Retaining the Establishment through
Popular Culture: Selected Television Shows
Dr. S.Sridevi
Cell:9940519005
Associate Professor of English
PG & Research Department of
English
Chevalier T.Thomas Elizabeth
College for Women
Affiliated to University of Madras and accredited by
NAAC
Abstract
This
paper aims at an analysis of popular Tamil serials which construct the
character of educated young women as selfish and anti-establishment beings. Cultural
forms of the people reveal their likes, dislikes and fears and the way society
constructs images or ideas to keep the things as they are. Educated women are
projected as anti-motherhood women who do not accept the traditional roles allotted
to women by patriarchy. Indian social agencies are responding to western
feministic ideologies, for instance, the ideology of Julia Kristeva that has
spread through the agencies of the academia. There is a resistance that takes
place in the media against western feministic notions. The paper attempts to analyze
the probable reasons for this resistance and their implications in society and
its gaze on educated women and how this popular cultural space could affect
young educated women.
Key
words: patriarchy, popular culture, Julia Kristeva, acceptance, resistance,
change
…………………………………………………………
There is a certain pattern in the way educated
women are portrayed in the popular culture in the Tamil society. Either educated women are portrayed as super
women of imperial power to walk out of marriages, or as women who lack the
normal, common sense to run an ordinary family life.
This can be viewed as
an invention of tradition in the view of
Eric Hobsbawm to reinstate primordiality and continuity social
structures. Traditions can be invented, constructed and formally instituted.
They can refer to a set of practices, tacitly accepted rules, and of a ritual
of a symbolic nature. They are aimed at inculcating certain values and norms of
behavior by repetition which makes it appear as if it is linked with the past.
As far as possible these constructed traditions, or symbols or values are
linked with suitable historic past (Eric Hobsbawm 1).
The private television
channels do not release their TRP ratings, as it might affect their
advertisement income, but by the way allot primetime shows we can assess the
TRP ratings. These prime time slots deal with these archetypal stories of young
women who are portrayed as two extremes
of behavior. We see educated girls represented as women who
do not ever think of their career or passion for some kind of social services. The stories revolve around these young girls
who have no social empowerment in either choosing a job or in choosing a life
partner. Their bodies are decorated with unrealistic accessories to present and
aesthetically beautiful environment on the screen.
Most of these televised
stories are masterminded by the senior executive of the channels who keep
monitoring the response from youth for their stories. There is tremendous
welcome for this representations of women as highly dressed, artificially made
up, educated and very ‘traditional’. They do not have any opinions of their own and
are happy to do what society tells them to do and obviously not interested in
society, world and its politics. Their lives are caught in families and they
are not aware of the world existing outside homes, in spite of the wide
exposure technology is giving to them today.
India views education
for women as a western phenomenon as it views education as English education
only, and tries to keep women out of the western notions of women empowerment.
It is perceived as damaging to the family system and the serialized stories can
be looked at as society’s endeavours to keep women in the earlier position – in
charge of the family. Accepting social roles might endanger the system of family
and hence cultural artifacts have a subtle message telling the girls that they
have to do the traditional roles ascribed to them by society, and not try to
experiment with new western ideologies.
The good vs. evil
construction of these televised stories invariably construct the uneducated
woman as ‘good’ and the educated woman as ‘bad.’ The message is soothing to the
innumerable women who are glued to the TV throughout the day living in
powerless situations without an identity in either family or society. There is
no exposure given to these women about the other side of life – the life of the
empowered woman who has managed to balance a family and a career with familial
and social support.
Society has to
construct support mechanism to help the educated working woman in performing
duties that have been solely identified as the work of women only. Society has
to accept and value the contributions of these women and begin to represent in
entertainment programmes. The unrealistic portrayal of women soothes society’s
fears and discourages many youngsters from carving out a carrier for
themselves, as they have begun to think a career might disturb the family
system.
In reality shows, every
woman who utters an English word is bullied by the anchors, and according to
the ‘hits’ in You Tube these shows
are considered very popular. There is a social acceptance in the way educated
women being bullied, and the women themselves have been customized into not
reacting. A kind of post colonial tool is used for this discrimination – either
the woman’s use of English language or her westernized dress is bullied by the
show anchor who invariably happens to be a male.
Nancy Kaniyuga, Thomas
Scott and Eldon Gade say in their
chapter “Working Women portrayed on
Evening Television Programmes” in Career Development: Contemporary Readings edited by Artis J. Palmo
that American women are projected as secretaries, nurses or teachers. The
researchers say this has to be analyzed as “Television has been commonly
described as a powerful instrument in the socialization process, serving both
as informational and entertainment medium”
(283). Viewers are constantly exposed to
unrealistic characterizations of roles, and if the viewers are young these
ideologies can leave a permanent mark in their social attitudes.
Dinesh Varma writing in
The Hindu wonders if the Indian woman
has been caricatured in prime-time TV. He argues that many programmes project them as evil, plotting and abusive characters. A study of the portrayal of women
characters in many popular Tamil serials claims that women are negative
stereotypes in most programmes and warned that this trend could unleash
sociological havoc in the long term. Responding to a questionnaire-survey by
Indian Science Monitor (ISM), a non-profit organisation, most young women
interviewees felt that serials only reflected a distended version of social
reality. The study was done to gauge women's perception of they being consistently
typecast as evil, plotting and abusive characters, who go to any extent to
settle personal scores. In all, 200 respondents said they habitually watched
serials more than two hours every day; 70 per cent of them in the 30-55 age
group vehemently opposed such negative characterization of women while 5 per
cent called for some form of curbs.
TKV Rajan, Director,
ISM, says the dangers are all the more given the huge popularity the serials
enjoy, with some of running for a year or more. Dinesh Varma quotes Dr. Shalini, a psychiatrist and a
consultant for the study, says such evil characters could become role models
for the less-educated or rural audience. Also, the `evil woman' was conceived
by male writers. What we are seeing is a grotesque synthesis of two very
different approaches to violence and reprisal. Such programmes could generate
trouble even in the short term, said Dr. Shalini. There is ample evidence from
Western studies about televised violence inspiring actual violence.
Visakha
Dharba says in her article “Youth Column -
Women's Representation in Indian Television Serials” published in a website Lokvani
that the television depicts “Indian
women wearing expensive saris, decked from head to
toe in gold, holding a thaali containing fruits and flowers and
praying sincerely for the welfare of their husbands and his family. This is the
typical portrait of a woman in Indian Television (TV) serials; a perfect wife,
perfect mother and perfect daughter-in-law who showers love on all her loved
ones and is an icon of purity and devotion for the audience” (n.p.). Contemporary society keeps reinstating the
earlier archetypes of women as subservient in the forms of cultural messages
like these televised artistic pieces of entertainment.
Serials are created to
reinforce the stereotypical image of an Indian housewife. Each serial portrays
how an ‘ideal’ woman should behave when myriad responsibilities are foisted
upon her, be it in maintaining the happiness of her household, taking care of the
children or running the family business. If the woman is allowed to work, she
is shown as a modern, stylish woman who is always scheming and plotting the
downfall of her protagonist. Be it the submissive daughter-in-law or the
malicious husband-stealer, these women are represented as the epitome of
strength and determination.
The Malayalam serial Stree has acquired cult status in
Kerala, watched by an audience ranging from 8-year-old girls to 80-year-old
grandmothers. When the serial portrayed the protagonist, Indu, as a feminist
who was bold, stubborn and independent, it caused an uproar and led to the
director of Stree having to change
the personality of his character to that of a more quiet, submissive and
sacrificing woman. The Tamil serial Deivam Thantha Veedu represents an MBA postgraduate woman as an
immature woman, someone who hates cooking, who takes devious measures to get
married to a rich guy, who plans for the downfall of her cousin every minute.
This character helps the serial move on every day, playing an important role of
the action mover.
Visakha
Dharba is asking these questions: “What kind of images do these serials portray to the next generation? Are
women the only ones who have the strength to keep a family together? Do men
have no role to play at home? Is the docile nature of a woman her only
acceptable trait? What about the larger reality that we face today, a world in
which a woman is given an equal status in society?” (n.p.)
My paper makes the following
assumptions:
Firstly, humanity including
all the genders in society, has accepted the
social role of women as playing the dual role of entertaining the male ego and
body and continuing the human species for which purpose the body of woman was
projected as an object for pleasure.
Secondly, patriarchy keeps
trying to reinforce its Establishment through all media of operation, and entertainment
is only one of the many ways resisting.
Indian
patriarchic thinking wants to defend its stand by portraying educated women in
a negative manner to avoid disintegration of its hegemony as writers like Julia
Kristeva’s model of feminism has created a fear phobia in the Establishment. I
take her essay on Mother Mary in which she deconstructs motherhood has created
an insecurity in the minds of groups who operate social structures. She
emphasizes mother as a subject, the mother’s experience of motherhood and her
physical being. She deconstructs the western symbol of motherhood – Virgin Mary.
By insisting that the maternal body
operates between nature and culture, Kristeva tries to counter-act stereotypes
that reduce maternity to nature. Julia Kristeva has been criticized for
her emphasis on the maternal, particularly with regards to her alleged equation
of maternity with femininity. Critics have suggested that such equation risks
reducing woman to the biological function of motherhood.
Thirdly, society keeps changing in spite of the resistance and acceptance even as it is
resisting the changes. I take the example of the 1960s movies which depicted
heroes as uneducated. Nevertheless, society went ahead in search of hundreds of
schools and colleges, English medium education and now global education,
educating children with a vengeance. The 1960s phobia for education that was
represented in the movies reflected the discursive expression of society, its
dreams, failures, massaging the hurt egos, temporarily giving some solace to
the viewer coming within the framework of mimesis and catharsis. The trend
continues even today, but it is now limited to small budget movies. From this stand point, if uneducated women are
projected as heroines today, it hides the longings of the thousands of young
women who want to educate themselves to acquire power. Television serials/reality
shows soothe the hurt feelings of un-empowered women and give them temporary
relief from their sense of failure in a society that has opened power avenues
to fellow women. Television addresses women mostly, especially women who are
managing families and it wants to control their emotions and catch them in
attractive philosophies of ‘husband
worship’ and obedience to the family system, instead of teaching the society
how much women contribute to global economy either by managing houses or by
managing careers and families. The
economically backward women who watch these programmes actually are economic
bosses in their houses. But even they do not realize that the shows do not
reflect their courage and greatness. They consider themselves as inferior and
continue to watch the shows celebrating men. Still these women are educating
their children, as they have understood that education empowers women.
I affirm that Indians have to
understand that Indian educated women
who have brilliant careers have not projected a feminism that negates
the system of family and motherhood. The real educated women who are not
well-represented in popular culture and mainstream culture have to be
represented and will be represented sooner or later. This will create a need
for society to bring in support systems for family in emotional, physical,
social and political avenues. Patriarchy has to arrive at a flexible model to
accommodate the intelligent, committed woman who contributes to her family and
society.
Works
cited
Dharba, Visakha.
“Youth
Column - Women’s Representation in Indian Television
Serials.” Lokvani.
March 27, 2012.
.http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=8012.
Web. 25, January, 2015
Edensor, Tim. National
Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. New York:
Bloomsbury Academic. 2012. Print.
Hobsbawm,
Eric and Terence Ranger. eds. The
Invention of Tradition.
Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.
Kaniyuga,
Nancy. Thomas Scott and Eldon Gade.
“Working Women portrayed on
Evening Television Programmes.” Ed. Artis J. Palmo. Career Development: Contemporary Readings. New York: Ardent Media, 1977.
Print.
Kristeva,
Julia. Stabat Mater.
Web. 25,
January, 2015.
Sellnow,
Deanna D. The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture:
Considering Mediated
Texts. USA: Sage Publications, 2009. Print.
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