Feminist Movies, Anyone?

I happened to watch two awesome woman-centric movies on two consecutive days, in the midst of trying to figure out Hindi movies which pass the Bechdel Test- an enterprise probably doomed to failure from the start. Right? I will write about one here and maybe a second post on the other one, later.

 The first movie is A Thousand Times Good Night.  Starring  Juliette Binoche , it portrays a woman who works as a photojournalist in conflict regions of the world. She's "driven" and often risks her life - both "male" traits. Visiting these areas of strife and violence, she repeatedly puts her life in danger, in search of the perfect shot. As a friend chides her in a later scene, its the adrenaline rush which keeps her motivated to do the job she does.

As an Indian, I'm used to seeing women as the primary caregivers to their children even when they have full time jobs outside the home - whether paid or unpaid. What struck me most in this movie was the gender role reversal and the ease with which the movie handles it. It seems the most natural thing in the world that one parent  should take care of the kids when the other parent is away - as this movie depicts. It's simply a coincident that the primary care giver parent here happens to be the father.

And ooh, what  a hot dad ! The hunk who plays dad is Nikolaj Coster-Waldu  I haven't come across him earlier but I believe Game of Thrones fanatics will recognize him.

As the movie unfolds we are drawn to its central theme - how Gretta ( the character played by Juliette) going away repeatedly to these conflict zones and coming back wounded, having been in situations where she's come close to losing her life- is a huge drain on her family.

When she returns, there's an emotional distance,specially between Gretta and her husband and with her older daughter.They are wary of becoming close again,  because she will be gone once more. As her husband tells her "you smell of death". He tells her, each time she's gone, they prepare for the worst.

All of which made me think of the awesome role reversal the movie offers. Almost all such movies where the person putting his life in danger is a man, and the person left holding the home front, is almost always a woman. I for one can't recall any other movie with such a role reversal. Can you?

Needless to say Julitte Binoche is ethereal and luminous as is the ocean, the most gorgeous backdrop of the movie where a lot of the movie is set.

There were parts of the movie which I found uncomfortable. Scenes such as Gretta shoving her camera into refugees' faces without their permission, because "the world needs to know" or the whole sequence ( suggestive of Afghanistan ) though it doesn't explicitly say so, of the woman suicide bomber. being a Muslim - tried and tested tropes all, very much part of the white saviour complex. Where would we be without the "civilizing" impact of white people? Sigh.

Yet, all this didn't dilute my thorough enjoyment of the movie. Go watch it if you can. If you already have, tell me about it.

Postscript

Had I known better,

would I have  not held you closer -

let you breathe your own breaths 

not stolen with my tongue 

strips of yours, wet.

Had you not held me so close 

throbbing organs bursting forth, 

my rashes on your skin.

And before my day begins, 

I get to lie close to you-in my head
and bring you into my dreams

never having needed to flee, before,

from myself so secretively.

Would it have been easier, 

when I knew I had to, to let go ?

Breakable

Fragile beings, we, each one.
In the constant struggle of everyday living,
we pack it away, this breakable self bubble wrapped,
safely - or so we think-
in the corner shelf,
behind the large jar of self esteem we've been hoarding in.

But it's glass after all.
A little crack,
and it all spills out,
in a gory mosaic.

Women Only Spaces Limit Freedom

It's election time and once more women's safety is one of the issues being discussed, in the run up to theelections in Delhi. Happy news as it is to see women being given some importance at last - if only in party manifestos, with promises of protection. Of course, no political party is prepared to concede half

or even a third of its seats to women candidates. 

Once more the talk veers to "safety" the holy grail of a woman's existence. This talk conveniently ignores the fact that we live in a society underpinned by patriarchy, which celebrates and elevates machismo and toxic masculinity. This is the primary reason women are unsafe, and it is men from whom women need to be protected. 

The traditional wisdom of women's safety, usually centered around keeping certain women (upper caste) away from dangerous zones locked up at home has at least changed somewhat. We have not even begun talking about what goes on inside the home, where the vast majority of indian women report facing the most abuse and violence. About 6% to 60% percent women report facing domestic violence.

"Women only" spaces, are being suggested once again. Whether public spaces or in public transport, "women only" spaces are not the answer to all problems of women's safety. By limiting women's access to public spaces we not only pander to the fear psychosis but more importantly, limiting women's freedom we support the idea of women as fragile creatures needing protection in order to be safe. What about their liberty to be out and about, earning livelihoods, running errands, or if they so fancy, simply gallivant around town? 

Segregation based on gender only contributes to the impression that women are different, less able, fragile. A society where gender based segregation is the norm and boys are encouraged to see girls as different, 'the other' gender roles become even more entrenched by encouraging separate spaces for women in public too. 

Women do face assault in public spaces. Most women who must spend their lives in public are already stigmatised by the state in various ways. As most of these women happen to be "lower" caste women, their safety is not a concern of the state, apparently. Indeed the agents of the state like the police, or public officials run the gamut of harassing them, preventing them from going on with the basic business of survival. 

That a profusion of closed circuit televisions would enhance women's safety is not supported by research data either. It has been shown that CCTV is most effective when combined with other crime reducing methods such as improved lighting, security guards, and defensible space.  Why do the AAP people not think improving street lighting?

Women's agency and their privacy cannot be subsumed to surveillance. Do we trust such a large network of closely monitored surveillance in the hands of the government? Moreover at each step of the collection of this data there will be humans, mostly men involved. Who will guard them, and who's to ascertain there will be no breach of privacy of the women whose movements are being recorded. As this article states, when Delhi Metro CCTV footage leak was reported, people were more outrages that the couple were observed cosying up, rather than focus on the fact that their privacy had been breached! 

Would you feel safe knowing your every move was being tracked by a public eye ? Big brother is here; all hail Big Brother !