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Pushed into a hole of the uncertainty of a stranger's house, Jaya finds new images of subdued aggression, subtly and deftly hidden under the wraps by the ever-hardworking mother.
One Malayalam movie about which discussions were rife about the strong feminist message that it put forth is Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey.
It is the tale of the eponymous character Jaya who has been brought to us as the darling daughter, who grew up to realize the gender inequity smuggled into the household under the guise of care.
When her brother is beaten for tearing the books and Jaya is spared the punishment, we see a lovey-dovey family. But the fact is that the brother’s pre-used books which are handed down to Jaya should be in good condition. So much for loving their daughter.
When the girl is interrupted rudely for whistling, the audience sees a reflection of their childhood where they are brought up with the ideology that girls of good families don’t whistle. At least some of us would have.
The girl who is forced into a marriage because she had a showdown with her misogynistic boyfriend is a burden. Pushed into a hole of the uncertainty of a stranger’s house, Jaya finds new images of subdued aggression, subtly and deftly hidden under the wraps by the ever-hardworking mother.
When he slaps his wife, the mother tells him that what he did was wrong. And that’s it. Fed up with the continuous attack on her body, soul, and self-respect, Jaya finally clandestinely learns martial arts to get back at her abusive husband. Till this point, the movie stands by the ideology of feminism, equality, and freedom. But further, maybe I am the only one with this opinion but further, the movie plunges into an engaging comedy thriller when Jaya after learning martial arts attacks her husband to teach him a lesson.
The movie superficially addresses the topic of domestic violence by insinuating that the girl is a winner because she hit back. Why hitting back is the only solution? Why not move legally, or get financially independent and stand up for herself? While the scene where she beats him to help is an adrenaline rush moment, making the movie all about it is tough to digest.
After getting beaten up, he decides to somehow make her acquiesce so that he could impregnate and lock her in the house. Though he succeeds in this below-the-belt plan, Jaya gets a whiff of it and faints, falling flat on the ground and removing the child from the scenario.
Why? If the movie speaks about equality and empowerment why remove the child conveniently out of the picture? If Jaya had proceeded with the pregnancy, the movie would have been all the more engaging without any loopholes. Had she gained financial independence while she worked from home while she was still in the marriage and raising the child, the movie would have been a statement about the independence, respect, and financial stability of a woman. But instead, we see a mass entry of the heroine who takes up her husband’s rival’s business and runs it with the power of her martial arts self-training.
Had the movie not been celebrated as feminist statement, the movie would.have been a funny entertaining experience. But promoting it as a statement of women empowerment just spoiled the experience for me.
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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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