A Woman’s body… piece by piece, inch by inch, navigated, investigated, desecrated! From the sacrilegious murder of the Greco-Egyptian philosopher, astronomer and one of the first female mathematicians, Hypatia, on the streets of Alexandria by the parabalani – a volunteer militia of monks serving as the archbishop’s henchmen – to the violent defilement marked initially as collateral damage and later tagged as a weapon of war: a woman’s body has been a center of much debate, immense prodding and too many probes. Be it the skin, the voice, her silence and anger or the sanctity of her entire being – the world bears ‘witness’ – a calculating, deliberately dumbed-down bystander – to the injustice of taking away her autonomy. Juxtaposed also and in protest are actions: parading and on display on the haloed halls of academia, undertaken by the ‘weaker’ gender of their own violent volition that contain immeasurable strength and insubordinate indignation. In unladylike defiance, these vessels of production and fertility executed what hegemonic masculinities necessitate being contained and bound for their own good.
The narrative has always been there – women who are nasty, bossy… these women have it coming for they do not fit in the fold, they disturb the status quo and disrupt power dynamics. What these women are really doing are setting examples, letting everyone know, women know, there is an alternative, there may be a way to unshackle oneself. That said, it is not a mere walk in the park. Not only are the stakes high, women pay great price for not conforming. For these are unwell women!
And contrary to popular belief, it is not just patriarchal belief systems or rigid, conservative mindset, but also performative wokeness, privilege and cancel culture that have played due roles in muffling voices through vitriolic attacks laying a bedrock of stereotype reinforcing status quo.
On the set of Kramer vs Kramer, was it not male privilege that led Dustin Hoffman slap Meryl Streep to elicit the desired dramatic result – without her knowledge and most importantly her consent. Going further back, similar yet more violent and humiliating act was performed in one of the most infamous scenes in the Last Tango in Paris; where a venerated, award winning visionary director Bernardo Bertolucci decided to share details of a highly volatile scene with the actress Maria Schneider at the very last minute because he “wanted Maria to feel, not to act.” Artistic license to actually be licentious?
US media in particular, not limited to it though, has set many examples, benchmarking warped victim blaming, vilification and even cancelling women who are said to be empowered and successful. Sharon Stone was vilified because of that scene in Basic Instinct, Janet Jackson was crucified and all because of the undoing of her co-singer Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl halftime. Madonna has been singularly targeted for debauchery and what have you, many a times not taken as seriously as her male contemporaries. Even though it is not rocket science to see and even experience her immense impact on music and fashion. One must also be reminded that these are examples of Caucasian women of privilege!
On the other hand, men – white in particular – have never had their artistic liberty questioned or careers impeded in similar ways or to such incapacitating extents in comparison, the David Bowies and Mick Jaggers of this world. Should concessions be really given to the likes of Pablo Picasso because of their genius? Should one filter and sift out greatness from vice or degeneration on the basis of gender? Taken now as rhetoric, these questions have been asked on repeat like a record broken, eternally awaiting to be fixed!
Some might argue about the error of comparing apples to oranges, it does boil down to setting a precedence when it comes to male privilege, entitlement and their idea of consent. The reverberating ripple effect of a powerful, capitalistic media machine not just in Western societies and its impact on the Global South at the intersection of cast, color, religion, creed, ethnicity and most importantly a woman’s status in society.
Indeed, things are changing – but movements just like movies (the Barbies and Night Bitch(es) with their scintillating soliloquies); they come and go… momentum picks up – sometimes flatlining, sometimes resuscitated. Truer still is that the onslaught is the heaviest and longest right before the dawn. But perhaps the dawn is already here, the light that everyone sees yet; deliberately or otherwise – not fully or even partially discerned! A mirage? A journey – one can hope and keep on going…
Image by Richard Reid from Pixabay
