Ram Gopal Varma Ka Sexism: Will The Director Ever Stop Spouting Nonsense?

Once again, director Ram Gopal Varma has managed to put his foot in his mouth by making an incredibly sexist remark. Will he ever stop?

Over the past few years, director Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) is known less for his movies and more for his shameful remarks on women whenever he gets an opportunity. According to an interview with the Times of India, in his book and even on Twitter he wrote, “I like women’s sensuality, not their brains.” This statement isn’t just incredibly problematic towards women but also enables their reduction to mere objects of pleasure.

During the interview, when he was asked if he still maintains his stance, he said yes and went on to give poor and illogical reasons to do so. He said, “Why would I change it now? There is nothing to change. I am not into relationships and too busy to have any kind of emotional entanglement. I like life for the pleasure it offers.”

However, this isn’t the first time RGV has managed to make an incredibly sexist remark. Earlier last year, during the lockdown, when liquor shops opened, he had made another such problematic comment. He tweeted a picture of women standing outside a liquor shop with yet another misogynistic captioned, “Look who’s line at the wine shops. So much for protecting women against drunk men.”

https://twitter.com/RGVzoomin/status/1257258699619332096

He was called out by several women for the tweet and his blatantly sexist comment. Some women called him the ‘flag bearer of patriarchal society’ while many called his tweet ‘sexist and distasteful.’

This is so blatantly sexist and distasteful. As long as there are men like you, we can never hope to remove misogyny or reduce discrimination against women. Shameful!

— astreamish (@astreamish) May 4, 2020

The backlash did not change his perception of women. He continues to make shameful remarks on women because sexism and misogyny has been normalized beyond extent in our society.

Men face no fear of repercussions

The reason why men like Ram Gopal Varma get away with the kind of comments they make is that our patriarchal society lets them do so. They do not face the threat of repercussions of any kind because women are still seen as objects of pleasure, not as humans with brains. This view of women is heavily normalized in our society, thus men are not held accountable for the comments they make, no matter how problematic they are.

Moreover, this perception of women which sees them merely as objects of pleasure is also reflected in the kind of movies that are being made. In movies, many of which are consumed by youth, women are depicted solely as objects of pleasure. This further passes the notion that women are anything but humans with critical thinking. While women are breaking barriers to achieve their objectives, they are still yet to be treated as equally as men are in the society.

No matter how much progress we make as a society, women have to constantly prove that they deserve to be here. And no matter what we achieve, comments like these prove that some sections of the society will never be able to look beyond their patriarchal lens which persists even today.

Picture credits: YouTube

Aditi Singh Kaushik

History, politics and pop culture enthusiast.

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