Of Celebrating Violence And The Problem I See With It.

Pavan Melukote
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

I’m lying down on the floor watching TV in an attempt to not think about my stiff lower back, but what I am watching on TV is more painful than my lower back pain. It is a Kannada show called “Khiladi Khutumba” playing on Zee Kannada channel. The show started by welcoming their guests, Jaggesh, a movie star and an MLA, and Yograj Bhat a famed movie director. The show follows a theatrical setup of staging a comedy for the guests and the audience, the play that I watched on this show was nothing but an attempt to normalise and celebrate oppression and stereotypes of different kinds.

It starts off with a man harassing a woman, catcalling her, dancing around her for a ‘Tapori’ song. The woman’s husband notices this and then asks the man to stop while yelling at his wife and asking her to get back home. He takes the man to the police station, where the policeman yells at the man first and then slaps him while the crowd cheers. I was wondering if I was the only one who found this problematic, I asked my mum and she said it’s a comedy and hence, not intended to be taken seriously. But I argue that these acts normalise such behaviours, stalking a woman, asking her to stay indoors, the husband being rude to her, the policeman exercising authority and being rude and slapping the man. These should not be okay! It is not something we would tolerate if it happens to someone we know. However, if we celebrate these acts as comedy, I am afraid the next time we hear about a man stalking, or a man speaking rudely to his wife or of a policeman slapping a man, we will not bat an eye because it would be considered okay, as the natural behavior of these people – The husband, the molester and the policeman in this case.

Every act of violence we celebrate and nurture through plays, movies, articles, books and ads in the name of comedy, joke, freedom of expression or whatever you call it, ends up normalising and internalising such behaviour. That is precisely what I am afraid of, I don’t know if I am the only one who is afraid of this, but I hope I am not.

Meanwhile, the show went on and the policeman took the complaint against the man who harassed another’s wife but started to touch the woman inappropriately with her ‘powerless’ husband clutching his teeth. The crowd started to giggle and clap. I switched off the idiot box.

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Pavan Melukote

Written by

CEO at Nutrimake, Vegan, Atheist, Feminist ally. Writing is a hobby today, but I want to make it my profession someday.

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