Priyanka ‘Saurabh’
Not long ago, there was an incident of ‘Bois Locker Room’ on social media, in which obscene pictures of underage girls were circulated through a leaked chat from a particular group. It is time we stop and acknowledge that the ‘Bois locker room’ is not an isolated incident of young boys enabling rape culture, but rather a symptom of our social mindset.
Reports of cyberbullying and cyber harassment have increased over the years, with NCRB data showing 6,030 cybercrimes reported by women in the year 2018. In such a situation, we need a strong law that declares cyber violence against women and girls as a crime. In the absence of any specific legislation, both the IT Act and the IPC are interim solutions that are insufficient to control the magnitude of the problems.
This is because the IPC predates the digital age, whereas the IT Act was framed to promote e-commerce as opposed to sensitizing the hitherto uneven space. Therefore, creating a law that specifically addresses cyber abuse, harassment, and violence faced by women will go a long way in changing the current discourse on security and equality.One trend that is developing in entertainment media today is the objectification of women. In particular, women are depicted as sexual objects in Indian films, social media, music videos, and television. It is an irreparable loss to society as entertainment media is creating a ‘stereotype’.
Movies objectify women, many film songs commoditize the female body. Most of the songs follow a particular format. An entire generation in our country has grown up believing that life is as it is portrayed in the film. Imitating films, village fairs use women as objects in organizing “item dances”, local theatre, painting, dance, and folk arts, and all men, regardless of age, participate.
We can see several advertisements in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet, hoardings, pamphlets, etc. Often women are depicted mainly girls and women to easily make their customers. It is the truth of our Indian society that they generally consider women as a weak person. The ‘objectification’ of girls on social media found that girls are portrayed sexually more often than boys. Social media has “increased the age-old pressures for teenage girls to conform to certain sexual narratives.There is an advertisement for the use of deodorant promoting women as ‘sex objects, in which a woman is attracted to a strange man who has used that brand of deodorant. It shows that women are treated as objects that have no identity of their own. The portrayal of women in this and other advertisements is an insult to women in general which is destroying the real status and dignity of women.
Cases of violence against women and girls are increasing continuously in India. It supports the barbaric mentality of revenge against women and girls. This reinforces widespread patriarchal gender stereotypes.This process of “self-objectification” leads women to experience unpleasant feelings such as shame and anxiety. This can eventually lead to long-term psychological harm. Mass media in India has not made efforts to discuss issues related to women and prepare women to work for their rights and equal role in society. Women are stuck in perfecting their body shape as presented by the media and all this is done keeping their physical health and mental state aside.
The objectification of women in the media hurts our society. There is a need to increase social rewards and social forces to prevent objectivity among girls and women.Legislation has become increasingly important to develop and implement policies that promote gender equality by ending discrimination against women; e.g. development of media sensitivity, parent and family involvement in television viewing, religious sensitivity, positive portrayal of girl child in media, life skills taught to young people and egalitarianism as part of a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum Promote gender norms. Only then can we talk about women’s empowerment in this age of sex objects.
