Hello again. I am thrilled to see such amazing responses from so many people. Let me inform the readers again that this isn't a hate spiel, nor is it how we interpret IPK should have been, it's storylines or civic responsibility to its viewers and what it teaches *cough* *cough*, it is just reviewing feminism while taking examples from IPK to show it. Because I honestly do believe that the average contributor to IF has a mistaken idea of what feminism is, and IPK kind of reinforces that stereotype.
So let's review shall we? The discussion that followed Lavanya's character assassination delved over the typical idea of what feminism is and why desi women are discouraged from espousing it. Feminism talks about female liberation, female rights, yet it is reduced to images of women wearing next to nothing, being disrespectful to elders and of other religions, having a high opinion of themselves, mostly atheist and once that comes in to the picture their immorality is made out to be understandable because they do not hold themselves accountable to God, forget about legal systems and accountability to one's own conscience because if they can't give it all up for God why would they do it for manmade institutions and rules; it just makes no sense.
Exhibit B: Sim and Pam
The Laurel and Hardy of the show from the good old glory days. Sim; the slightly payndou receptionist who hid her Om pendant as best she could because being religious just isn't the in thing and will get you nowhere in the corporate world. She was shown to be sweet of nature, gullible and hence easily manipulated towards the evil side because she was ashamed of her roots and culture.
Pam; the wicked witch of the west was so far gone that anything that could mark her as Indian was shunned. She was used by far as the worst example of feminism, who was in awe of Lavanya, wanted to be just like her till she became bhainji and had a fit of jealousy when that diva model showed up at AR. Extremely materialistic, also promoting the fact that "buy her a designer bag and she'll forget all about bitch mode and kiss your…. erm… feet"
More than a paradox, what the IPK CVs managed to do was show a progression in to modernism and westernization of our youth. From Khushi, to Sim, to Pam to Lavyanya, it was a circle of redemption that was drown, of how these girls could be brought back to the right way if an eligible man worth fighting for was presented on the platter (because at the end of the day that is what every woman needs…. But then what about lesbians?! But I digress) and they were shown that the old way was the only way.
What it also did was present a very distorted image of the working woman; taking feminism years back in most fathers thinking again whether their daughters could go out and earn a living if they wanted to or had to. It was around the same time that news came of a six pm curfew for women working in a city in India (I can't recall the exact city) because rape incidents had increased and the police force didn't want to take responsibility if a woman got raped. "Out after six and got raped; it's your fault Ma'am, we told you to stay indoors; we are here to protect the rapist not you."
Now atheism. All atheism has done, in my research in to the subject matter, is proved an immense amount of logic and given me faith in humanity, because most atheists believe in doing good for the sake of goodwill towards man not for some holy reward in the afterlife and no it does not propagate chaos, just like all religion does not promote harmony.
Atheism, just like any religion, deserves respect. If you expect the atheist to respect your beliefs (which he thinks are as full of crap as you think his beliefs are) then you should try doing the same, right? So if we can have shows about devout Hindu's and nice Muslims, why not atheism which is also a largely spreading belief system? Also, atheists only get their panties in a righteous twist when you start shoving your God down their throat. At other times they are awesome fun and very intelligent people.
And by giving in to stereotypes again and again, because it's easier to churn out a show five days a week, aren't we leading our viewers to hate generated out of ignorance and further intolerance by rooting this image deeper and deeper still? We as a nation already suffer from denial, do we really want to stay in it forever because its easier than allowing the change? Doesn't that just make us lazy?
Munchy's Note: Sometimes when you show extremes of an ideology (Communists, Capitalists, Nazi's, Muslim Terrorists, Guerillas, Rise of the Apes) it does serve to get your point across of just how dangerous it can be to the nation or humanity as a whole. But what threat does feminism pose? How can it be a threat when you don't allow the main points of feminism (female rights to vote, to earn a living, to her own body, who she marries and yes the right to don the burqah if she feels like it without the world giving her hell for what she chooses to wear (France!)) to come out but only let the audience think that feminism is about wearing skimpy clothes, partying hard, having no morals and no respect for anything, basically telling the world to farrak off.
What feminism does threaten is misogyny and patriarchy. It questions the system, questions women's worth in the universe, comes to the conclusion that women are vital and that is something that patriarchy cannot allow.
Science has gone through what are known as paradigm shifts; from geocentric (the universe revolves around the Earth) to heliocentric (O gosh we never realized we were going around the sun all this while!), from the world being flat to round all of a sudden and many many more. These shifts weren't easy to accept, it took a lot of time and effort for the mainstream thinking to change and acknowledge these beliefs as fact. So why are we so afraid for a Revolution in Humanities? We've done it before by accepting slavery was wrong, by realizing the color of the skin does not make one superior or inferior, then why is gender equality so hard to digest?
I leave you with something from the Matrix:
You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
Happy discussions!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Indian Mythology
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