and in particular, female ghosts are the only ones following the concept of consent. The #metoo Movement The recent occurrences in the Mumbai Film Industry popularly known by the moniker “Bollywood” regarding the #metoo movement which originated in Hollywood last year has claimed a quite a few names in the Industry. In Hollywood, #metoo movement, went viral in October 2017, as a hashtag on social media which was a movement to expose the prevalence of sexual harassment, especially in the workplace. In 2017, Alyssa Milano, an American actress used the “twitter” platform to start a public movement against incidents of sexual harassment and urged people to “tweet” about their personal accounts in this matter (Khomami, 2017). This was met with success that included but was not limited to high-profile posts from several American celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, and Uma Volume XII, Issue I, January/2020 Page No:2591 The International journal of analytical and experimental modal analysis ISSN NO: 0886-9367 Thurman. The tweet by Milano using #metoo on October 15, 2017, was used more than 200,000 times that day and next day, more than 500,000 times (Sini, 2017). On Facebook, this hashtag was used in more than 12 million posts on that day. The platform reported that 45% of users in the United States had a friend who had posted using the term (CNN, Cassandra, Doug, 2017). On October 5, 2017, reports of sexual assault and harassment claims against film producer Harvey Weinstein surfaced. By October 31, over 80 women had come out against Weinstein. This ignited the "#metoo" social media crusade against many powerful men around the world, who were taken to task. Now "Weinstein effect" is collectively used to describe this phenomenon. In India too, #Me Too movement started a year after the Hollywood when Tanushree Dutta, a former Miss India and Bollywood actress accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of a film, Horn Ok Please back in 2008. Her crusade started off a ripple effect in which, women from all walks of life but especially from Bollywood came out with their versions of sexual misdemeanors. TV writer and director Vinita Nanda came out against Alok Nath in social media and alleged that he sexually assaulted her almost 20 years ago. She also disclosed that Alok Nath also sexually harassed other lead actress Navneet Nishan after binge drinking. Sandhya Mridul, another prominent actress has also posted an unsavoury account of sexual harassement by the Alok Nath while they were shooting for a telefilm. Apart from that, Actor Deepika Amin also alleged sexual harassment by Alok Nath (Indian Express, 2018). The biggest one to tumble was M.J.Akbar, Minister of state for external affairs (The Quint, 2018).