Male gaze in Bangladesh; Then VS Now - Blog

Course Code: MSJ11203

From the 1990s to recent years, if we look around the media platforms worldwide, the male gaze's effects are still very much visible & dominant to this day. And Bangladesh is no exception either. Sexualizing and objectifying the female is a very "common" thing in Bangladeshi media. Cinema, news, TV shows, social media, and almost in every media sector, the dominance of the male gaze is visible. I think the male gaze in Bangladesh media demarcates the boundaries of "acceptable "and "deviant." Let's discuss with a few media examples from the late 1990s and the year 2020 to understand further why and how this is still prominent in Bangladeshi media.

Male Gaze," sexual politics, or the way of looking or representing women in such a way that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, the woman is portrayed as an "object" of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts, and sexual drives are less important than her being "framed" by male lust (Simmons, 2016).

The poster above is of a very famous movie, "Bhai number one," starring Masum Parvez Rubel. By looking at the poster and the film's name, we can assume how this entire movie is framed. The whole film is based on the male lead character. And there are some pictures of overly sexualized and objectified female characters in the posters that have nothing to do with the storyline. Including "attractive" prints of one or many women in the poster was a prevalent "tactic" used by movie directors to grab the "attention" of the audiences or to "engage" the viewers to watch the movie.

If we look at the name of this movie "Bhai Number one," it's clear that this movie is based on the male lead character Rubel. Suppose we look at a few other remarkable movies by Masum Parvez Rubel almost around the 1990s. In that case, the names are - hero amar nam, Jodhha, Polatok ashami, mohaguru, top mastan, tornado Kamal, don,dulavai zindabad. Once again, the titles speak a lot. These titles indicate that the hero is the center of actions in these films. Women are occasionally shown in some "romantic" & "item" songs throughout the film, where most of the shots are zoomed in towards their physique. In most cases, the "helpless" female characters are abducted by the enemies towards the end of the movie where the "hero" will fight the enemies in the most unrealistic and bizarre ways to save them. Besides that, touching and teasing women without consent by the hero is considered "romantic" & "normal."

"Palabi Kothay," a film published in 1997, is based on a characterless office manager who tries to take sexual benefits from his female colleagues, and those colleagues try to escape from him. The whole story has been shown so comically by some Legendary Bangladeshi artists like Humayun Faridi, Suborna Mustafa, Shabana & Champa (IMDb). During that time, this movie was highly praised because it promoted women empowerment during a time when it was not very common. Still, if we look closely at the representation of women in that movie, the film is directed from the male gaze's perspective. Even in a movie like this, a woman's "typical" role is still highlighted in some scenes. If we look at the pictures attached below, a woman's sexual assault is shown in a somewhat "funny" way. It was almost normalizing the fact that women are assaulted in the workspace. And towards the end, the female workers' protest is shown in a very unrealistic way that is never ethical or possible in real life.

Now, a lot of people will argue that why am I expecting Bangladeshi movies to be realistic? The film industry of Bangladesh has been this way for a long time. The thing is, Cinema is considered to be a reflection of life, culture, and societies. Many people who watch these films will connect this to their reality without even knowing it. And this is how the effect of the male gaze has been consistent throughout the decades. Because for the Bangladeshi audience, the films where women are objectified are more "enjoyable" to watch, as most of the audience were male in the 1990s. And the film directors will only produce films that the audience will enjoy and find entertaining.

The screenshot attached above is the cover of a music video published recently in 2020 by one of Bangladesh's most prominent video streaming websites, "Bongo Boom." A music video collaboration between two well-known influencers, Zakilove & Critical, produced By CHITRA PARA PRODUCTIONS (Zakilove, 2020). Throughout the whole music video, we can see a girl dancing in somewhat of a sexual way in the background with Zaki & critical. The entire song "I N S A N E" has nothing to do with the girl dancing in the background, except just once in the lyrics which says "Checking on girls in bikini, Can anybody serve me a glass of martini.” Once again, a very common way of portraying an "attractive" girl in a music video for making it more "desirable" to look at or visually positioned as an "object" of heterosexual male desire (Simmons, 2016).

Rafiath Rashid Mithila, a renowned Bangladeshi actress, model, and development worker. She is also the ex-wife of a famous singer Tahsan Rahman Khan. When the couple announced their divorce, the whole nation turned against her saying that it was her fault that they got divorced. She was humiliated, roasted, and criticized in different media forms because she doesn't fit the "ideal" definition of a married woman. Or a divorced woman who will lead the rest of her life in the sorrow of getting divorced as represented in the media. The memes attached below are very few among hundreds of memes shared on many social media platforms after publicly discussing her relationships after her divorce.

It's almost like that she's not "acceptable" for a group of people. As she does not fit the "innocent" lady category as represented from the male gaze's perspective in Bangladesh media for decades. As she is a successful lady working in the media herself, the criticism is a lot worse for her. And this is an example of how the male gaze in Bangladesh media demarcates the boundaries of "acceptable” in our society.

From the above discussion, it’s clear that male gaze have always been setting boundaries of what is acceptable/enjoyable in the eyes of heterosexual male audience in Bangladesh media from 1990s till to the recent year of 2020. The sexualizing and objectifying of women in Bangladesh have changed its form of media in different ways, but it is always there till to this day. Starting from movies in the late 1990s to extremely offensive memes in 2020 that objectifies woman, male gaze is still dominant and still “normal” for a lot of people.