Patriarchy in Indian TV serials

I have written a similar post in the past.. about how patriarchy plays a part in deciding how we treat men and women differently on the basis of what they watch on the television. In that post, I had talked about how my grandmother, and a lot of other women, get judged for watching Indian serials on TV. This post talks about how Indian serials promote patriarchy.

A while back, I was watching TV serials with my grandmother. The plot of one of them goes like this: The family consists of a husband, a wife, and their son. The wife comes from a village and hence has a ‘typical’ accent and way of talking. She dresses the typical way, wearing sarees and is not so confident doing things independently. The husband, on the other hand, works for a big company and is shown to be tired and not at all in love with the wife. And so, he has an affair with his colleague… again, the character is shown to have a certain type of dressing sense, wearing short dresses, heels, with perfectly manicured nails at all times, perfect makeup, and all of that. She also has a typical accent, where she talks in a high pitched voice and is rude to everyone but the boyfriend (the one who’s cheating on his wife).

I think a lot of us dont notice these things as being ‘wrong’… but they affect us subconsciously. What does it portray to the viewers? That women need to ‘look and behave’ a certain way if they want to be ‘chosen’ by their husbands. That if they do not, then the husband will go outside and cheat on them. The show is quite new, so I have no idea how the plot will unfold going forward, but it makes me wonder. It makes me wonder how everyone viewing the show thinks while watching certain scenes. The husband is constantly degrading the wife, and the wife takes it all while smiling. She never questions why her husband, despite having had a kid together, treats her like she is just a house help, and is not worthy of his respect.

I wonder how many viewers, especially men, have taken this show’s plot as the model way of behaving and acting. I wonder how many women have developed new insecurities, wanting to change the way they look, talk, or behave, just to be accepted and loved by their husbands.

I also think about the people who have probably justified cheating on their partners after watching this show. I wonder how many men have started degrading their wives on the basis of the way they dress up and talk.

I wonder if there are kids out there watching such shows and correlating everything to what happens at home, and justifying the way the women in their houses are treated.

I wonder if there is anyone out there challenging such shows and trying to change the narrative. Trying to change the point of view of the people they know who watch such shows.