theorist – SKR Web

Questioning the Divinity of ‘Y’ Chromosome

November 15, 2021November 17, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

women's march, sign, child, political, rally, human, rights, women, international, day

When an argumentative project the idea that feminism was born so that women who are physically not satisfying the stereotypical social parameters gain relevance in society at large, there is a strong tussel that rightfully developes around the corners of reason. This tussle between coexistence and potential supremacy of ‘y’ over the ‘x’ chromosome raise a significant question regarding the existing divinity of one over the other. It makes me realise with time that I have been lucky enough to grow up in a family where my mum was as vocal and loud as my father. There was a constant chaos over the difference in opinion among our family of five. I never realized I had to speak in a certain way, behave in a particular manner and project the image of ideal gender type! And I am so thankful for that because as I transcend further in life, I realise this is not a common act in society. There are differences that we need to respect and appreciations that we need to award based on gender demarcations. Perhaps my upbringing in this manner made me what I am. The credit goes to my insane parents who never even discussed the topic of gender and associated behaviour. What used to matter to us was how are we as an individual. There was a contentment in being in our own skin. The unconscious mutual respect as human beings with minds of our own always took precedence over our genders!

Most of us when discuss gender and subjects surrounding it, do not miss out on the familial aspect of it. This engulfs the concepts of marriage, area of financial concentration, as well as tight-knit arena of parenthood. All three has their own boundaries that surrounds relative aspects. For instance, the idea of marriage may include the topics of communication, difference in opinions, physical or emotional intimacy and physical and mental abuse. Then there is financial aspect of the relationship which may include economic provisions or supporting role in providing financial assistance to each other. Then if we take into consideration the area surrounding parenthood, we can very well associate with role of genders as individuals in the child rearing. Keeping these sections in mind what we need to focus is the way each gender is placed or has place itself in individual category. This implies how the genders see themselves and others as performers in relation with the above-mentioned aspects.

During mid-18^th century Mary Wollstonecraft advocated that a decent marriage is the one where there is compatibility in intellectuality of the genders involved. Keeping these views, she called out the various existing and upcoming social thoughts by promoting that the divine rights of husbands, just like those of king must be readily accepting to be contested and challenged without any fear. According to her it was of integral importance that women need to be educated to be able to gain economic independence that was one of the main factors of putting men at a pedestal in society and proclaim their supremacy over other existing humans. However, her relevance in today’s times have become somewhat limited since emergence of various bifurcations in perceptions of genders. With different formats in spouse types like they may be supporting, ruling, flexible etc.; they have capacity to transcend among gender roles or may stay rigid to their existing identities. The divinity of a particular gender may seem to be more obviously prevalent in certain societies compared to the others, however there are few common traces that are consistent throughout.

The gender ideology of male divinity can be seen in our social discourse as well. Men subconsciously dominate the conversation and in fact many times women themselves subconsciously let them overtake the dialogue as part of their very deliberate yet subtle brainwashing regarding the upper hand of their male counterpart. Even though during the debate over gender differentiation and male supremacy when it is put forward that the difference among their image projection is because of their individual choice. The reality is this individual choice many times is engraved since the very beginning in the mind of both the genders regarding the suitability of their directed roles. These so many times result in the existing presence towards choice that both the genders make eventually in mutual agreement with each other!

We most of the time do not even realise the gravity of these unconsciously conscious decisions that we make in everyday lives as individual flag-bearers of existing genders. We then tend to forget that there is divine in all of us. Gender apart, we as individuals can be put on wrong pedestals most of the time due to our own narcissism. This perception towards wrong doings and negative choice of putting any gender on divine level, is an important factor that fall between the demarcated responsibility towards personal, professional, and individual capability in any relationship. When a man is divine in his existence the credit goes to not only male community, in fact the responsibility lies on the very capable shoulders of women as well for they themselves are actively as well as passively involved in trying to raise the bar of an entity that in its organic frame of roots have been created in similar capacity. With occasional and basic physical differences, the rest of the gap has been created by our mindset to suppress one gender compared to the other!

Being a nurturer does not categorise one gender to be weak or dependent just as being a provider does not win the title of being divine. The roles can very well be reversed and have in fact interchanged in quite a few cases. What is of relevance is accepting the selected role as part of equal contribution and making it a subject of choice and not compulsion for all genders in questions. The role of motherhood and fatherhood have a scope of interchange, exchange and even mergence for with time we need to realise that none of the gender in indispensable and there is a desperate need of harmoniously respectful coexistance of all for the mutual survival of future generation, whatever gender they belong to. Be it partnership that is based on physical proximity, emotional endurance or psychological connectivity, there is an integral grasp of distribution of power and duty in equality across the genders. For each of us need to forgo the divine amongst us. The concept of superiority has become very inferior in respectability and the quality of them having the quality of divinity has run its race towards redundancy!

Films

Women and their Theories of Cinema

October 1, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Feminist Film Theories go way back in the 1970s. Their emergence caused upheaval for the perception of films in the eyes of audience. Let us zero our interest on some of the path-pavers whose work brought about a revolutionised change in the mindset of many. They provoked and enticed people to study them, their, work and study the cinema in general as-well-as in particular. The thinkers like Laura Mulvey, Barbara Creed, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis opened up new avenues to study films. They zeroed upon concepts that were of extreme importance for analysing a film keeping in mind the male gaze, queering desire, the monstrous feminine, the female voice, masculinity in crisis, technologies of gender. Since 1970s was the time when feminist film theory made great interesting findings in the film industry, the filmmaking was also deeply influenced by it. Though today it may seem that the effect has loosened its lustre, still its study is very important to know about the rise and fall of this empire and how fast is its currency in today’s cinema.

HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE… HIS GAZE

Whenever we see a movie and when a woman comes on screen, According to Mulvey the is a creation of physical, psychological, emotional, hypothetical gaze that identifies male view. The way they dress, the way they talk, their body language, what they represent id in a way dictated by how men would want to perceive them. Even the women in audience try to identify themselves with the image created for them. That is their unconscious identification and agreeability wit how men want them to be consciously or unconsciously. The visual pleasure is quite dominant right from creation of character to its visual consumption on screen leading further to offscreen identification as well. This develops into scopophilia, a narcissism that viewers identifies with. This consumption is spread throughout the three looks in cinema, the look of camera of real world, the look of audience of the final result, film; and how the characters look at one another. Even if it is the narrative where a female is driving the film, it is in fact the ideals of how her visibility in real life should be, in a way the male perception of her consciously or unconsciously governs. Be it voyeurism or fetishism, the duality of feminism is visible at the top because it is almost always female spectators’ views are subconsciously dominated by male confirmation to the feminism that they give approval to so as to move forward in its level of acceptance by the audience at large. You may differ in the opinion or may come up with something more. However this base cannot be denied and river may flow ahead and may divide into diverse streams from here but its origin remains!

Films

LA DE DA DA of Films

September 21, 2021October 2, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

The tune that you and me dance to, the songs that make us groove have their own apeal. However add a n image to it and bring a different flavour to the composition. Now let us add series of moving images, and the aesthetic of the whole song or music totally flips! Then what if we ass this whole combination to a storyline or script. Can we imagine the potential it will hold? The power that the whole film radiates will have a totally different impact on the audience that is watching it! Be it a score, a tune or a song. Each has its own importance over the movie in focus and it hols the power strong enough to bring out varied emotions in the audience. The music is not only the soul but infact it capsules the whole essence of the film genre. Where speech is silver, this is a definite gold! Sound in cinema, in whatever size, shape and form; has a magnitude of weightage for it rounds up a complet picture and bring sense of peace for the audoence as well as people behind the camera. In the chapter, The Role of Music Communication in Cinema by Scott D. Lipscomb and David E. Tolchinsky [to be included in Music Communication (Miell, MacDonald and Hargreaves, Eds.)], it is explained that according to (Bordwell and Thompson, 1985, p.184.) sound has the power to explain the images and script, oppose them or even leave them to unexplainable.

Even though for someone who argues that music cannot communicate with the audience in a way dialogues do, still it has its own crucial position in the establishment of film narrative. It provides correct emotion to the concept. The visuality of cinema is enhanced manifold by bringing in variety of music at different appropriate places. The background score, the songs sequences affect the audience at many levels. It captures their attention and bring out their emotions rather even more than their conscious mind. It is not of importance whether the music is background score, theme or incidental, what matters is the amount of power it must build the emotiveness of the audience. It is extremely important aspect of a film since it has the capacity to carry a large part of cinema on its strong shoulders. The essence of music is what and how it connects with the film and its audience at multiple levels. Even though there is a complexity of the nature of music and its usage in films, we may not be in full coherence with the views regarding its usage. However, music does function on multiple levels in creating a wholistic film for the audience. Infact it rounds up to bring a sense of closure to the whole pachage of fim making as-well-as film watching.

Tag: <span>theorist</span>

Questioning the Divinity of ‘Y’ Chromosome

Women and their Theories of Cinema

LA DE DA DA of Films