Feminist Criticism

Hello Readers!

welcome to my blog I'm going to write about feminist Criticism this task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of Department of English M.K.Bhavnager University. 

👉 Feminist Criticism 

As a distinctive and concerted approach to literature, feminist criticism was not inaugurated until late in the 1960s. Behind it, however, lie two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements, and for women’s social and political rights, marked by such books as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869), and the American Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845). 

Much of feminist literary criticism continues in our time to be interrelated with the movement by political feminists for social, legal, and cultural freedom and equality. An important precursor in feminist criticism was Virginia Woolf, who, in addition to her fiction, wrote A Room of One’s Own (1929) and numerous other essays on women authors and on the cultural, economic, and educational disabilities within what she called a “patriarchal” society, dominated by men, that have hindered or prevented women from realizing their productive and creative possibilities. 

What Feminist critics do?

1. Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by women. 

2. Revalue women's experience. 

3. Examine representations of women in literature by men and women. 

4. Challenge representations of women as 'Other', as 'lack', as part of 'nature'. 

Representations of women in Cinema 

Changing times have brought into the limelight several successes directed by women—Gully Boy by Zoya Akhtar, Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Earth, and the popular film English Vinglish by Gauri Shinde, are a few of the many pieces that are slowly bringing in a much-needed change to the industry, through representation of women from all walks of life. 

 👉Pink Movie 

https://youtu.be/AL2TShb6fFs

Pink, starring Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan, was a progressive and empowering film that dealt with the topic of the consent of women.

Regarding the title of the film, Shoojit Sircar, in one of his interviews said that the title is meant to destigmatise ‘pink’ as a feminine colour and the various associations that are made with it. But, during the entire course of the film, not even for once, this association has been substantiated and most people are reading it as, “film about women and 'Women empowerment', hence pink.”

Tapsee Pannu (Meenal) stands out in her role as a determined woman who is not ready to back out and is ready to take up challenges. Kirti Kulkhari’s character of Falak is shown as the most collective of all, who, (and we loved her for this) brought in the importance of consent even when it is a sex worker we are talking about. Andrea Tairang (Andrea) does justice to her role with an impactful presence and enforces the idea of the shallow mindsets of most people who think that women from North-East are an “easy-target.”

👉 Queen Movie 

https://youtu.be/4gtc5P5KZxA 

 Kangana Ranaut with Queen and Vidya Balan with Kahaani are synonymous with strong female leads in movies.

In 2014, the cast and crew of the film ‘Queen’ won both critical acclaim and the masses' hearts. This was a rare occasion in India where a story which doesn’t involve the boy and girl getting together was considered a happy ending by the audience, and everyone was left cheering and applauding the performances and the overall experience of the film. Queen undoubtedly made a strong statement with the central plot of a girl moving on after being left at the altar and finding herself. But even beyond the essence of the film was a multi-layered message of beautifully portrayed feminist ideals. This was, arguably, the most feminist film in Bollywood post the 2000’s and definitely a lesson in Feminism 101, and here’s why.

👉Mission Mangal Movie 

Although great strides have been recently taken to portray relatable women from different walks of life, they are accompanied by certain caveats. Mission Mangal showcased the hard work and dedication of the women scientists of ISRO to make India’s Mars mission successful. Despite having a stellar female cast, the movie was promoted with Akshay Kumar in a lead role, which speaks a lot about the audience’s attitude towards women-centric films. Patriarchy is deeply ingrained in the very roots of Indian society and its mindset, which in turn is reflected in its films. Cinema is mostly seen as a form of escapism and hence caters to the larger male audience. Cinema is business-driven and filmmakers don’t want to stray away from the established stereotypes to give pathbreaking roles to women. It, thus, also falls on the viewers to break this vicious cycle of supply and demand by making progressive movies successful.

In its eighty-year history, Bollywood has seen female leads take on many forms—from the sacrificing mother or a pleading damsel in distress to a woman in charge of her own destiny. The change is slow and much delayed, but the representation of empowered women onscreen is steadily increasing.