In the past 10 days, two significant events have taken place, the first one being, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul boarding the flight back home from Australia for their sexist and misogynistic comments on the show Koffee with Karan and facing an impending inquiry for their disrespectful attitude towards women which was evident from their crass comments during the show. The second one is the much needed public snub given to Professor Kanak Sarkar of Jadavpur University who has been barred from his teaching duties for his outrageous post on Facebook in which he has compared virgin women to sealed bottles.
Not surprisingly, in a patriarchal society like ours where women have been denied their due for years and have been treated as inferior beings, both Hardik Pandya and Professor Kanak Sarkar in their heads thought that they were being magnificently cool while making these sexist and misogynistic comments and expected approval and applause for their regressive behaviour but much to their shock they were treated with contempt and outrage. They could not fathom that the times have changed and that the society is changing with it, the patriarchal norms and thought processes they have been fed for years are being questioned across the globe and the #MeToo movement in India and across the globe is just one of the many living examples of this positive change in our society.
Therefore, more than ever, we as a society need to be more responsible now and should contribute to this positive social change happening in India and across the globe rather than impeding it. However, Vodafone India has not been able to understand this simple scenario that when a society changes for the better then we should change with it rather than resisting the positive social change and reverting back to orthodoxy and regressive forms of living. I am not here to give Vodafone India a lecture on feminism although I am really tempted to give one looking at the sexist and misogynistic content streamed by Vodafone Play, the video streaming application of Vodafone in India. However, I will rather stick to the basics so that Vodafone India can understand my point and take down the volumes of regressive, sexually objectifying, sexist and misogynistic content it has managed to collate on the Vodafone play application for reasons best known to Vodafone itself.
The singular side of the story which I have revealed so far is that Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Kanak Sarkar have been subjected to corrective action so that they can understand the difference between right and wrong behaviour and understand that being sexist, misogynistic and disrespectful to women is neither funny nor cool and at the same time a strong message is sent to all those who still harbour such regressive and patriarchal norms and mindset. The other side of the story for which I want to publicly call out Vodafone India is its inability to understand that how these regressive and sexist thoughts are learnt, harboured and subsequently passed on in the society. The nature of content which is being streamed on the Vodafone Play application which is available for free to every Vodafone customer is exactly what will turn the boys of today in the sexist men of tomorrow and this is neither cool nor responsible of a telecom giant which so often boasts of its corporate social responsibility programs.
The moment you click on the Vodafone Play application, the first show they boast of streaming is ALT Balaji’s ‘Gandi Baat 2’, a series which has been publicly called out by the Quint for its misogynistic and highly sexist portrayal of women. The second show which the app is streaming as its prioritized and most visible content after ‘Gandi Baat 2’ is ‘Charitraheen’ which in English would mean ‘characterless’ and has a poster of a woman surrounded by two men and a male hand on her breast. Till here, it might occur as a case of creative freedom exercised by the makers and the streaming application Vodafone Play but fortunately, it is not very difficult to decipher creative freedom from sexually objectifying content which is heavily loaded on the application. As soon as you scroll down the application, there are several posters of movies which sexually objectify women and are almost placed in a tactical manner to catch the eye and tempt male users to click on them and the moment you click on one of them a huge collection of these semi-porn and erotic movies which sexually objectify women and portray them as sex slaves and objects appear on the screen. If this was not enough, there is also a special section dedicated to these movies which is in addition to their presence in other sections as well and the name given to this section is ‘Midnight Movies’. So let me list out the name of some of the movies present in this section which reflect in other sections of the app also.
- Jab Raat Hoti Hai
- Khuli Khidki
- Lut Gayi Laila
- Pyaar Ke Saudagar
- Sheetalbhabhi.com
- Kamsin
- Kajri
- Tauba Tauba
- Ek Chaturnaar
- Chetna
These are just a few names which I have listed out and every time you click on one of them, an umpteen number of recommendations of many such movies on the application is served to you. It is needless to say that all these movies have posters which sexually objectify women and try to sell nudity, eroticism and sex.
At a time when content organizations like HuffPost India, Mirror Now, Youth Ki Awaaz, Quint and many others are leaving no stone unturned in promoting gender sensitivity and equality in the society by taking progressive stands on issues of women empowerment, gender and feminism; Vodafone India needs to do better than serving such regressive, sexually objectifying, sexist and misogynistic content on its application. It needs to understand that Vodafone Play is available at the click of a button to every Vodafone user be it of any age or gender and, therefore, trying to promote such content made specifically for titillating male audience and portraying women as sex objects is reversing the cycle on the positive social change which we as a society are trying to achieve.
Vodafone India needs to understand that merely corrective actions against Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Kanak Sarkar by their respective authorities is not enough for achieving the change we are striving for, there is an entire generation of boys waiting to be men tomorrow and the last thing we want for them is to be growing up with volumes of sexually objectifying and sexist content on their mobile phones which they can access for free under the watchful eyes of their parents who will merely think that their children are simply streaming a harmless video application provided by their very own service provider. Vodafone needs to take cue from Gillette’s latest advertisement promoting gender equality and respect for women and calling out men for their sexist behaviour even after their base of customers is dominated by men. They are doing it and we are doing it because tomorrow when the tide has turned then we can proudly say that we saw the movement of gender equality reach its epitome and achieve its goals and we were fortunate enough to contribute to this historic process of social change.
I urge Vodafone India to immediately review all their content on the Vodafone Play application and remove all the sexist, misogynistic and sexually objectifying content. When they will review their content they will realize that I am not trying to snatch away their creative freedom of expression but only helping them by highlighting the flaws which should have not existed in their application in the first place. I am not sure what can cover for the damage which they have already done to the young minds and the joy they have already given to those whose patriarchal and sexist mindsets they have strengthened with their content so far but as a suggestion I would like to recommend them to immediately remove the ‘Midnight Movies’ section and introduce a section on ‘Gender Sensitivity’ in its place. This will be their payback to their customers and the historic gender equality movement which we are witnessing. Vodafone India will not have much difficulty in finding their content for the ‘gender sensitivity’ section either because just like they found many semi-erotic and porn movies on the internet and brought their rights to upload it on their application similarly many meaningful videos on gender sensitivity and gender equality are also available on the internet. All they need now is the right intention to be a part of this social change instead of trying to reproduce the patriarchal and sexist mindset for which I have publicly called them out.
I will be waiting and the world will be waiting with me for an answer from Vodafone India.