If you’re a certified fan of movies/books, you can easily acknowledge their influence in your life. Be it in your decisions, your judgments, your mood or your views. If you have ever wept, giggled or grieved while watching a movie or reading a book, you know that some of our most emotional experiences can simply be a result of somebody else’s imagination.
If you know me at all, you would know that in reality, I’m a pretty composed and stoic person. While watching a film, though, I’m at my most vulnerable state. I remember weeping for hours together when I first watched the Schindler’s List. I could be watching a movie for the hundredth time, but I will still cry for a few scenes. It’s a given that you will probably find me watching an episode of Friends or reading a book after a bad day. Believe me, I’m cringing while typing this, I also secretly love celebrity gossip. This leads me to believe that films (even more than books) are the most popular form of art in today’s world.
I believe that films have an immense influence on people’s opinions and it thrills me to watch the handful of path-breaking films that we are seeing today. Despite these few attempts, the film industry has a certain way of portraying some things that soon becomes the “norm”. Take for instance how the LGBT community is represented in Indian films. They are either at the receiving end of homophobic jokes or are overly horny gay guys who are forcing themselves on the lead actor. Every single gay guy portrayed in mainstream films have a certain comic way of behaving, which is cringe-worthy, to say the least. To make matters worse, we have a conservative censor board banning gay films for it might ignite an “unnatural passion”. How then, do you expect young children to feel normal when the only information accessible to them portray them as an anomaly?
I recently read a book, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell where he talks about the Implicit Association Test under Project Implicit at Harvard University. I took a simple test where I must first group words into two tabular columns of either White or Good and Black or bad. I must then take the same test again, but this time, I must group them into Black or Good and White or Bad. It came as a shocker when I realized that I took much longer the second time around. This is disturbing more so because I don’t even know any African in person to base my implications on. The only Africans I have ever known are from Hollywood films. It was heart breaking when I first saw a video of the doll test but it turns out, I’m more or less in that same boat. Subconsciously I associated black with bad even without realizing. This is why media representation matters.
I absolutely love Shonda Rhimes, I was first obsessed with Grey’s Anatomy and now have moved on to Scandal and How to get away with murder. Over the years, I have come to terms with her complete disregard for my feelings and her enthusiasm to kill my favorite characters for no reason what so ever. Among many other awards that she has received for her brilliance, she also received an award for her ‘color blind’ casting choices. The mere fact that there is an award for that is clear indication of a problem. It is a problem when young people like me grow up being taught that people are what they are and not who they are.
I’m a believer of the phrase ‘If she can’t see it, she can’t be it’. Presidents and CEOs are not made overnight. It takes years of streamlined hard work to achieve such heights. If a girl doesn’t even think it’s her place, how then will she work towards it? By making films with female leads as nothing but an object for men to leer at, what are we telling the young girls of our country? It is disappointing that it took Pixar 15 years to feature a female lead in one of their films. In the recent years, though, I see a change, more and more films are being made with female centric roles. After what feels like forever, we are seeing a succession of smart, independent, complex and grown up women on screen. Even Bollywood is catching up with the world’s feminist movement! While this is a step in the right direction, we have a long way to go before we reach a point of no female trophy roles in films and equal representation and equal pay in the film industry.
I’m not saying that we need every film to discuss complex problems, we also don’t need every film to have an eye opening, life changing or perspective altering story. But we do need films that are progressive. We want films to teach the next generation that it needs to be better that the last. We need more roles like Jules Ostin from The Intern where a woman is successful, likeable and also a great mother or Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder where an African woman has a strong and complex character and is not a house maid or a comedian. We need LGBT roles where their sexuality doesn’t define their story. We need women presidents and gay super-heroes, we need to bid a farewell to stereotypes and welcome progression with open arms.
Anything and Everything 