At the end of the day, all we are suggesting is this-
1, FICTION AND REALITY
By no means do we expect ideal situations and characters to be portrayed on this show. When in real life, people have plenty of flaws, why shouldn't fictional ones?
The real cause for concern for all of us is how the situations as a whole in this show gets repetitive. When you show the male lead systematically showing a pattern of behaviour, it is indeed troubling.
And when you show that his high-handedness is a positive, appealing attribute for women- it forces one to question: what the hell do the makers think of women? Leave alone this show, the USP of this particular production company for all its shows is the formula of an angry young man and a bubbly heroine who is alternatively attracted to and is reduced to tears at the drop of a hat by the hero's antics.
Someone here said that soaps are by definition frothy and are not meant to be taken seriously. But even in the police procedural series (which can be claimed to be more 'serious' than a soap) ,that is produced by the same production company shows the same kind of relationship- earlier with the first female lead who died, and now replicating it with the new lead!
Coming to QH...let's say, Asad was initially a man who was rigid, stuck to his principles, disliked forward thinking women. And it is these attributes which led to his conflict with Zoya. Both real life and fiction is ridden with conflicts!
I would have liked it if the makers had shown his character gradually evolving. But NO.
Not only does the character persist in his behaviour, it is also troubling how the makers seek to reinforce some convoluted idea of love and romance through his overpowering nature.
When you try to show and enforce standards and ideals of romantic love, telling female viewers to be silent if the man abuses you, he loves you passionately anyway- it is a cause for concern. And that is just a slap on the faces of so many women who have left behind their insecure, alcoholic, physically or verbally abusive husbands than suffer in silence. (And to be clear, I am not implying that silent women victims deserve less empathy.)
2. INDIVIDUAL AND MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY
I completely agree that at the end of the day, it lies in the individual's hands as to what he/she takes from a soap, a movie or a video game. It is a product, meant to be sold. Responsibility doesn't lie with the producers alone, but also the consumers.
There are many people who have the detachment and awareness to exercise this responsibility. But to expect this on a large scale, I think, is a tad idealistic, and if I may add- impossible. Today's soaps and movies have so much of adult content in them- sex and violence are the two winning models, that there is only a certain amount of control that parents may exert on their children. The message doesn't even have to be explicit. Even a frickin male perfume ad has the woman lustfully sniffing the man as the guy smirks. The subconscious message is clear: women are objects of pleasure to be won over by materialistic things like perfumes and cars.
But the producers' side cannot be dismissed entirely as well. We are certainly not suggesting that the media alone is responsible for certain societal attitudes and behaviours, but it is undeniable that it has a major role to play, and that there is a definite correlation between the two, if not causation. For instance, studies show how children playing video games over a period of time have been found to display increased levels of aggression.
There are even games which encourage players to 'rape' a virtual woman character to proceed to the next level! How about that! The subliminal message received is clear! If that is entertainment, sorry, I just don't see the point of why we shouldn't protest against it.
3. THE NEED OF THE HOUR
In such a situation, all I am saying is- can we afford to turn a blind eye, be content and complacent that I am a person who watches a show or a movie with discretion, will tell my kids what to watch and not to watch, others can go hang? In the US, for example, they take this very seriously- there is a committee of TV viewers who annually vote against shows and movies undesirable for certain age groups because of the sheer amount of sex, violence and crudity in their content.
Freedom of expression may be very good, but every freedom, every right is earned, isn't it? Each comes with its share of responsibilities and pitfalls? Even on IF, an online forum to discuss TV shows, we have moderators in place to make sure things aren't getting out of hand.
Media producers, individual viewers, parents, the government, advertisers- all have a collaborative role to play in such a scenario. It is impossible to monitor every show and every movie, but let there be a way through which one can be entertained by ,laugh and cry with, and love the characters without being entirely led away.
The need of the hour is for all of us to collectively develop a critical outlook which will enable us to distinguish between healthy entertainment and cheap tricks which only perpetuate gender/racial stereotypes to gain viewership. And to know that some things just aren't acceptable as 'entertainment'.
P.S. This is only my POV, No offense intended to anyone.
Edited by Amri174 - 12 years ago
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