Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
SHE-talk
|
Three women, each drawn from a different generation, talk about women and their unchanging role in the media. SUBHA J RAO reports
|
WOMEN RARELY say things on the face, right?
Wrong. You should have listen to Mina Swaminathan at Epoch 2004 to know how squirming straight talk can get.
From the topic to the prayer song to the all-woman panel, nothing was spared as the septuagenarian academician fired on all cylinders at the communication festival organised by the Dr. GRD College of Science.
"Why `Women in Media'? We never have a seminar on men. The topic is so biased," she thundered.
"And, why must only women talk about women. Thankfully, the audience is mixed. Otherwise, women would have spoken about women to women. That would've been great! We should have men talking about women too. To see the world as it is, you need to see with both eyes," she said.
She did veer off the topic, but the students seemed to enjoy her "whiplash" of a speech.
The hall reverberated with laughter when she gave her definition for dowry - "The money you pay to buy a man."
Talking about specific problems women faced, she said that discrimination at the workplace was the result of employers thinking that there was additional trouble in employing them.
"For instance, if you want girls to stay for rehearsals, make arrangements for their safety and security. And, don't label it a woman's problem; it is a social problem. Such things threaten women's participation," she observed.
Movies came in for criticism, too.
"I am a movie buff and have been watching them since I was seven. Sixty-five years later, nothing has changed. Take childbirth. I still laugh when I see a woman screaming in pain on screen. It's hysterically funny.
Ask any woman who has experienced childbirth and she will agree with me. No film director (all male directors, mind you) has had the humility to come up and ask a woman how it actually feels," she remarked to thunderous applause.
Using the podium to the maximum, a gesticulating Mina concluded: "To give women voice in any media means recognising that all of human experience is open to all human beings, expect those biologically impossible."
Next was Kanimozhi's turn. Starting off with correcting the Tamil pronunciation of the emcee, she said it was important to learn the local language to communicate well.
The poetess' soft voice was in contrast to Mina's booming one, but their ideas were similar.
"If you buy a dog, you expect it to listen to you and fetch things. Why is it different with men," she wondered?
"A woman's job does not stop with being decked up. You can do so much more."
Inequalities exist, she admitted. "Women should be torch bearers of civilisation and wear a saree or churidhar, but men can be Churchill's relatives."
Speaking about recent criticism of sensual writing by women, she said: "The job of literature is not to shock. But, if it shocks you, it is your reaction."
"When women write, the review does not stop with their work. It gets personal too," she averred.
"We talk about women's liberation. But, we should be talking about men's liberation from women. They have to get responsible and fend for themselves. They say the family set-up will break if women go too far. I say, let it. At least then, let some new set-up, which is considerate to both men and women, come up," she added.
When Vasuki, State General Secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) took the stage, the audience was fully geared up for another round of male-bashing.
Instead, it was the media that was targeted.
"The current dominant ideology is reflected in media. It chooses what the audience wants. So, you get to see and hear the prevailing paradigm," she said.
"The media creates the impression that women should not be intelligent or educated. Look at the characters of intelligent, educated heroines in films. They are invariably shown as being arrogant and without feeling. Those playing the male lead, on the other hand, will at least protest injustice. Something that women are rarely allowed to do," she pointed out.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
