Contemporary Perspectives on Migration in the Context of Bangladesh through the Media Lens

Abstract

Cinema is a popular media for entertainment, and also plays a key role in shaping people’s ideas, behaviors, and gender roles through reinforcing popular cultural values and practices. Three movies, Paddayappa, Podaa Podi, and 22 female kottayam, are selected to discuss the gender identities and their representations in movies. The two movies Padayappa and Podaa Podi clearly portray gender identities, roles and how a Tamil men and women should act in the society. However, 22 female kottaymam breaks the traditional notion of gender behaviors of norms regarding being a woman. Most of the Tamil movies are male centric, and portray men’s dreams, their aspirations, their tragedies, their revenge, and their life, while women are often portrayed as secondary subjects to men, as their lovers, wives, and mothers. Additionally, women seem to be prioritized in movies, but they often get the marginalized position. In each of these films, the men, heroes, are clearly the saviors, and they are focused on throughout the theme plot. In most of the movies, heroes are portrayed as masculine, strong, aggressive, fighting with villains, taking responsibility to protect his wife and family and have the power to change the society. Tamil cinema portrays the division of “good” and “bad” women as in clear cut as black and white divides. The division between “good” and “bad” women is clearly depicted through their physical features, language, dress, and body structures. Additionally, chaste, intelligent, motherly, and divine are some of the potential characters that a “good woman” embodies, while the “bad woman” contains some characters such as a temptress, greedy, cruel, and unkind. Though the majority of the films focus on hero centric theme, there are some female centric movies too. However, female centric movies also present some feminine characteristics such as kind, obedient, and divine. These movies have not been as successful as hero centric movies.