Gender and Popular Visual Culture in India

Perhaps, male-mindedness seems to have adapted to changing-contemporary circumstances to become more covert and conspiratorial. Sexist suggestions―through objectification and substantiated subordination―for instance, may have been explicit in Indian media a decade earlier. But in the contemporary times of online social media and vociferous feminism, such openness of unfairness against women in the media will, more often than not, be met with strife and unpalatable backlash - fearing which blatant prejudice is prudently steered clear of. It is, hence, understandable that patriarchy, to sustain itself as a culture, has adapted to become more benevolent in an increasingly hostile environment. To identify such sly and stealthy sexism embedded in media content, one may need a reconfigured grasp of contemporary feminist issues and an altered nuance for isolation and identification of discriminatory depictions. This book exposes redefined and hidden sexism that predominates the popular visual culture of India - particularly investigating mass and new media representations that are a prime part of and have a domineering effect on the ensemble of popular visual culture - and characterises contemporary feminist movements. It binds a collection of contemporary Indian case studies of sexism and feminism encompassing communication media such as print, cinema, television, Web series and social media. There is a lack of book titles that study media sexism in the present times, and the proposed book aims to explore an unexplored area that is of social and scholarly importance. This book highlights the duality of media platforms: while media is a critical tool associated with fourth-wave feminism, they still remain to be a deterrent to the development of women engendering inherent and age-old patriarchal notions. This book will be an eye-opener to the general readers about benevolent sexism and train them to identify sexism hidden in seemingly pro-women media representations.

Francis Philip Barclay is a faculty member in the Department of Media and Communication, School of Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, India. With a background in journalism, news art and political cartooning, Dr Barclay is also an accomplished media researcher, psephologist and writer. He is the founder-editor of the Journal of Media and Communication (UGC-CARE listed). Dr Barclay has published several books and contributed chapters to many others, in addition to research articles in reputable journals. His research areas include media, politics and regulation, discourse analysis, gender studies, contemporary journalism, new and social media, media usage and effects, media psychology, research methodology and immersive technologies. Dr Barclay has also served several English newspapers in India. Some of his works are available for reading on his personal website, www.francisbarclay.com.

Kaifia Ancer Laskar has been teaching in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Aliah University, Kolkata (a public state university) in West Bengal, India, since July 2016. She holds a PhD in Mass Communication and has published in several reputable outlets, including Routledge, Sage, UGC-CARE as well as peer-reviewed journals. Dr Laskar's research interests lie in the areas of gender, race and minority representation in film and television entertainment content. She also conducts qualitative research on disinformation and the digital silencing of religious and sexual minorities.