International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences

Vol-8, Issue-2; Mar-Apr, 2023

Journal Home Page Available: https://ijels.com/

Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijels

A Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of Gender Bias in Indian

Cinema
Priya Kumari

Research Scholar (Ph.D.), Department of English, Veer Kunwar Singh University, Ara, Bihar, India

Received: 10 Mar 2023; Received in revised form: 14 Apr 2023; Accepted: 21 Apr 2023; Available online: 29 Apr 2023
©2023 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract— Psychoanalytic feminism is a theory of oppression which asserts that men have an inherent
psychological need to subjugate women. The root of men’s compulsion to dominate women and women’s
minimal resistance to subjugation lies deep within the human psyche. Indian film industry has been
phallocentric depicting mainly male dominated narrative structure whereas women are reduced to
marginalized roles only to glamorize the hero-centric set up. These films rarely portray women and their
isolated worlds because this subject would be a commercial set back preventing audiences from hitting the
theatres. This stereotyped representation of women has been always criticized by feminist film critics. Laura
Mulvey, one of the most influential feminist film critic in her 1975 seminal essay “Visual Pleasure And
Narrative Cinema” criticizes this patriarchal control and for-profit nature of cinema using psychoanalytic
theory. Considering Mulvey’s psychoanalytic theory, this research paper attempts to explore that how
social construction of patriarchy determines gender stereotyping & phallocentrism in Indian film industry
and seeks to examine the various factors behind the misrepresentation of women in Indian cinema. The
paper further intends to take into account why male centric films receive huge commercial success as
compared to female ones.
Keywords— Psychoanalytic theory, Laura Mulvey, Patriarchy, Indian cinema and Women.

I. INTRODUCTION gender equality by demonstrating the importance of women,

Women’s full and equal participation in all facets of society feminist film critics came forward with their major film
is a fundamental human right. Yet, around the world from theories. The development of feminist film theory was
politics to entertainment and to the workplace the status of influenced by second wave feminism & women’s studies in
women has been largely underrepresented. The Indian the 1960s and 1970s initially in the United States. Feminist
cinematic industry has been among the nation’s most film theory was extremely instrumental and influential in
popular source of entertainment, and being a patriarchal providing an ‘alternate feminist way to look’ at films.
society there exists a stern social structure in which the role Feminist film criticism is seen as an advocacy for gender
of a woman is delineated and this specific role in the social equality by dismantling the patriarchal system that is often
scheme finds its way into the role of women in cinema as centred on male subjectivity and female objectification.
well (Habib, 2017, p.69).
Molly Haskell in her 1974 book “From Reverence To Rape” II. DISCUSSING LAURA MULVEY AND
studied the portrayal of women in cinema and mentioned PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
that, the social construction of women on the screen is very The concept of psychoanalysis was first popularized by the
much similar to the what was found in society. The famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud which is based on the
stereotyped representation of women in cinematic industry belief that all humans have deep unconscious beliefs,
has been always criticized by feminist film critics. To bring desires, thoughts and memories that arise from their prior

IJELS-2023, 8(2), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)
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Kumari A Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of Gender Bias in Indian Cinema

experiences or hidden conflicts in their thought process III. ANALYZING THE PORTRAYAL OF MALE
(McLeod, 2019). AND FEMALE CHARACTERS IN INDIAN
One of the most notable feminist film critic Laura Mulvey CINEMA
is the first to analyze the objectification of women in films Mulvey states that cinema deploys unconscious
using psychoanalytic approach. In her 1975 seminal essay mechanisms in which the image of a woman functions as a
“Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema” she uses signifier of sexual difference, confirming man as subject
psychoanalytic theory to explain how patriarchy and maker of money while woman as the bearer of meaning
subconsciously affects the ways in which we produce and (White, 1998). The cinema narratives and portrayals of
receive cinematic images. Mulvey’s essay gives the most women in cinema are constructed in an objectifying and
thoroughgoing and explicit introduction of neo-Freudian- limiting manner to satisfy the psychological desires of men,
psychoanalytic theory to feminist film studies, and is the and more broadly, of this patriarchal society; which
single most inescapable reference work in this field. She suggests that women are not placed in a role where they can
proposed that films should not be seen as merely a form of take control of a scene instead, they became merely an
entertainment, rather we should consider the various facts object to be admired and fetishized rather than an active
about how it was made and how it has been received in our dynamic character.
society (Singh, 2021). In the context of cinema, it’s mostly men who write the
Mulvey draws on the works of both Sigmund Freud and films we watch, mostly men who make those films and it’s
Jacques Lacan throughout her essay, showing how men who are basically the target audiences (Leonard, 2021).
unconscious fears and desires manifest in the way films are The film industry all over the world is male dominated from
created and viewed. Freud’s description of scopophilia the directors to producers, to lead actors and even the
(pleasure in looking) is the starting point of Mulvey’s viewers in theatres. According to a study carried out by a
theory. Like Freud, Mulvey associates scopophilia with group of researchers from IBM Research-India, IIIT-Delhi
voyeurism, in which a viewer derives pleasure from looking and DTU-Delhi it is observed that, a male is mentioned
at a subject and further said that, centred around the around 30 times in a plot while a female is mentioned only
spectator’s and the camera’s look, cinema offers around 15 times and in overall dialogue distribution the
identificatory pleasure with one’s on-screen likeness, ego female characters have only 37% of the dialogues while
ideal and libidinal gratification from the object of the gaze male have 63% on an average. The study further says that
(White, 1998) . Other principles of psychoanalysis on which the screen-on-time for females is only a meagre 31.5%
Mulvey relies are the concepts of Freud’s Ego & Castration compared to 68.5% of the time for male characters, adding,
complex and the Lacanian mirror stage. In this regard she while 80% of the movie plots have more male mentions than
states that this ego, is what lures viewers into identifying females, surprisingly, more than 50% of posters of movies
themselves with the masculinized identity of the film and features actresses (Madaan et al., 2018). This clearly shows
finds identification with the hero which in turn helps the that films stimulate visual pleasure by integrating structures
viewer to transcend to a position of power, by observing of voyeurism and narcissism into the story and the image.
himself as an active & dominant character while subjecting Both this voyeuristic gaze and narcissistic identification
female characters to passive and powerless position. depend for their meaning upon the controlling power of the
Similarly, Mulvey associates the Lacan’s example of a child male character as well as on the objectified representation
recognizing himself in the mirror as a separate identity from of the female character (Smelik, 2016).
his parents, in the same way as of an audience recognizing Although there have been some women oriented movies
himself with the male counterpart of the film which in turn that seems to be representing the female characters in
promotes the concept of phallocentrism by portraying man dominant roles but, these films also resemble the old
characters as maker of meaning while females as the bearer patriarchally determined identities in a new manner and
of meaning in the narratives of cinema. aroused the question that, whether these kind of movies
Another tenet of psychoanalysis is the concept of Castration really offer feminine values to our society?
complex, which according to Mulvey, denotes the anxiety
produced in males by the fact that women are without a
IV. PSYCHOANALYSIS BEHIND TOP GROSSING
phallus and as such women come to represent, on an
MOVIES
unconscious level the threat of castration; and as a result of
which women are objectified by the camera and alienated The movies that hit highest at the box office are those which
by plot in order to mitigate the latent threat they pose to male are centred around male characters. In these movies, all the
protagonists and the male spectators. active roles, dialogues and on-screen time is dominated by

IJELS-2023, 8(2), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)
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Kumari A Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of Gender Bias in Indian Cinema

the hero of the film while the heroine is always portrayed traditional cinema and society. Cinema has always been
secondary to the hero. Talking about the highest grossing understood as being a mirror to society; hence, films should
movie at the Indian box office “Baahubali 2: The be responsive towards the context in which they locate a
Conclusion” it can be clearly observed that it is the male woman character. There should be a discussion about
character who is the controller of the narrative around whom media’s responsibility to the society and question should be
the story runs. The heroine is devoid of any independent asked that why cinema is engaged only in creating leisure
existence and her journey throughout the film is explored in for its audience and not making them think critically about
relation to the male character. The prominent example of the gender objectification. The patriarchal view of women
Mulvey’s psychoanalytic concept can be seen in the has been so convenient over the years that these categories
narratives of the movies that are in a ranking of the highest have became a common way of life to such an extent that
grossing films of India; like the role of actress Alia bhatt in now it is the foundational power structure of society and can
the movie RRR is not of any significance to the story; not be easily broken; this power structure reinforces the
Similarly, the role played by the actress in the movie KGF stereotypes which in turn further strengthens the power
2 is only as a decorative object to glamorize the hero- structure. There is no one monitoring and no one
centric set up. Both RRR and KGF2 are the highest challenging this pattern that is replicating itself; as a result
grossing films of the year 2022 making more than 1000 the lack of equality both on and off-screen has raised
crores of money worldwide. These movies are centred questions on gender stereotyping, the quality of media being
around male oriented narrative structure and females are viewed by people and the misinterpretation of a balanced
reduced only to playing a role of love interest of the hero society. It is important to know why these kind of
and to give audiences a break from the tedious scenes of patriarchal settings are being liked by the people and further
violence and drama. research is needed in this context.
Of the 100 highest grossing movies, only few features
women as their protagonists and the films led by female ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
actors never really notch up the numbers that led by their
I was introduced to Laura Mulvey and Psychoanalytic
male counterparts do. In fact, various actresses have
theories during my Postgraduate years and got somewhat
mentioned that it is very difficult for women-centric films
interested in it. It has been an exciting and rewarding
to make half as much money as the films with male
experience for me to carry out my research-paper in this
superstars receive (Habib, 2017). For example, the movie
area.
“Gangubai Kathiawadi” which is considered as the box
office hit movie led by a female character, has been I express my heartfelt gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr. Prof.
confined within the collection of only 153.69 crore on the Prasunjay Sinha, for his invaluable guidance and support
Indian box office. throughout this process. Without his inspired guidance, I
could never have come to this hypothesis. I am infinitely
The kind of success male oriented movies are receiving
grateful to him. I owe to him more than what can be put into
clearly depicts the male supremacy in our society, which
words.
reaffirms the power of the patriarchy to use women as props
in service of the heterosexual male narrative. In this regard, I would like to thank my parents for their support and grace.
Mulvey suggests that women signifies a lack which causes I am also grateful to my husband whose inspiration and co-
anxiety in the male, so the male seeks to overcome this operation aided me in completion of this paper.
anxiety by narcissism and objectification; so the Last but not the least, I am thankful to all my family
implications of characters as active male and passive female members and one related to this work for their unwavering
illustrates them as being products of a society organized support and encouragement.
around phallic power. Men writing the films, men making
the films, men being the protagonists and the target
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IJELS-2023, 8(2), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)
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IJELS-2023, 8(2), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.82.35 248