STRIPPING THE ANGELS
She is so pretty that she is more cute than beautiful. She giggles like an angel. The way she makes out her lips so cutely that it is “cho chweeet”. The twinkle in her eyes, conveys her intention to do some mischief unnoticed by the world around her. When she does something silly, she scratches her head innocently. When she does something wrong, and knows that, she looks around to see if she can escape unnoticed.
She is bubbling, energetic. She is loved by all.
She is from the dreams. She is a doll.
And there he is. Watching her from a distance. Admiring her every move. Adoring her for what she is. He is proud of her. He is proud of himself.
Guys! Yes, you the readers. What do you think? Of the angel and her admirer. The angel, a five year old wearing sneakers, and the man at the dawn of grey and dusk of black.
Aaargh!
Wake up fellas! This is not about any five year old or her father. This is about some teenaged sophomore from some college and a guy just out of college. This is about the heroine in Indian cinema.
The perennial dumb girl. An angel stripped of her robes, intelligence and dignity.
The lead girl from the tinsel town can as well be compared to the ass, and mind you, that will make the ass go red. It is slightly better equipped intellectually.
When did we last watch a movie where the lead–lady was portrayed as having some grey cells? It is a tough ask.
In a country where the fairer sex have come out of the confinements of kitchen coals and heat only in the last century, and where in that last century, their performance in the intellectual area have been far better than the chauvinist sex, the portrayal on the silver screen is not exactly gold.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
We live in a society, where passage of time is often equated to the progress of civilization. And when one looks at the single most influential media, the Cinema, the portrayal of the culture and society we live, conveys just one idea – we have been dumbing down, and at a rapid pace. And if the bible is anything to go by, eve had brains, but not our leads.
Worst part, the fairer sex seems to enjoy this.
Ask any of them of their prince of dreams, nine on ten, they root for the male leads of these kind of infinitely stupid and insipid (read senseless) movies.
The bane of our society is in idolizing equally dumb head male leads who, for all their acting ability or inabilities, want to showcase themselves as the guardians of the society, the perennial do-gooder, the simpleton, the man of just, the man devoid of lust for both the material and bodily pleasures.
Despite the noticeable shortcomings, we end of up idolizing them as Superstars or Demigods of our times. A case to this point is the Demi God of south, who movie after movie, ends up communicating the moralities of an ideal woman – that of being without ego (read respect), that of respecting elders (read obeying), that of being timid (read dumb), and that of being a girl (read slave to the male chauvinist).
The characteristic end to this kind of dialogue is “In total, girl should be a girl”. Got the meaning?
The rather ironical part is that it is the women folk who admonish intelligence in them, and not the men. In the name of being an ideal (my foot!) girl, they end up confusing stupidity for timidity and end up glorifying that to gargantuan proportions.
At one end we have had people like Indira Nooyi, the suit-booted executive, and at another end we see a very ordinary woman beaten up because she is perceived to be a witch. And no prizes for where this beating up happens or which gender belt hits her the most.
And still, these lead ladies are what we try to emulate.
Fellas, let us not force our senses to ape those dumb and mindless morons, who still seem to be fixated to 16th Century definition of being a girl.
Fake reactions, fake expressions, fake accent, fake lifestyle, fake life – these are the result of pursuing that dream life, portrayed by our lead ladies. I am not suggesting that this is only with the female leads, but only highlighting that the lead men end up being intelligent atleast in 20% of the film rolls.
The end to these kind of atrocities (mostly self–inflicted), stop patronizing these infinitely dumb movies. Stop day dreaming that by acting in the manner of lead ladies, prince charming will sweep you into his arms. Probably he will, but he will also dump you like Onyx Trucks at the first opportunity. Because, he is the Prince of dreams, you are one of those garbage.
Who wants prince, if you can be a queen by yourself. And queen you will be if you realize the fact that we are humans first, before categorizing on gender basis. By saying that, I mean, human with real and pure emotions and desires, not touched or swayed by those fake moralities endlessly listed by all those who (mis)understand feminism.
The desire to be oneself, desire to express, the desire to expand and express her abilities, and succeed in this world, all by herself.
And you certainly have got the cells to smell a rotten rat by simply looking at the image of the lead lady. Save your money, time and senses. Put them to better purpose.
Go be a queen.
Comments
you know me actually.. bt am not ready to reveal ma identity.. may be you may slap me.. am afraid..
but man.. your posts are quite good..
am not the one you are mentioning.. may be am inspired but tough to follow.. though we try at sometimes we are not allowed.. as like yester years timidity does not over ride but we are forced to make it go beyond its limit..
a girl should be a girl.. lesson for us from the day 1.. who knows may be my child also will be taught this only..
few guys like you may change.. but many have not.. why guys?? even gals do not think of changing..
keep writing.. i would like look for more posts from u.. may be i would like know more about your thoughts..
Some prejudices are so strongly enshrined in our psyche, that we fail to realize they're prejudices in the first place.
I've seen too many females doing things only to get this satisfaction that they're no less than males (smoking, swearing, etc. for instance).
This has two problems--1. this amounts to a tacit confession that they need to 'prove' that they're equal (as if it's some hypothesis) to men rather than just accepting it as fact. 2. they still end up letting guys decide what the girl should do as the girl would be simply EMULATING (imitating) them :) This is a surest way of sacrificing one's independence. It's important to on occasion stop in one's tracks to think what one really wants (to do) and why. I know such females are a minuscule minority, but their numbers are increasing.
I think the whole idea of 'feminism' is overrated. It firstly hints at the point 1 above. Second, it totally robs females of individuality. All females need not be identical. Some could be temperamentally aggressive, assertive, impatient, rash. Whereas, at other extreme, we could have a female who's shy, timid, softspoken, but well organized and meticulous. There's no point trying to compare one with one or the other and try to determine who between the two should be our 'prototypical female'. Because there's no such thing as that! Both have some unique contributions to make to the society. And I'd be absolutely unaffected if any male would be like the latter.
Hope 'feminists' understand this someday.
Nice post!
TC.
Having said that, I would like to share a small experience. In a function I recently attended, one of my friends' colleague, a girl in her mid 20s, was puffing and drinking matter-of-factly without any fuss, discussing some novels and software packages and movies and her marriage.
In the same room, I saw some older women doing the same very consciously, looking around to check if somebody is noticing them, observing their equality etc.
Two extremes in the same room. I had only an instant dislike and pity for the "others" in that room.