Hegemonic Femininity: Negotiating the Stereotypes of Gender in the Indian Movies Fire (1996) and Shakuntala Devi (2020)

Abstract

Bollywood, or the mainstream Indian Cinema, has been presenting the idealised image of male characters as machismo or super-hero, revered and emulated by all, while simultaneously demoting women to trivial or insignificant roles. However, during the last two decades, celluloid developed new experiments projecting its female characters as redefining and reconstructing the stereotypes redundantly dominating the silver screen. In this article, I propose to explore femininity through the lens of hegemony in opposition to the emphasised femininity of Connell and alignment with Mimi Schippers and Carrie Paechter’s understanding of hegemonic femininity by looking at its depiction on the panoptic silver screen of Indian cinema. The article will reconnoitre, discuss and compare the femininity of the female protagonists in the select Indian movies Fire (1996) and Shakuntala Devi (2020) and will analyse how there is a scope and space for the discourse on hegemonic femininity portrayed as having significant overlap with hegemonic masculinity instead of standing in diametrical opposition. The article will also analyse the construction of hegemonic femininity to hegemonic masculinity and other forms of femininity, fidgeting with the reality of weaving the prospects and probability of surviving the lead roles while continuing to nurture and maintain the traditional hierarchy of gender binary. The meticulous perusal would keenly try precipitating the truth or the repercussions of the role portrayal of women leads in the Indian Cinema—whether these female leads are concomitantly deconstructing the gendered stereotypes associated with male/female binary or operating in tandem with hegemonic masculinity to safeguard a still patriarchal and binary gender order.