A Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of Gender Bias in Indian Cinema

Abstract

Psychoanalytic feminism is a theory of oppression which asserts that men have an inherent psychological need to subjugate women. The root of men’s compulsion to dominate women and women’s minimal resistance to subjugation lies deep within the human psyche. Indian film industry has been phallocentric depicting mainly male dominated narrative structure whereas women are reduced to marginalized roles only to glamorize the hero-centric set up. These films rarely portray women and their isolated worlds because this subject would be a commercial set back preventing audiences from hitting the theatres. This stereotyped representation of women has been always criticized by feminist film critics. Laura Mulvey, one of the most influential feminist film critic in her 1975 seminal essay “Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema” criticizes this patriarchal control and for-profit nature of cinema using psychoanalytic theory. Considering Mulvey’s psychoanalytic theory, this research paper attempts to explore that how social construction of patriarchy determines gender stereotyping & phallocentrism in Indian film industry and seeks to examine the various factors behind the misrepresentation of women in Indian cinema. The paper further intends to take into account why male centric films receive huge commercial success as compared to female ones.