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I am a STEM student and want both a career and family. But I worry as Indian TV serials glorifying the "ideal bahu/beti" impacts society.
I am a STEM student and want both a career and family. But I worry as Indian TV serials glorifying the “ideal bahu/beti” impacts society.
I am a student in STEM, and am definitely planning to have a flourished career, and I too want a family as well.
But, I always question myself on how will I manage everything in the future? Indian TV serials portray nothing else, but a woman who is expected to overwork herself in the name of “superhuman”. This portrayal impacts society’s thinking and puts pressure on women to overwork.
Pati ki zimedaari ghar mei kharch dekhne ki hoti hain, aur patni ki zimedaari ghar mei sanskaar banaye rakhne ki hoti hain (It is the responsibility of the husband to earn for the house, and it is the wife’s duty to keep the honour of the household). This a dialogue from a very famous sitcom on Indian TV.
Indians watched about 48.4 trillion minutes of television content in 2019 (Source: Statista). So, where does this lead us to? How does this viewership affect and shape our mindsets? Doesn’t watching regressive shows make us grow into an even more stereotypical and hypocritical society?
I personally am not against Indian serials, but the hypocrisy and stereotypical gender roles associated with it creates an entire mess. It makes me worried and makes me question the society we are raised in.
My general observations have made me realise that I have barely seen an Indian daily soap with a regular working woman. It is extremely rare, it at all.
On the other hand, the woman with a job or career is either a vamp in the show or is completely unaware of the basic household chores that every human being should know.
The basic definition portrayed of a “sanskaari bahu/beti” is one who is aadarshvadi, who listens to whatever her husband and in-laws say. And not to forget, she is someone who survives on air. Think about it, we rarely see a daughter-inlaw (bahu/beti) eat along with other family members!
I am a student in STEM, and am definitely planning to have a flourished career, and I too want a family as well. But, I always question myself on how will I manage everything in the future?
My mother too works, but as a teacher and her working hours are completely different from the working hours I will have in the future. I don’t think I will ever be able to manage things properly without the support of my partner.
But our serials portray nothing else, but a woman who is expected to overwork herself in the name of “superhuman”. When the TV serials show men get away with saying they never were meant to do these chores and do not even try to learn is where the problem arises. Where are the supportive husbands and partners?
What we watch on television affects our mindset, and I will continue to question this unfair portrayal of women in Indian TV serials!
Image source: Still from Balika Vadhu
A full-time procrastinator and feminist, and a part-time tech student. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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