Recently, hypersexualised images of Janhvi Kapoor had the perpetually pugnacious on social media furiously fulminating about the portrayal of women in cinema especially the tendency to objectify them in the name of entertainment. What followed was the usual empty influencer talk about starting conversations on female agency and the treatment of women’s bodies as eye candy for male gratification. Never mind that the rage baiting can only be counted on to start a conversation, never to sustain it and actually bring about meaningful change. The director issued something of a non-apology and Peddi, the film in question having successfully dominated social media feeds thanks to its heroine’s willingly or unwillingly bared breasts, seems to have raked in a significant chunk of change at the box office.
The entire business is a depressing reminder that we can expect more of the same in future. We have allowed ourselves to become trapped in an attention economy, where the algorithm Gods insist on rewarding only the most controversial and divisive elements. It is awful to think that only the provocateurs and purveyors of porn are going to be awarded with cultural significance. Even scarier are the implications for the already troubled and nihilistic Gen Next. Raised and groomed on algorithmic appeasement not to mention brain-addled from Instagram meme carousels, escalating self-destructive behaviour and a value system centred solely on monetary gains is becoming the norm.
The discourse around Janhvi is indicative of a broken world and its simultaneous obsession with and revulsion for the feminine figure. Where women are reduced to products on the meat market to be used and discarded when not subjected to a permanently voyeuristic and judgemental gaze. Young girls are conditioned to think they must expend all their limited resources on grooming to ensure that they score high on ‘key metrics’ (bigger bosoms, smaller brains and waists), guaranteeing that toxic males will be willing to expend cash and clout on them, gifting them access to the so-called good things in life. This has resulted in an increasing number of girls becoming complicit in their own exploitation and victimhood by the commercial sex industry lulled by faux success stories about women who have monetised their bodies and become empowered by serving up porn garbed as content.
Personally, I have nothing against the celebration of the female form in all its naked glory in art or real life because it is about time people stop telling women to be ashamed of their breasts and butts and cover up from head to toe in this stifling heat to avoid getting raped or slut-shamed. However, reducing a woman to nipples and curves will always be an issue. When feminists point this out, we are accused of being spoilsports who are preventing men from having a good time. When supporting a woman’s right to post pics of her bikini-clad bod, we are told that feminism is the reason tradition and culture has been defiled and women are off having affairs instead of staying home making perfectly round chapatis and raising well-behaved children. Yet again, for women, their limits in reality and fantasy are defined by men who can only stand them in two roles—trad wife, sugar baby.
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