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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

THE UNI-DIMENSIONAL WOMEN


I had first encountered the term BECHDEL TEST  as a literature student ,today as I am writing about  WOMEN IN MEDIA AND FILMS I incidentally happened to read about the same on another blog as well, I realize nothing much has changed in more than over a decade.So for starters the test is used to identify gender bias in all kinds of media and any piece has to pass three criteria to pass the test:

(1) It has to have at least two women in it, 
(2) who talk to each other, 
(3) about something besides a man.

Just take out two minutes and put your favorite TV serial or Hollywood/Bollywood movie to this test.There are just a handful which will make the cut.This is not just about various art forms but I am sure a lot of real life would also fail the test.

So let me enumerate some of the ways in which we depict women in MOST of our films and media:

  • If she dresses the way she wants (read unconventional) she must be the vamp.Good women( read docile,obedient,chaste) dress up conventionally with a veil on their heads and more importantly their minds.
  • Women who choose work or career ( read over-ambitious) are dangerous to the social fabric( read existing power structures of patriarchy) and hence need to be labelled BAD.
  • Women are truly happy only when they are loved and cherished( read married or brought up to be only happily married). Divorced,separated,single-women are not the norm.
  • Women who speak their mind end up lost( read humiliated,alone or worst still raped or killed).
  • Only sons/husbands/fathers can protect,lead,decide.Daughters,wives and mothers do so only when men are not there due to whatever reason.
  • All women have a duty to look pretty , be obedient and preserve family values( read be objectified and be SILENT.


This is an entry for this women's day contest on INDUSLADIES.

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COMPANIONS CALLED BOOKS

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
The Alchemist
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Romeo and Juliet
Frankenstein
The Odyssey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Count of Monte Cristo
Eat, Pray, Love
Lolita
The Da Vinci Code
The Kite Runner
The Silence of the Lambs
The Diary of a Young Girl
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Notebook
Gone With the Wind
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The Human Bean Cafe, Ontario

The Human Bean Cafe, Ontario
my work on display there !!!!!