‘Her’ through the lens…

‘She’ has been talked about time and again. Media has a great impact on the social, cultural, political and even psychological behaviour of society. Our emotions as part of society acquire a particular thought flow because of the ideas that are made concrete in our minds but media. It has been praised as well as criticised innumerable times because of the power it holds! Be it television, radio, social media, or films; when we look at the representation of women, we end up running in circles because even though they are many changes that can be seen but they don’t seem to be enough! The images that is seen stay with us for a long time. Many times they even become a part of real life persona. Many social scientists asserts that these imaged have the power to change the perception of people in real and has the capacity to stimulate their everyday behaviour. In fact according to Manatu (2003) the various images that we see on screen on any pretext has a grave part to play in insinuating various behaviours they carry negative energy around like crime, violence and even to the extent of delinquency in people around us. Similarly in media portrayal of women is constant and majority of times she gets objectifies in male gaze. However hard the image is being tried to break through, the stereotypes around her never cease to exist. Even though the characterization may show her to be a at par and many times way above that, still in most situations we see her in need of that male approval, recognition to reach her happy end. In fact in whatever way her character is showed in a particular show, it simply projects the social view and the political thought revolving around her.

Even the written aspect of media constructs similar ideas. For instance the magazines that are not catering to male population, adhere to similar stereotypes. For instance if we consider women magazines, the most part of them are written by women and their target audience is women as well. But the idea imparted through these is same. Either they concern mostly home-oriented or related to childcare or even if they show careers, fitness or individual success for them, the journey of the magazines is towards enabling women to reach the parameters set by male population.

Be it the content, page layouts, camera angles, or the scripts and characterizations, ‘her’ representation every time end up leaving a vast gap among the genders. The artificial modifications in their representation has become so obscure that many times it is just impossible for those who live in real life to fall in line with the reel world. There is such a focussed generalization in female representation that the logical parameters can hardly ever be met! And they ideally should not meet too because each individual id different and unique. Just like there is a difference between men and women, there is a major difference between each woman. Trying to measure them with a single yardstick is insane for each has her own existence and purpose and trying to merge them will only bring hindrances to their capable self because as we say ‘to each his/her own’!