Society Magazine

Armchair Intellectualism

Posted on the 24 October 2013 by Yamini
"There is no space for women in the society"
"Have you heard these songs which are on TV. They are so vulgar and derogatory to women. I don't know where we are headed. The Hindi film songs have gone to the dogs. One of the rape victims even spoke about one of the songs but still we are doing the same", Kirti made an angry speech in her office canteen.
There always has been this debate whether the art reflects the society or the society reflects the art. If the songs say something "wrong" does the society do "wrong" because of them or the society thrives in this "wrongness" and hence the songs reflect that. How is one supposed to make sense of it.
Well on the other hand some thing which are not polished and are vulgar get noticed and a few others who are based on the pop/rock/jazz etc and have the vulgar lines get passed on as hep music. If we take the year 2012, among the top ten films in terms of the revenue, there has not been a single song which has given a position other than being an object of beauty or gaze to woman. Even the one's who "complain" and raise a hue and cry about the degradation of standards join the party in the night. "It has nice beats, it is a good dance number", they would all say
"Now you can't judge all songs, songs are for entertainment lets leave them at that", they would say. So what are we complaining.
If we talk about degrading the standards, where should we start complaining? When we complain about the songs, shouldn't we also complain women have never been given a higher space other than being props in the same Hindi cinema, if we keep aside what is categorized as "parallel/art house/multiplex" cinema. Shouldn't we also complain we couldn't produce any women directors, shouldn't we also complain that Rituporno Ghosh's sexuality received more attention than his craft, shouldn't we also complain about women being shown only as mothers/sisters/wives, shouldn't we also complain that no woman features on the idol list of the youngsters except in the field of beauty or care (yeah Mother Teresa features every where), should we also not complain that sexy is considered to be a complement and not a comment, well if we don't want to complain about that then probably we can't complain about the songs and lyrics because they are saying all these probably in a crude way, so where do we start complaining and where do we stop.
No I don't intend to say let us not complain but just to say lets not enjoy the complaining, let us for one probably be truthful and complain wholeheartedly, let us not complain because it is fashionable, let us not complain because it raises our stature, it shows we are "educated", it shows we are refined. 

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