Every society has constraints over various aspects of each individual's life living within it, mainly dictated by the binary gender system. This system labels the people within it and assigns them specific gender roles. While history is built on long-standing structures that define society's functioning, patriarchy has been one of the longest and most harmful. Patriarchy creates this hierarchy that persists in every interaction of people, perhaps beyond these interactions as well, where the men are valued and favoured over the women. The masculine is considered more powerful, accompanied by a particular set of rules and expectations that the feminine is restricted from exploring. Because of the foundation of this hierarchy, men continually assert dominance over women. Even when they are aware of the workings of patriarchy, there is no way for them to not benefit from that kind of structure. That perpetually puts women at an immediate disadvantage to a man.
Gender has consistently been a critical aspect of social inequality. It is a sociological construct that dictates how society's "men and women" lead their lives, including a broad range of choices and accessibility to resources. Gender inequality occurs due to the constant demarcation of men and women as distinct types of people. While gender inequality involves both the genders accepted within society, it primarily impacts women. Historically, an individual's biological make-up defined their role within society, which is exclusionary in itself. This meant that men were given the "working" roles of hunters and gatherers, which later evolved to any form of working, while women were historically reserved as child-bearers and caretakers. Since women were bound to their homes and their children, they were forced to construct roles within the confines of this space. This is why jobs such as gardening, cooking and cleaning have perpetually been associated with the idea of femininity. On the other hand, men lauding their biologically "stronger and larger" body took on roles of hunting or warfare, the prime reason why aspects such as violence and brute force are associated with masculinity, furthermore leaving women bound to their homes.
Masculinity and Femininity are societal constructs that the "two genders", men and women, that society subscribes to must abide by to fulfil their assigned roles. Within society's definition of it, a man is a title solely reserved for those assigned male at birth. Not only is it exclusionary in terms of gender, but this extends even to sexuality- men who identify as homosexual do not fit into the idea of maleness and masculinity that society has created. Due to their not abiding by this structure, they are labelled as effeminate, which denotes that the slightest bit of variance from society's masculinity is femininity. Because women are assigned the gender role of
femininity, and since patriarchy views women as a weaker, more submissive part of society, with men continually exerting their privilege and power, femininity is also equated to that kind of inferior position. So slowly, having the rigid idea of masculinity means subscribing to discriminatory expressions of misogyny, homophobia, racism, classism, casteism etc.
Since the beginning of time, men have validated themselves with the harmful notion of masculinity and hold demeaning views about women that translates into them making decisions with the power they hold. In India, like in most countries of the world, we are constantly reminded of the influence of toxic ideologies of masculinity by the people in power. Politicians, celebrities, any man with any voice, which in this patriarchal society is considerably all men as compared to any woman, has made remarks, created policies and aided in creating a harmful narrative towards women driven by what they believe constitutes masculinity and femininity. This socially sanctioned "performance" of masculinity is not only propagated by the family and educational institutions but also bolstered by religious, social practices, law and media.
With the Industrial Revolution, with most changes, one of the most dynamic ones was gender roles which became decreasingly fundamental. With effective means of pregnancy prevention being developed, women were given more agency over their bodies and the homemaker status. Additionally, with the advent of advanced technology, the need for physical strength in the workplace and economic production as a whole diminished completely. Despite the evolution in the differences between men and women, women are traditionally still considered the primary caretaker of the household. In contrast, the men are the primary wealth holders and are responsible for the economic advancement of the family. Societal pressures to fill these gender roles lead to the disapproval of those who go against these gender norms. To achieve a society that has all genders working complimentarily, the gender representation ingrained in a person from a young age must evolve for the better, more accurate and less harmful.
On the one hand, patriarchy has been highly detrimental for women, but it is essential to look at how it has been fatal for men. While masculinity, as a construct, leaves little space for the healthy inclusion of women and femininity, it proves to be damaging for the men included in this construct as well. Being forced to have masculine interests, viewing emotions, mainly crying, as weakness, and many other methods of toxic masculinity are engrained into men from childhood that affects their understanding of masculinity and femininity gravely and eventually
manifests to someone who actively, or perhaps passively, participates in the patriarchal functioning of society.
While it is essential to acknowledge that media has enabled people from different backgrounds to connect, share ideas, and learn a wide range of lifestyles, it holds a certain kind of power that has resulted in the reinforcement of regressive or volatile opinions and ideologies. Multiple historical, economic, and political factors influence the producers of media, which is then consumed by their audience. Media has a tremendous impact on the people consuming it, particularly in terms of their behaviour, cognition, and psychology. However, the most significant power that media holds is the incredible ability to reinforce existing behaviours and attitudes rather than changing them altogether.
The contemporary idea of masculinity is aided by two aspects of culture, sports and entertainment, other than family and educational institutions. The most significant industry of our country, Bollywood, has gone through a substantial shift in the last decade wherein the audience desired to see more content-driven cinema representing the Indian milieu. Furthermore, the rise of social media and streaming platforms also democratised the Indian entertainment industry and made way for diverse content and new creative voices (Mishra).
Since a young age, Bollywood has catered to the audience with a plethora of heroes- the knights in shining armour, the macho guys that kick ass, the lovelorn guys with everlasting devotion. Multiple films of the earlier Bollywood film era that are now considered hits and classics have sexist undertones and harmful stereotypes. Bollywood showcases content filled with violence, romance, toxic masculinity, substance abuse, etc., as the significant characteristics of masculinity which is often reflected and imitated in real life by the impressionable Indian youth. They look upon, revere and fantasise the lives portrayed in the Bollywood cinema to an extent wherein they try to follow and adapt to a lifestyle such as that of the macho hero on-screen. Following the trajectory of representation, popular culture is a ‘mirror’ that reflects the culture and creates it by reproducing and reinforcing norms and social benchmarks. The shift in the representation of the male heroes in the Bollywood film industry is most notable by comparing the pre-2000s cinema to that of the post-2000s. The male characters started changing from angry young men who fight off groups of villains to supportive young men who are highly dedicated to the loves of their lives. While these
characters have been developed to have distinct traits, the relevance of physical attributes still pertains, with almost all Bollywood heroes having bared their bodies on the screen. With the changing trends, the representation of male characters and their impact on the audience has been changing and continues to evolve; however, toxic masculinity continues to persist, almost like the running theme for all Bollywood cinema.
The persisting angry young man and macho image of the pre-2000s Bollywood cinema defined masculinity during that period, primarily through films such as Sholay (1975) and ShahenShah (1988). This era involved actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, who defined masculinity as fighting off villains on-screen, saving their mothers or lady love. These heroes played the roles of sons and fathers, yet the focus was on being "macho", fighting crime. It carried on from the 1960s to the 1990s and portrayed the idea of being a man as powerful, violent and physically fit, resulting in a large demographic of people eager to be a man with those features. With the hypermasculine and glorified representation of men came the women, the epitome of societal femininity, playing the damsels in distress in wait for their saviour men. The male characters gave famous dialogues that would make a significant impact on Bollywood cinema even today, while the women were left with barely any dialogues, and most of them had to do with the male character of the film.
The slight variation came in the way of the similar characters with perhaps some comedic elements in their dialogue. These films were littered with extra-marital affairs, exaggerated masculinity and maltreatment of women characters. The normalising of misbehaviour towards women continued and reflected in real-life situations as well. This representation created the idea that the way the men in these films behaved was how they were all programmed, making it permeable to mistreat women in that manner. This period brought with it a rapid increase in sexism in Bollywood, wherein stalking had been become a normalised form of devotion and affection by the heroes towards their female interest. This maltreatment of women normalised through cinema deprives them of the opportunity to speak up against the already persisting patriarchal structures, manipulating them into believing that this is genuinely how men behave, justifying any form of mistreatment done by men against them.
Hand-in-hand with this representation came a particular juxtaposition in the form of family- oriented films wherein the main characteristic of the movie revolves around drama, action, violence and sexist jokes. The extent of their family orientedness, it would seem, was them
playing the role of the head or the decision-maker of their family. Films like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Hum Saath Saath Hai reinforced gender roles within the realm of familial duties and responsibilities. This meant that the women characters were usually homemakers. Their lives revolved around the other male characters, especially the hero, which resulted in a lack of agency.
The saviour complex made its appearance in the Bollywood industry in the early 2000s. In Shahid Kapoor's Vivah, while the male character portrayed a loving fiance, he fits within the physical standards that Bollywood and masculinity as a whole had constructed. The woman is dictated by her good looks and given few dialogues, and the man is glorified for holding on to their relationship when she loses her beauty. These films labelled men as "saviours" of women for accepting them. With their "courageous" attempts to cross geographical and societal borders to love and "save" the heroine, the heroes were often lauded. The male characters were the handsome, fit guys who would perpetually save their so-called weak female counterparts in the movies. This evidently indicates that while major tropes and representation of male characters have evolved, it continues to have harmful sexist undertones. While the aggressive became less and men more capable of loving others, this affection was portrayed in destructive acts of service like stalking and objectifying women. It is undeniable that certain pre-conceived notions of masculinity have been more influential across all the decades and eras of Bollywood cinema.
In contemporary times, quite a few films have been labelled as "women-oriented", but this orientation is only with the guidance given by men. Men are the liberators of women, and that aspect of representation has not changed with the other trends of Bollywood cinema. The classic examples of this kind of film, which have been critically acclaimed, are Dangal, Chak De India, Mission Mangal, etc. Hypermasculinity has manifested into different forms of depictions in contemporary cinema. Films like Kabir Singh and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety depict toxic masculine characters who do not pay heed to mutual respect or consent. This kind of behaviour by men towards women is constantly normalised to the point that the audience is slowly getting desensitised, or worse, accepting this behaviour. The introduction of these new toxic men does not signify that Bollywood has been rid of the angry young man trope. Salman Khan’s entire filmography-movies likeSultan (2016),Tiger Zinda Hai (2017) and the multiple Dabanggs depict strong, capable, career-driven women who are forced to be subdued in front of the magnanimous male lead.
Leaving hypermasculinity to the toxic films of the Bollywood industry, contemporary cinema introduced the not so angry men trope, the emergence of the new ideal man in Bollywood. Films such as Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na etc., depict male characters who are not intimidated by the strong women around them and, in fact, make space to accommodate the women's interests. For the first time in Indian cinema, the female characters were allowed to have their personalities and distinct traits. These men had achieved a position with themselves and their masculinity.
Ayushmann Khurana is often lauded for his roles as this new image of the ideal man. He is, however, the same person who indulged in the saviour complex against Dalits in Article 15. He is also the same person who acted in a film that cast a cis woman that fits the image of a eurocentric feminine woman as a trans woman. There are five key features of performing hegemonic masculinity: 1) physical force and control, 2) occupational achievement, 3) familial patriarchy, 4) frontiersmanship and 5) heterosexuality. It is essential to specify that very few individuals can fulfil all the above mentioned hyperbolic categories of hegemonic masculinity, but they tweak some aspects of these characteristic features to suit their performance of masculinity and thus emerged the New Man. The need for the representation of non-hegemonic masculinities has become so desperate that multiple inconsistencies are overlooked to laud the one sub-par representation. That does not remove from the fact that Bollywood cinema has indeed started making way for non-hegemonic masculinities. Masculinity as a concept is essentially learned culturally. Masculinities, whether hegemonic or non-hegemonic, affect everyone. It dictates and guides the way young boys are expected to be, what young girls should expect and anyone else that identifies within the realm of masculinity. It provides a more inclusive understanding for queer people to navigate long persisting societal constructs such as masculinity and femininity.
Hegemonic masculinities must undergo constant change in order to maintain their hegemony by reacting and adapting to their object of subjugation. In this case, accepting femininities and reproducing them in a hegemonic way would create newer versions of masculinities that are less hegemonic to maintain their hegemony.
Sources:
https://papersowl.com/examples/direct-effects-of-media-on-individuals-position- paper/
https://papersowl.com/examples/gender-roles-in-society-essay/
www.feminisminindia.com/2020/10/22/masculinity-in-hindi-cinema-2010s/
www.papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3629344
feminisminindia.com/2019/10/16/many- masculinities-bollywood-60s-present/
Representation of ‘Masculinities’ in Bombay Cinema: Millennial Men
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