India’s filmmakers tackle sexism with edgy skits
FROM The Period Song to How I Raped Your Mother, one all-women Indian production team is challenging conservative attitudes with no-holds-barred satirical videos that are causing a stir online.
Mumbai-based filmmakers Girliyapa have released a series of hard-hitting clips that tackle misogyny, with subjects ranging from marital rape, which is not a crime in India, to social stigmas surrounding menstruation cycles.
“Our videos aren’t preachy but laced with humour and to the point, which drives the message home rather effectively,” group head Tracy D’Souza said.
The five videos, which vary from music and dance sequences to mini-sitcoms, have received more than five million total views since the first one was uploaded onto YouTube last October.
But the 10-member Girliyapa team has also faced plenty of online sexist abuse from anonymous critics wanting to silence them.
Their skits are the type that never screen on India’s main television networks, dominated by soap operas whose sari-clad female characters almost always play traditional roles of mother and housewife.
Girliyapa is one of several filmmaking teams taking the internet by storm, tackling social issues, but also tapping into a growing desire among India’s youth for a more modern portrayal of women on screen.
India’s massive Hindi film industry has been regularly criticised for depicting women as meek and subjecting female characters to aggressive methods of wooing by dominant male leads.
Critics point to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s controversial comment recently that his heavy training schedule for wrestling movie Sultan left him feeling “like a raped woman”, as an insight into attitudes in the industry.
“Political statements aren’t solving the real issue. So, we decided to make the video to highlight rape and violence against women,” Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, a Girliyapa scriptwriter said.
Analysts say the videos are playing an important role in overturning gender biases.
“Digital media can help educate, advocate and encourage people to adopt attitudes and behaviour that promote gender equality,” Mumbaibased women’s safety activist Elsa D’Silva said.
However, it is also online where women are being subjected to misogynistic trolling, including sexual slurs and threats of rape, all in a bid to shame them into silence.
The Girliyapa team say they have faced such attacks every time they have released a new video, but remain determined in their quest to change attitudes.
“We won’t stop telling our stories. People will have to accept the narrative despite all their inherent inhibitions,” co-writer Shruti Madan said.