Media’s pennyworth in child abuse

• The first step…

Yes, it is in man’s nature. Yes, it is in man’s lewd instinct. Yes, it is man’s fault. But it is not only his fault. Being a feminist myself, I am a staunch advocate of all the possible rights all girls and women of all age groups should be enjoying rather than being given by some superior authority as a favour. Nor am I denying the harsh reality of gender gap that exists and dictates women their societal niche as stipulated by our honourable culture and its norms. But this ideology called feminism has not blindfolded me, rendering me incapable of discerning between right and wrong. It has not silenced my inner voice that demands only equality and nothing more. It has not compelled me to lose my moral and rational sense that aids in fathoming as simple a fact as each privilege is always accompanied by its load of responsibilities.

The wave of paedophilia, necrophilia and zoophilia that has widely spread like hyphae of a pathogenic fungus in our society is an undeniable and reliable vindication of the notion that clothes of victims have no connection whatsoever with the abuse and violation they are subjected to. I cannot agree more to the assertion that it is, without exception, the beast within each culprit that paralyses his human conscience and makes him commit foul crimes. I reiterate that it is infallibly the inner self of man that scars his victim forever. But that is not the only reality. There always exist external inciting factors, if not from the sufferer, as in the cases ranging from nine-month-old baby girls to teenage boys, then from the society.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz, in his essay titled ‘National Art and Culture’ explicitly explains that although cultural problems are not related to the arts alone but the latter does constitute a fundamental part of the social evils characteristic to every society. “Art thus has an important dual political role,” he states. While externally it is an important medium of national projection, “internally it holds up the mirror to a nation or society and helps it to discover its own image and its own personality”. These two roles can be analogised to outputs that are produced after processing the inputs from society. But it plays yet another part that works the other way round with art and media keying in new set of norms and the society portraying its consequences as the output.

There always exist external inciting factors, if not from the sufferer, as in the cases ranging from nine-month-old baby girls to teenage boys, then from the society

Keeping all individual factors aside, one common factor links all rape cases – objectification. And it is this very lesson that our dramas, movies, ads and morning shows teach us nowadays. While sexual violence against children, teenagers and adults is a question mark on our sanity, the sexualised media content that is aired 24/7 leaves an indelible negative impact on society’s sensibilities that cannot be ignored.

A study published in the 2009 edition of Child Abuse Review remarked: “Perhaps the most troubling impact of pornography on children and young people is its influence on sexual violence.” Those hailing from the entertainment industry are right in arguing that their work is different from and cannot be compared to pornography. Besides, even if sexualised content is not produced by mainstream media, the easily available pornographic content is sufficient to stir up similar effects; however, what must be realised is the need to cut off our pennyworth that is only worsening the situation because the latter medium is approached by people who want to watch it while the former medium has now become a normal mode of entertainment in all household setups.

A real life example exists right in our neighbourhood where the 2012 Delhi gang rape case involving fatal assault of a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern put Bollywood in the dock. Arundhati Roy, India’s most followed and, at the same time, most abhorred writer, believes that provocative innuendos on screen “have had crippling effects on an already bogged down society”. When one takes up the job of being an entertainer every move of his is on the watch. One can easily brush off this burden under the slogan of “right to have a personal life” but the bitter truth is that people tend to believe what they get to see. With B-town actresses having fan following in millions, it really does matter when Malaika Arora adores Munni with red cheeks and intoxicating eyes, when Kareena Kapoor sexualises and personates a tandoori chicken that needs to be eaten with a shot of alcohol in Fevicol Se, when Deepika Padukone shows off her curves in Lovely, when Katrina Kaif dances on Chikni Chameli.

A similar concern was shown by many quarters when the culture of item songs was soaring and encapsulating the heap of hope that revival of Lollywood had brought along with it. While eyeing Ayesha Omar’s Tutti Frutti and Mehwish Hayat’s Billi, along with others, will only earn insane requesters like me their wrath and censure, holding our morning shows responsible for objectifying girls as young as five, as that on Sahir Lodhi’s, will also serve no good. Why? Because none of us is ready to accept the reality. The reality is that nothing was wrong in Zainab’s clothes that day; it was some other exposed and dancing body that had objectified female parts before the culprit who then gave in to his monstrous instinct.

If accepting this reality is too much to ask for then we really need to look at the trendsetters for this purpose as well. Many actresses, including Kareena Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Ayesha Takia, announced not to do item numbers in reaction to the 2012 incident after realising the responsibility that they have towards their audiences. Their followers go to theatres as empty books and come out with the movie’s script written on their minds; it is on the script whether to impart a positive message or to corrupt it further. In words of Reema Kagti, a renowned film director and screenwriter from India, “Our films put out the wrong idea about women. I hope the reaction we are seeing from filmmakers is stemming from them realising we play a huge role in propagating unhealthy gender politics. At the end of the day films shape culture and society and most of our films are extremely misogynist”.

So here is the lesson we all, especially members of our entertainment fraternity, need to latch on to. Instead of issuing notices to dramas like Udaari for ‘immoral content’, PEMRA needs to crack down on the actual immoral content being needlessly shown on our television and cinema screens. Movies can become blockbusters without item songs and morning shows can get TRPs without conducting dance competitions. With moral corruption on the rise and it steadily becoming a norm, many Zainabs and Faizans are far more vulnerable than before and in order to save them from such barbarism, realising our fault and acknowledging the corrective measures is only the first step.