The idea of the film is based on love and respect for women, which is very evident in Shahi's speech at the niece's wedding at the end of the film. Here, Shahi told Mira in a not very fluent language that marriage requires equality and mutual support, your family will not belittle you, will not laugh at you with your weaknesses, and your family needs love and respect.
It can be said that the film directly hits the issue of sexism in Indian society, and the detailed display of this issue is also the most outstanding highlight of the whole film.
First, English is the gulf that divides Indians into two camps. The position of the heroine in the film is a housewife with a low level of education, who can only speak Hindi but not English. Her mother-in-law and the servants at home are in the same camp as her, they are all older Indian traditions. Women do not work outside the home and have little social contact. Opposing them are Shahi's daughter, husband, and the parents of her daughter's classmates, all of whom have received relatively good education, often participate in social activities, and can communicate in English. It can be seen that English is only a symbol here, and what everyone is really mocking is the isolation and low cultural level of traditional Indian women. And this awareness of traditional Indian women has been with them for thousands of years.
If we are outraged by men’s misunderstandings and discrimination against women, then sexism from family members and same-sex sexism is too sad.
Shahi's husband is a white-collar worker. In his opinion, Shahi doing Radu Ball is just what a wife should do, not a job like Shahi does. So when Sahi cheerfully called him to tell him that business was going well, he ended the call with aloofness saying he was busy. In addition, he said in public more than once, "My wife was born to be a ladoo." When such language attracted laughter from others, he also told Shahi that it was a praise for her. Therefore, when Shahi's classmates say that she is an entrepreneur and an excellent cook, she says that what she does is trivial. In the eyes of others, men's cooking is an art, and women's cooking is an obligation.
The daughter's discrimination against Shahi often appeared. She laughed at her mother's mispronunciation of "jazz", and when Shahi asked her to study at home, she satirized that Shahi did not understand English literature and could not teach herself. When Shahi helped her hold a parent-teacher conference, she Feeling very inferior, I lost my temper on the way back. In addition, whether it is not finding her own book or chatting with friends about emotional topics, she never forgets to ridicule her mother for not knowing English. On the surface, this is her disgust for her mother's lack of English, but at a deeper level, it stems from her inferiority complex. She worries that others will ridicule her because of her mother's low level of education. When women's rights are harmed, instead of resisting against society, she tries to cover up what others see as disgraceful. This is a vicious circle. The problem of sexism is even more dangerous when women are assimilated by sexist ideas.
On the whole, the film seems to be an inspirational film for women, but India's ingrained sexism has inevitably been brought into the plot setting. inherently contradictory. At the end of the film, Shahi used a speech at the wedding to remind her husband and daughter that they were wrong, and she told everyone that if there is a conflict between the husband and wife because the woman's ability is too weak, the "friendship" of the two Gradually disappear, this does not mean that the marriage will end, the woman needs to help herself, and finally can find "friendship" again. Having a family and having children is the happiest.
It seems that Sahi finally won her husband's reflection and apology with her own efforts, but we can see that she is still habitually putting family and children first in her life, and is willing to maintain a troubled marriage. This is also reflected in the fact that her son was injured when she went to English class, and she blamed herself so much that she felt that she had forgotten her responsibility to take care of the child, so she decided not to continue the class. The theme of mother’s sacrifice for children is often seen in Indian literature, but when we sing praises of such mother’s love, should we also reflect on whether women are bound by the family and sacrifice their own interests to safeguard the family’s interests, is this also a form of violence? ?
At the same time, her solution to the problem is to change herself to earn the respect of others. So we can't help but ask, is an illiterate housewife not worthy of the respect of the family and society? If she doesn't learn English, will her life be greatly reduced in value? One of the saddest scenes in the whole film is when Shahi tells her sister that she is proud of her because she never speaks a word of English and is now living well in America.
The story of "women's self-improvement" told in the movie seems to be touching, but it ignores a fundamental problem - when gender discrimination appears, we should change the social cognition and measurement standards, instead of encouraging women to study hard meet this set of standards. Identity sexism happens when you think "what you should be doing as a woman". The real freedom and respect is that although I do not approve of your way of life, I will defend to the death your right to choose your way of life. Women should have the right to be educated, but women should also have the right not to be ridiculed even if their literacy level is low.
From this point of view, although the film criticizes the phenomenon of sexism in India, the solution given is that women strive to learn to improve themselves to meet family and social standards, so as to gain respect. We believe that this is also a form of sexism in itself. "Indian English" is also a discriminatory work under the banner of anti-discrimination. It can be seen that the tradition of sexism in India is so subtle and ingrained that it is difficult for even opponents to jump out of this circle.
In my opinion, the first part of combating sexism is to create a sense of equality, so that women have the same rights as men, such as the right to education, the right to work, and the right to marry and so on.
After winning these rights, I think the most important and most fundamental change is to respect. Such respect is not only a respectful and polite attitude, but a change of consciousness. That is, don't define "female". Don't sing the praises of women sacrificing their personal rights for the sake of the family as a beautiful quality, and don't think women should all choose to be independent and self-improvement. We should beware of going from the extreme of oppressing women to the extreme of feminism. The real respect is tolerance, and tolerance women follow their own will to choose the life they want.
But unfortunately, from the perspective of reality, the life of Indian women is still not optimistic, and even the first step has not been fully taken. But judging from Bollywood movies, more and more people are paying attention to the issue of sexism in India and calling on these women to work hard to be themselves, which we want to encourage. But in addition to encouragement, we should also be vigilant and avoid using "freedom and independence" to "kidnap" women, so as to go to the other extreme, which will be a new form of oppression in the future.
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