Joy is no exception in India where everything is policed by gender. Women’s sources and displays of happiness are called frivolous and embarrassing. Look no further than the cinema hall for proof.
Who gets to be on their feet, singing at the top of their lungs? Not Taylor Swift fans. But fans of Rajinikanth, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Mahesh Babu (the list goes on and on, but not so curiously, they’re all men) are allowed to run wild.
Case in point, Salman Khan fanboys burst firecrackers in a Nashik cinema hall screening Tiger 3. Sure, there’s outrage on social media. But most of it is toward theatre management. Who allowed the fireworks in? Where was the security? It’s almost as if this was expected. And like always, these men will get away with it.
Male joy is aggressive, loud and unapologetic. Female joy is a giggle covered by a hand—an open-mouthed laugh showing teeth is unbecoming.
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Glass ceiling remains
First Day First Show or FDFS screenings in India see a mostly all-male audience on their feet, hooting, screaming and even throwing confetti and flowers in the air. The celebration, earlier limited to single-screen theatres, has found its way into multiplexes in the city. It’s cut across class, but the glass ceiling remains.
This unfettered enjoyment that male viewers have while watching films has been theorised by everyone—academics and feminist critics Laura Mulvey (male gaze) and bell hooks (oppositional gaze). But as with most pop-culture phenomena, there’s no need to turn to academia to understand it. Twitter is the best textbook and the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie is the perfect case study.
While I’m not a ‘Swiftie’, it’s undeniable that the American singer-songwriter has become a source of comfort and joy to women and queer people across the world.
And with the concert movie hitting theatres, it’s only natural that the audience is on their feet. Girls and women in India have posted videos of themselves holding hands and dancing in cinema halls, exchanging friendship bracelets and singing along to songs about love, heartbreak and girlhood.
It’s the same joy that men feel when they see their favourite icons on screen but there’s a certain itch that they feel when they see women having fun. ‘Hungry for social media validation’, ‘cringe’, ‘second-hand embarrassment’, ‘crowd of clowns’ are just some of the many things men have said in response to videos of women dancing in theatres.
Beyond the cries of cringe are those who accuse Taylor Swift fans of being stupid—all because they did something men have been doing for decades. One verified user with a profile picture of Al Pacino as Godfather said that Indian youth should be watching movies like Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon to prove they’re “sane-minded”.
A user in the replies rightly pointed out that people can do both. Regardless, if this Al Pacino fan had to target someone for bringing down India’s sanity it should be men. The top five of the highest-grossing films this year have been mindless mass movies led by macho men—Jawan, Pathaan, Gadar 2, Jailer, and Leo.
Just let women enjoy Taylor Swift and Barbie (2023) and whatever else you want to call cringe. At least they’re not causing fire hazards and risking lives.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)