Social Policy & Administration

Bollywood’s toxic masculinity: The problematic portrayal of men & women in popular Hindi cinema

Bollywood’s toxic masculinity

No matter which decade, Bollywood has shown men to have absolute agency over women thereby reinstitutionalizing the already established patriarchy of Indian society, says the author.

Author

Saurabh Samraat, student, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India. 

Summary

Bollywood or the Hindi Film industry went through different trends in the last 70 years. After the 60s, problematic themes started being presented, which led to far-reaching negative implications. Subsequent decades of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s followed with their own problematic themes. 

In the present decade, we have witnessed the release of many pseudo-progressive movies, which although claims to be progressive, do not give women their due part. Theories like the Social Cognitive Theory and the Cultivation Theory provide us with enough evidence to show how such a problematic portrayal affects the audience. Male domination in the industry remains the prominent cause of such a portrayal. 

Among these problematic movies, some really progressive movies are breaking this stereotypical, sexist, toxic, and misogynist spell of Bollywood. 

Production of such films, when clubbed with social initiatives, can potentially remedy the wrongs done by years of problematic cinema produced by Bollywood.

Published in: International Journal of Law Management & Humanities.

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