MARCH 15 — The million-dollar question is, why can’t we treat all women like our mothers? We are awed by her superhuman abilities, and we fear her a little because she is ALL knowing.
Gender inequality, gender pay gap, gender biases; whatever you are championing, it always starts in western countries. We tend to ride the wave here in Asia.
First, it was the #MeToo movement that exposed sexual abuse and harassments. The campaign saw big names such as Harvey Weinstein to Bill Cosby being put behind bars. Then came the movement for equal pay to eliminate the gender pay gap. This mainly resulted in sportswomen and actors demanding equal pay as with their male peers.
In Malaysia, these gender biases are more prevalent among Indians. Women, predominantly, is in charge of childbearing, cleaning and cooking. The Indian culture and religion have been used to justify the many absurd practices imposed on Indian women.
Even worse, the Indian women mostly have accepted the cultural appropriation imposed on them. For example, while menstruating, some families would not even allow women to cook or even mingle with family members.
This might not be spoken aloud in our community, but movies are making a bold statement.
The emergence of online streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon has brought movies with bold content to our screens. The censorship criterion imposed by the state has had no effect thus far on these platforms.
One example of a movie is called “The Great Indian Kitchen”. Although I hardly know “Malayalam”, this movie strikes a chord with how a woman is treated in a traditional Indian household. A slave to the kitchen, cooking up for the men in the house. Explicitly shows the grave misadventure of a newly married woman, from cooking to sexual gratification.
Similarly, Lust Stories on Netflix expresses women’s sexual desires. This is often a taboo subject where women are expected to only look at sex as a process to bear a child.
Closer to our shores in Astro, a surprise to many, they started airing a drama called “Sivanthu Poche Nenje”, in which a local Malaysia Indian woman is uttering her sexual frustration with her husband. An unprecedented move by Astro to encourage local production to move towards the substantive subject matter.
Nevertheless, the actress playing the lead in the series had to explain herself on her social media for her choice to do the role. This need not happen if we are a modern society in a developed nation. Firstly it is her job to play these roles without fear or prejudice. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with a woman or man verbalising their sexual frustration.
But how many of what we see in these movies we are addressing in real life? For now, at least the movies have started to reveal the skeleton in our closets.
I hope that these movies bring about more significant discussion within the living realm and eventually changes in our mindset.
We can only achieve this if the women folks themselves liberate from the shackles of their mind.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
