Shifting roles of Women through the Lens of Indian Popular Media

Abstract

The importance of mass media has increased as a result of the development of new communication technologies. By portraying only a portion of truth and via the constant repetition of the same visual and audio, the mass media affects our ideas of social reality. Although the form and content of the media have evolved significantly over the past years, the media has always supported the stereotypical perceptions of women and their social responsibilities. The news about women's struggles and the injustices committed against them has always cast a shadow over them and their social contributions. In a changing world, it is essential that the print and electronic media paint a fair picture of women's multifaceted lives and contributions to society. This study aims to provide a picture of how women are perceived in the popular media, primarily the Bollywood movies and soap operas based on an analysis of the shifting stereotypes in the media's projection of women. It contends that women and their issues are no longer marginalised in the media. However, outdated sex stereotypes have persisted in various forms. Women have become more and more of a commodity in the media as a result of its rising commercialization. The mainstream media, on the other hand, frequently co-opts and re-constructs progressive rhetoric on women's concerns in order to establish the hegemony of dominant socioeconomic classes. As a result, in the setting of a capitalist economy, it is much harder to change how women are represented in the popular media.