Embracing femininity: failure of the tomboy trope as an ideal arc for female roles in mainstream bollywood

Abstract

ABSTRACT The contribution of cinema towards culture building exists within a complicated symbiotic dynamic. Just as films reflect the beliefs, anxieties and social realities of the cultures they exist in and are produced by, they also continue to alter, shape, and solidify certain beliefs. The idea of femininity has long been boxed into categories conveniently adhering to patriarchal notions of gender dynamics. Despite the expectation from art to challenge certain established systems, the commerciality of mainstream Bollywood often makes it subject to certain obligations of appeasing a mass audience without unsettling comfortable and regressive beliefs. One can observe a pattern in several fan favorite commercial hits wherein an initial challenge of femininity through tomboys as female leads is eventually stunted by restoring order and letting conformity prevail. I would like to explore the concept of a “tomboy” and its connotations in feminist discourse. Moreover, I will contextualize this concept within the social frames advertised by Bollywood, citing specific films like Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Farah Khan’s Main Hoon Na to name a few, and how the industry becomes a femininity-defining cultural institution that creates as well as sustains gender stratification and toys with the politics of aesthetics.