Abstract
Historically, media have been instrumental in raising awareness and promoting gender equality, but with the advent of neoliberalism, its transformative potential is diverted. This paper examines the role of media in shaping discourse around gender issues, particularly in the context of neoliberalism. The paper provides commentary on the current discourse on gender in media, particularly in contemporary Hindi movies. The paper is based on the textual analysis of the five purposively selected Hindi movies; ‘Aisha’, ‘Veere di Wedding’, ‘Tanu weds Manu’, ‘Manmarziyan’ and ‘Ek Ladki ko Dekha to Aisa Laga’. It is observed that these movies have women-based story lines where women empowerment, freedom, and agency are the recurring themes. However, the same themes are co-opted and diluted through a symbiotic relationship between neoliberalism and media via promoting conspicuous consumption, consequently reinforcing the existing power structures that needed to be questioned. The paper interrogates how media exploit ideas like freedom, agency and liberation, on the lines of the normative patriarchal consumerist culture. The paper critically analyses the neoliberal media landscape with its deeply entrenched consumerist values, which has consequently commodified feminism and reduced it to another marketable and sellable product. The paper also questions the sanitised portrayal of gender in Indian media, particularly in Indian movies, which tends to overlook intersecting factors like caste, class, sexual orientation, etc.
Keywords: Agency, Commodification, Heteronormativity, Neoliberal Media, New Femininity.