In Bollywood movie, male abuse is often portrayed for laughs I think. But remember how that girl literally ran to a bus in Robot (I think that's what ash and chiiti's movie is called ) when she was seen bare. God such is perception here. But I also know things are shifting in the real world. So there's hope for movies to get better and the discoure to get more inclusive as well.
loved the way bollywood was tied in! something this piece really reminds me off is the societal understanding of consent and sexuality - “sex will be good tomorrow” by katherine angel which i cannot recommend enough bc it changed the way i understand and think about desire and how women are expected to engage with it
An additional perspective to your “horribly twisted match” of both blaming victims and empowering the male gaze is that some victims aren’t even believed solely for not being “attractive” enough to “deserve” the man’s attention. This is also ridiculously harrowing to me but works well in the framework of your piece that women either are the typical beauty and sensuality that represents the male gaze or aren’t, but none of that matters because at the end of the day that’s not what makes a victim. Men want control, there isn’t a limit on what some will go to get it.
Thanks for sharing this piece! It definitely gave me some thought to how the male gaze and male attention disguised as love presents itself in media. There is a lot of imagery too (in Greek mythology) about love being tied to hunting--cupid's bow and arrow, Ovid's "The Art of Love" displays this long eventful journey of a man stalking his prey, and now you mentioning similar themes in Bollywood productions. It's interesting nonetheless.
omg yes! i absolutely agree with you on this! i read this really good substack post on how pretty privilege doesn't exist and it mentions precisely that. victims who are conventionally more attractive are believed more than those who are not when opening up about rape, because again we equate rape to sexual desire and urges rather than violation and abuse. it's really terrible. thank you so much for your comment :D i'm glad you liked the post.
Do you remember the title of the piece? I'd like to read it. I honestly had never given this aspect of disregarding victim's stories on the basis of their looks much thought until fairly recently and whilst scrolling mind-numbingly through Tiktok and striking upon occasional gold.
i will never get over the depth and thought that goes into your essays. this was a stunningly thoughtful read and i absolutely loved how you explored bollywood’s overlap!
In Bollywood movie, male abuse is often portrayed for laughs I think. But remember how that girl literally ran to a bus in Robot (I think that's what ash and chiiti's movie is called ) when she was seen bare. God such is perception here. But I also know things are shifting in the real world. So there's hope for movies to get better and the discoure to get more inclusive as well.
So powerful and profound Aastha!! Felt every single word of this 👏🏻💯
Thank you so much for restacking so many quotes! I'm really glad you liked it :D
loved the way bollywood was tied in! something this piece really reminds me off is the societal understanding of consent and sexuality - “sex will be good tomorrow” by katherine angel which i cannot recommend enough bc it changed the way i understand and think about desire and how women are expected to engage with it
An additional perspective to your “horribly twisted match” of both blaming victims and empowering the male gaze is that some victims aren’t even believed solely for not being “attractive” enough to “deserve” the man’s attention. This is also ridiculously harrowing to me but works well in the framework of your piece that women either are the typical beauty and sensuality that represents the male gaze or aren’t, but none of that matters because at the end of the day that’s not what makes a victim. Men want control, there isn’t a limit on what some will go to get it.
Thanks for sharing this piece! It definitely gave me some thought to how the male gaze and male attention disguised as love presents itself in media. There is a lot of imagery too (in Greek mythology) about love being tied to hunting--cupid's bow and arrow, Ovid's "The Art of Love" displays this long eventful journey of a man stalking his prey, and now you mentioning similar themes in Bollywood productions. It's interesting nonetheless.
omg yes! i absolutely agree with you on this! i read this really good substack post on how pretty privilege doesn't exist and it mentions precisely that. victims who are conventionally more attractive are believed more than those who are not when opening up about rape, because again we equate rape to sexual desire and urges rather than violation and abuse. it's really terrible. thank you so much for your comment :D i'm glad you liked the post.
Do you remember the title of the piece? I'd like to read it. I honestly had never given this aspect of disregarding victim's stories on the basis of their looks much thought until fairly recently and whilst scrolling mind-numbingly through Tiktok and striking upon occasional gold.
i'm trying to find it but i can't 😭 - let me look for it again.
It’s fine if you don’t. Substack should add a feature to see your liked posts😭
This is so well written and though provoking!
Thank you for writing this Aastha!👏
i will never get over the depth and thought that goes into your essays. this was a stunningly thoughtful read and i absolutely loved how you explored bollywood’s overlap!
So deep thinking and analysis. Wonderful.