Seventeenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Cinema has a profound effect on its audiences across the globe especially when social constructions of gender through cinema play an instrumental role in shaping public perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and reactions. But when cinematic portrayals and audience interpretations may contribute to a hostile environment condoning gender violence, it becomes a universal social problem that needs to be investigated. This qualitative paper addresses a gap in literature by examining how sexual harassment in public spaces including street harassment is depicted in one widely viewed and successfully commercial form of popular culture from India, Bollywood cinema. How is street harassment and sexual harassment defined, constructed and represented in selected Hindi films (released between 2019-2021)? How do gender roles and relations show up through these portrayals and protagonists? What are the possible implications of these images on the public perceptions of sexual violence in the South Asian diaspora? Using a feminist lens, these questions are addressed and emerging key themes are first critiqued and analyzed. Second, this interdisciplinary research paper challenges the traditional and mainstream narratives and perceptions about dangerously accepting and romanticizing of street and sexual harassment in reality and its implications of these media representations on South Asian diaspora communities. This study contributes to the fields of criminology, sociology, gender and women’s studies, film, media and cultural studies, and global studies.