post news network
BHUBANESWAR: Apart from multiple language movies that were screened at the Indian Film festival of Bhubaneswar, workshops and literary sessions were also screened on the occasion.
The first literary workshop was organised Friday on the subject ‘Understanding gaze and Visual Pleasure’ in which various examples proved the objectification of women in various ways in today’s society.
Bijaya Biswal, a member of FSB, anchored the workshop in which she quoted various papers and writing and showed images which proved that the situation of women being objectified is not new but ancient.
She said according to John Berger, who had wrote ‘Men Look at Women’; women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object — and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.
The workshop also touches the issue of the world of advertising, which for long time showcased the wrong image of women. The ads of deodorants and shaving creams depict women being controlled with mere perfumes.
Glamour, envy and the act of looking – these are the foundations on which our current fashion and social media obsession rests. Consider Victoria’s ‘Secret Angels’. A fleet of women so beautiful so primped and preened that the name bestowed on them is otherworldly. They are living, breathing advertisements, existing for mass consumption – the show, seen by millions of mostly women, is the most watched fashion event in the world.
Biswal said the system has become so patriarchy that we had accepted the system as it is, but we can hope with women personalities raising voice and the recent metoo movement will change the situation for better.
