Victims of whims?

The sudden spurt in eve-teasing cases has been attributed to various factors including portrayal of women in films and teleserials. VISA RAVINDRAN examines the issue and spells out some steps to curb the social problem.

The frivolously named but vicious practice of eve teasing has just claimed another life in Tamil Nadu. Amudha, a college student from Asaripallam, committed suicide some days ago, unable to take the humiliation heaped on her in the name of eve teasing. Two girls are reported to have had acid thrown on them, a lone woman, mother of three, was harassed by a man who assaulted her when she questioned him and she had to be hospitalised.

Several victims of such unsocial behaviour have refused to file complaints because they say they have little faith in the police and the moment a complaint is lodged, word reaches the accused and reprisals follow.

Amudha's snuffed out life will have as little relevance as Sarika Shah's if things continue as they have always been — girls and women `teased' to the extent of causing fatal accidents and suicides merely to satisfy the whims of violent men.

Helplines have been opened, counselling centres proposed, grievance cells started, dire warnings issued and slides being shown in cinema halls, we are told, about what awaited boys and men indulging in eve-teasing, the pretty word for sexual harassment.

But what about the content of the films themselves that contribute in no small way, to reinforcing gender stereotypes, glamorising boy-girl confrontations before turning them into prefaces to `love' of the screen kind that has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with trivialising the deepest of emotions?

Office-bearers of Malar, an NGO working for awareness-raising on rights, analysed the sudden increase in eve-teasing incidents in the southern districts and blamed access to the Internet (catering to the `lust of perverted youths with pornography'), screening of blue films in cinema halls, TV advertisements portraying women as commodities and lack of sex education as contributing factors.

A local psychiatrist blames lack of maturity and the prevalence of misconceptions about girls moving freely with boys in a highly restricted society. An interesting insight he contributes is that girls like to be left alone, but boys think otherwise. And in this regard, this writer is convinced that films and TV serials must accept much of the blame.

For every rough-speaking, tough-acting college-going hero who teases the (usually rich and spoilt) heroine to tears before having her swoon in love, there are several clones, roadside and bus-crowd Romeos dreaming of riding similarly into the sunset with a tamed tiger in their arms. "I love you solla vaendiya thane", admonished the heroine's friend when the blushes start, as though all the innuendos and rudeness were a mere prelude to true and everlasting love. "Naan love panna varalae collegeikku," says the serious girl, good and bad ones speaking of love as a voluntary rite of passage of the young adult.

Gardens and dream sequences, outrageous costumes and obscene dance steps are the staples to convey this love. The pastimes comprise "beach, parknnu sutharadhu" (roaming around in beaches and parks) when not running up hefty bills at local eateries and hiding from most not-young-anymore-and-therefore-cannot- understand-us beings outside this silly circle.

Our sex ratio might have risen slightly and our female literacy rate quite considerably but if our entertainment media are anything to go by, impossible humans fill their space.

Boys tease and girls simper (whatever initial protests may have been displayed) but the audiences know that these are the time- tested vernacular of the box-office, the formula that makes it possible to miss several episodes of any serial and still be able to get into the plot without much effort at any given time. Stereotypes flourish, reinforcing the misconceptions that keep adolescent urges from developing into healthy and meaningful relationships either as friends or spouses.

Cruel mothers-in-law, rebellious or all-accepting daughters-in- law meek to the point of invisibility, demanding wives, suffering husbands, henpecked fathers making feeble jokes, aggressively- liberated `modern' women, the traditional wife who will force her husband to remarry and herself conduct the wedding and then worship her mangalsutra before dying nobly of cancer, coughing blood all the way to hospital{hellip}

Recently, the review of a German study on the subject of gender and media mentioned that the growth of radio as a new form of mass media coincided with the extension of formal political rights to women and because radio transgressed the boundaries delineating the public from the private spheres, a division which has played a major role in defining the `proper' roles for women, the history of radio was an important choice of study.

The coming of the electronic media and their ubiquitous presence have only multiplied this significance in the establishment of role expectations and in the Indian context, the exaggerated importance given the romantic love in a society where public demonstrations of it are rare and still frowned upon, has inspired an uneven mingling of the sexes, often leading to confusion and erratic behaviour.

Gendered studies of the media have pointed out the dangers. In a society like ours, films and TV and the conduct of celebrities have a direct influence on behaviour.

Even Phoolan Devi, in her dacoit years, is reported to have taken extraordinary risks to see a film.

How great a revolution such a potent medium could create if it moved closer to reality and exhibited some social responsibility that ought to accompany such power!

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