Abstract
Gendered content that travels through popular TV in Pakistan highlights gender-based crimes and allows women access to the mediated public sphere. This is an unprecedented form of access in a society that defines public/private through Shariah. The boundaries between the two spheres have thus far been immutable. Recent changes in the media landscape have made these boundaries porous. Drawing on theoretical debates on popular culture, cultural citizenship and counter public sphere, the study argues that these popular cultural spaces can be read in terms of an emerging feminist public sphere where women can engage as members of the public and as cultural citizens. To determine engagement patterns of young viewers, focus groups turned out to be effective method. In the sample of university students, there were 42 participants in 10 groups with 4 to 6 members in each group. The study finds that gendered content allows women to act in pro-civic ways. Their engagement with this content allows viewers to revisit their intersecting identities as Muslims, women and Pakistanis.
Highlights
In the last decade, the Pakistani media landscape has significantly changed
I argue that talk shows should be read in terms of counter public spheres that have started to be heard in the mainstream public sphere on gender issues
While acknowledging change in gendered content, this study aims to share findings of how young women, university students, engage with interactive genres in Pakistani TV culture that highlight new forms of gendered content
Summary
The Pakistani media landscape has significantly changed. Up until 2002, Pakistani audiences were largely (if not entirely) relying on state TV (PTV) for news and entertainment (c.f. Ali, 1986). Significant for this project is how interactive genres give women access to the mediated public sphere, with gendered content directly challenging the public/private distinction of Pakistani society laid under Shariah This distinction is defined by the contemporary Muslim scholars inclined toward the Hanafi school of thought. It is important to note how young women (respondents in focus groups) make sense of this access to the mediated public sphere: Rehma: Obviously, if a woman is suppressed at home (by in-laws), she cannot leave her house to approach anyone for help, such shows offer the right sort of avenue for her It is a limited sort of assistance but isn't bad at all, and it is safer for they don't have to reveal their identity. What are these women calling for, is it not to seek guidance through the Quran; do we not have the Book at home? Haven’t we read it? And what if their families would come to know about their calling on such platforms, it can make the lives of these callers even worse
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