Violence Against Women in Bollywood Cinema: Exploring Gender Differences Among Asian Indians' Perceptions in the USA

• In Event: Representations of Victimization in Television and Film

Abstract

Representations of women in popular culture often normalize male violence against women (VAW), reinforce rape myths, and foster sexist ideologies (Virdi, 1999). However, scholars have failed to examine how representations of VAW in popular culture may foster or reinforce an environment that normalizes abuse and oppression against women in our daily lives. This exploratory study fills an important gap in the literature by investigating how Indians in the United States perceive, define and interpret portrayal of VAW in a widely viewed form of popular culture, Bollywood cinema. This in-depth qualitative study (1) explores gender differences in how male and female Asian Indians interpret these onscreen representations, (2) compares film interpretations from film audiences’ real life knowledge about VAW, and (3) examines demographic and contextual cultural differences in film audience interpretations. Feminist theories, film studies and cultural theories will be used to guide the data analyses. Methods include thematic film analysis of women-oriented Bollywood films, film screenings, and gender-specific focus groups (N=35) comprising of Asian Indians living in the United States. Demographic and contextual differences of the participants are analyzed. Discussions and recommendations from the study will be presented.

Author

• Meghna Bhat, University of Illinois at Chicago